We had wanted to stop off in Wānaka, a small lakeside town an hour north of Queenstown, on our way down to QT. The bus used to stop there overnight pre covid, but sadly now just for half an hour. Again, we could've got off the bus, but we were told the one behind was full. Plus we would miss out on QT with our pals we had made so far. After the madness of QT it was quite nice to go to stay in a cosy hostel by the lake. The weather was finally on our side and it felt like being on holiday. Even though we are on holiday. A holiday from thie holiday.
The next day, we took on a mountain- Roy's Peak, which definitely wasn't a holiday. At 1,578 meters tall and a steep steep path it was pretty tough going. Myself and Kate (who is a sports coach back home and a seasond walker) hiked with Jack (UK, training for an Ultramarathon), Carolyn (USA, training to be a PT) and Tregan (USA, and suprisingly good fitness) who were all much fitter then me (who I would describe as reasonably fit!), but patient enough to wait while I huffed and puffed. 3 gruelling hours and about 20 near quits from me (inwardly considering anyway!) we reached the summit. Unsurprisingly, it was much colder up there, so I was glad I'd carried my snood around the world with me, it finally had it's use.
Coming down was much easier, but the last 20mins were agony on the legs.
We celebrated with a patagonia ice cream and I flopped around for a few hours. That evening I got a takeaway gf Dominos ($12!) and went to the local cinema to watch "The Menu"*. The cinema was pretty cool, it had sofas and an old fiat(?) with the windows taken out as seating options. They even had an interval where they've bake you cookies. For a ticket, popcorn and a cookie it was $23 (£11.50), so a bargain. The cinema experience deffo sealed the deal on being one of my fave NZ days so far, despite the pain!
The following day, Saturday, I was pretty tired and my legs were barley functioning, so just a short walk to the underwhelming "Wānaka tree" before heading back to QT ahead of getting on the next Kiwi bus.
The first Saturday of December in NZ is "Crate Day" an unofficial holiday where you have a day to drink a crate of beer from your home town. I had intended on going to the pub, but still tired from the mountain hike, sat and watched Lord of the Rings instead, while also watching crate dsy drinkers in our hostel decend into chaos.
*The other option was Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, which would've been great to make a Wānaka/Wakanda pun out of...
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