Wanaka Part1

Tuesday after a quiet night in the Cromwell Golf car park and a nice shower we hopped on our bikes and rode out to Pisa Moorings about 8 km up the edge of Lake Dunstan - a good ride with the lake views as well as a lot of architecturally designed houses. Pisa Moorings itself seems to be growing quite quickly with new subdivisions opening up. We had coffee at the 18 month old Pisa Moorings Restaurant and Bar which is the only place to go apart from the homes and managed apartments.

Cromwell " Old Town"

Once back in Cromwell we met up with another couple of cyclists from Whakamarama, Tauranga (originally from England) who are travelling in a bus like ours, but just for 3 weeks.
We had a wander through the rebuilt historic part of town, a lot of the original buildings being lost when they raised the level of Lake Dunstan for the Clyde Hydro Dam. It seemed a shame that it was all so quiet with hardly anyone about in the new part of town either except of course for the supermarket.

John & Dee's great spot!

Next stop was Wanaka which, in contrast to Cromwell, bursts at the seams with visitors and holidaymakers. Such a beautiful spot and lots of people lying about on the lake edge in the hot sunshine (drought is continuing) but very few in the water.
My nephew, John, lives beside the river in Albert Town, just on the outskirts of Wanaka and being supplied with the address but no phone number we turned up on the doorstep for some local info about walks/cycling etc. No-one home but just as I was writing a note John turned up and welcomed our bus onto the perfect site next to the house overlooking the river "for as long as we like". It has worked out perfectly as he and Dee were off to Fiordland to rock climb the next morning for 3 days and we are able to feed Johnson, the 3-legged cat. The ducks from the riverside roam all over the lawn eating the fallen apples and this morning there were 7 quail doing the same but they didn't like us coming near for a photoshoot.

Crossing the Clutha in full spate!

On Wednesday we biked to Lake Hawea along the Clutha a little way and then along the Hawea River - some hilly bits but we managed to stay on the bikes and it was a great ride. Coffeed in the sunshine at the Hotel/Restaurant there before heading home with big threatening black clouds overhead which had all but disappeared by the time we got back to the bus which had both it's top vents fully opened!

Lake Hawea

We ended up biking for the whole day as after having some lunch we headed in the opposite direction on the mountain bike track into Wanaka and then back via a quiet road to make a circular route. The river path was a bit tricky in some parts for my townie bike with the stones, ruts and sand and we were pleased there weren't too many others coming towards us as we rounded the bends.
We had planned to climb up Roys Track for the great views of the area but with the sun being so hot and no shade on the open dry "farmland" walk we decided that will have to wait for another time.