Wanaka and Mount Aspiring National Park

One word = “WHOOOAAAAA”.

I’ve been pretty jaded with all the scenery I’ve seen lately but through Wanaka hikes and Mt. Aspiring, I was literally saying “wow” at every corner. The first day in Wanaka was the sunniest, and we stopped at the Wanaka Lavender Farm. The lavender was in full bloom and the gift shop smelled heavenly. We got there thirty minutes to closing so the host suggested we buy tickets for the next day and hang out in the shop. We sprayed, dabbed, rubbed and inhaled every good-smelling thing in the store and split two scoops of their ice cream on the terrace. We had a lavender honey vanilla and a lavender boysenberry sorbet – yum!! It hit the spot on the sunny day.

After this, we searched to see where the closest brewery was. For a small town, Wanaka has a decent craft beer scene. We hit Rhyme and Reason and Ground Up for some good brews. The latter was only a bottle shop and we got a bottle to go of their Kiwi Pale Ale.shoutout to Tom Brady in NZ ^^^

From here, we went to the campsite to set up our tent. It was a beautiful campground on the river – some people were swimming and floating in it. We ate our dinner by the riverside and watched as these unfazed family of ducks kept trying to come and beg for food. They were so desensitized to humans; it was weird! With a forecast of rain for the next two days, we had to decide which hikes we wanted to do.

Luckily, the following morning, our choice was made easy when a ranger at the visitor center said we likely wouldn’t be able to drive to Rob Roy Glacier with all the rain we got the night before (the inside of our tent got pretty damp). So we decided for Roy’s Peak, one of Wanaka’s most popular, Instagram-saturated hikes. Lucky for us, the clouds started to part right when we were getting up to the car park. At 10am, the lot was already almost full of cars. Packing rain gear, lunch, and a camera, we set up for the 16 kilometer hike. The hike started through private property, and no sooner than five minutes in we saw sheep grazing in the fields around us.

I’ve found it to be expected that no New Zealand hike worth any view is easy. There is no reprieve at any point in the hike, just constant uphill in an exposed setting surrounded by sheep sh*t and having the sun beat down on you. If natural selection took its course that day with all the hikers on Roy’s Peak, I definitely would not have made the cut. Anyways, slow and steady as they put it. The overall ascent of 4,000+ feet was supposed to take about three hours. We made it to the lookout point in about 2.5 hours (nope this was not the end) and we were shocked to see the queue for taking a picture. No hike in my life have I seen fifteen or so people waiting in line to take a freakin’ photo. We literally waited at least twenty minutes in line for the social media-worthy photo. But boy was it worth it. Firstly because we met a really cool couple from Scotland who happened to be on a months-long honeymoon. They had been traveling for months around Asia and recently made it to NZ before heading to a South America – so cool!! We took turns taking photos of each other before begrudgingly turning our eyes upward to the summit of Roy’s Peak.

For thirty more minutes of excruciating leg work, we could make it to the top for even more incredible views. Jared convinced me to go on and boy I’m sure we did. From the very top of the peak at over 5,000 feet, we could see Lake Wanaka for miles and miles. After eating a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich, we started back down the track as we could see rain clouds coming in. Luckily, we met up with the couple we met in the queue and walked/jogged the entire way down the trail together. Another prime example of meeting people from different countries and sharing stories of adventure – I love it. We got down just in the nick of time before the rain hit and saying our goodbyes, Jared and I headed back to Wanaka.

In order to reward ourselves for the hardest hike we’ve ever done, we decided to treat ourselves to a DIY food tour of the city. We started with Burrito Craft, a Mexican food truck rated the best cheap eats in Wanaka. From there, we went to Black Peaks Gelato 🍧 🍨. I had read about it in a brochure as being a super old school joint that still used the traditional gelato machine from Italy. Jared and I split two scoops, one of raspberry and one of plum, and it was delicious. The sun cleared up just in time to enjoy this cold treat. Our last stop of the tour was The Big Fig, a slow cooker-fast casual type of place. We really enjoyed the idea and the food. The customer picks a plate size and from there gets to pick a slow cooked meat option (we got lamb to my disdain) and load it up with as many sides as the plate fits. It was an awesome concept and we really enjoyed it! Stomachs full, we drove back to our tent site for the night.

The day in town, we had a low key morning/afternoon. Firstly, we went to Puzzling World. It was reckoned to be one of the must-do attractions in Wanaka. Decades ago, a family bought some land and literally made a 3D maze for families to come and enjoy. Now, there are illusion rooms, a bigger and better maze, and a free puzzle room at the front of the building. We stayed for about thirty minutes using our brain power to no avail on some building puzzles. We did grocery shopping and got some lunch to eat out by Lake Wanaka. There’s a tree in Wanaka so famous that it literally has it’s own hashtag #thatwanakatree. The tree sits by itself as a stunning foreground to the mountains behind it. It’s pretty small and has taken 70 years to get to its stature – there’s even a sign asking people not to climb on the limbs. We returned to the lavender farm, sampling some of their honeys and trying on all of the lavender products in their store. We then checked out Wanaka Beerworks for some very average beer.

The next day was our full day in Mount Aspiring National Park. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful. However, there wasn’t that much to do based on the route we took through it. There weren’t any big hikes (probably good because I still couldn’t feel my legs from Roy’s Peak). We did see a bunch of waterfalls and crystal blue water. There’s a famous place known as the Blue Pools Track whose water is so mesmerizing due to the glacial waters from which it originated. The water was so blue that we could see down to the bottom and the pictures we took simply don’t do it justice. See below for pictures of the Blue Pools and waterfalls.