Worries and Wekas

It was a beautiful day for our ecotour on Lake Wanaka. The boat crashed from wavetop to wavetop and caused Lyn some discomfort. Her back had been dicey since our climb up the steps to the waterfall at Arthur's Pass and she feared doing it further harm. Our tour leader slowed the pace but the glacial valley funnels the wind and quite large waves appear once you leave the shelter of lakeshore or islands. Lyn had a nervous time. 

 Our fellow voyagers included a couple of delightful American boys. When our guide pointed out the local ‘Lord of the Rings’ locations they broke immediately into excellent, and prolonged, impressions of Frodo and Sam.

The trip got better for Lyn when we reached the island we had set out to visit. It had toilets, a red tree, drunk pigeon stories, a picnic, a lake and a curious weka. (NZ’s islands are often used as refuges for endangered flightless birds.) It was the highlight of the trip for me. We visited a lake on an island in the middle of a lake on an island.

That afternoon we did the short drive to Queenstown where we booked into the Hilton for New Year’s Eve. Queenstown has allowed a lot of development on the lakeshore so it was a shock after Wanaka. It was also raining. We spent a quiet night.