new zealand [day nine]

I know. Photo heavy! But how can I not include them all. No doubt you can see why New Zealand is calling me back. Day Nine saw us awake and on the road early, our destination: Wanaka. We stopped to eat breakfast by a crystal clear blueish river. I have never seen such crystal clear water in all my life. A little further down the road we stopped again to explore the Blue Pools walking track. This short easy track wound its way through a magical fairy forest of beech and tawhero trees, all covered in lichen, ferms and moss. Sunlight trickled down through the trees and droplets of dew dripped onto our foreheads. To cross the Makarora River we had to negotiate a very slippery swing bridge which was covered in a thick layer of frost. The Blue Pools themselves were very pretty, although not as clear as expected due to recent rainfall stirring it up a bit. Along the river bank there were hundreds of rock towers. We added to the collection too, but it was hard work as all the rocks were frozen together and walking around on the frosty rocks was quite precarious. 

Some time later we found our way to Wanaka, a town situated at the southern end of Lake Wanaka. This very pretty town is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. I was quite taken with the place to be honest and was all for moving there!! After lunch we wandered the streets for a bit before heading to Cardrona Ski Fields....and the story of what happened there? Well I'm saving it for a blog post all on it's own!