17 May WANAKA

As there was no special itinerary arranged for today,  we woke up a bit later at 8.30 am. We just wanted a slow and relaxing day in this little town. The good news was that things went smoothly in the toilet this morning.  My determination to swallow up 5 bananas yesterday had successfully cured my constipation.  So, one thing for sure is that Bobby Banana will be part of our daily meal from now onwards.

After having toasts and hot chocolate for breakfast, I prepared tuna sandwich, steamed potatoes and a bag of garden salad as our lunch pack for our walk at Outlet Track along Clutcha River.

We started the track in a isolated wilderness at 10:30 am.  After about 5 minutes of walking, we noticed that we have parked our car in the wrong area.  To prevent from getting another ticket, I insisted to walk back to move the car.  When we were back in the cozy car, both of us were so lazy and decided to cancel the walk! 'Too cold' was the reason given, but deep in our hearts we both know that we were feeling a bit numb to be out in nature everyday. So, what do we city dwellers really want? When you were in the city, you long for the wilderness; when you were in the wilderness for only less than 2 weeks, you thought you have had enough. The fact is, human beings will never be satisfied with what they have. 

We drove to Puzzling World after that.  This place is the land mark of Wanaka.  So, there was no reason for not visiting Puzzling World when you are in Wanaka.  The experience of solving all kinds of puzzles and brain challenging games made me feel like a dumb person. I started to think about what I have learnt in the past 33 years of my life? All the education, the career path and the life exposure, what have they moulded me into? I could not solve 90% of the puzzles here! But, spending a brain-stimulating morning in Puzzling World was not a bad idea after all. The building kept you warm and the games inspired you to learn more in life. If you happen to have a arrogant kid that thinks he knows it all, put him here, let him learn how to be humble.

Solve and solve and solve......

See? not much hair left behind just to solve this particular puzzle:)

Simple set-up, complicated logic

Roman Style toilet

After Puzzling World, we drove to Glendhu Bay, but nothing seems to attract us. Before long, we both felt very hungry even though we did not do any challenging physical activity in the morning. So, we drove along Wanaka Lake to search for a picnic spot to have our lunch.  We finally picked an empty clean bench by Lakeside Road. 

We had no words during the whole lunch session  because the weather was really too cold for us.  No wonder nobody was seen eating in the outdoor except both of us who thought eating in the wild would be romantic. What we wanted most during that moment was to quickly finish our bites and run back to the car with heater.

Before long, the cold wind forced us back to the hostel.  I stayed at the common room to read my book while Bernard rushed to the kitchen to make us hot chocolate to warm us up.  With a prepaid wifi card, Bernard checked his emails while I continued to immerse myself in the world of my favourite book ，"梦里花落知多少", by my favourite author, Echo (三毛).

Later in the afternoon, we were thinking to have an early dinner so we could stock up some groceries from New World Supermarket.  This is because Bernard had read it in the travel book that food and gas in Franz Josef is more expensive than other places.  However, we ended up spending 90 mins just to cook spaghetti bolognese.  The electric stove was so slow that you could take a nap while boiling a pot of water.  The Spanish guy next to me even had time to sip a few glasses of wine while he was pan frying a few pieces of aubergines.  The Taiwanese guy opposite us could not do anything when his steak constantly stayed at medium rare after 30 mins of frying. Ironically, after spending one and a half hour to prepare, we only spent 15 minutes to eat up our spaghetti, including washing the dishes!  

By 7.30 pm, we walked to New World Supermarket, which was just 200 m from the hostel.  The grill of the entrance was already half down as they were closing at 8pm. So, we did not go in, instead we took a slow stroll around the town to enjoy another starry night in New Zealand. 

There was nothing much to shout about Wanaka. However, it was a great town to break from a hectic travelling schedule, a place you come to recuperate before moving on for more excitements in New Zealand.  For us, we are going for a glacier hike in Franz Josef next!