We decided to take advantage of a long weekend at the end of April to head up into the mountains. As it was the end of the main tourist season we were able to get a good deal on a campervan rental and despite a rather changeable weather forecast we headed for the hills on Friday night after work.
At this time of the year most of our drive was in the dark and despite the full moon we were still able to see plenty of stars as we dropped into the basin that contains the Aoraki – MacKenzie Dark Sky Reserve. After struggling to find a camping spot where we had originally planned, we ended up spending the night on the shore of Lake Pukaki. We were surprised to be woken in the night by the wind shaking our campervan and by the rain drumming on the metal roof. After dropping off back to sleep we woke the next morning to a stormy view outside.
The storm clouds were still hanging pretty low over the lake, but they certainly helped bring out the beautiful turquoise of the lake. At the head of this valley, hidden in the clouds, is Mount Cook and the glacial runoff that flows into the lake gives the lake it’s distinctive colour. Luckily as we had breakfast and planned out our day the clouds began to lift.
We decided to continue on to the town of Wanaka to have a look around and see how the weather was further into the mountains. We arrived in Wanaka and were please to see that the weather was continuing to clear up so we walked around the lake admiring the autumn colours.
We stopped off at the famous willow tree that grows out of the lake. As we walked the clouds in the surrounding valleys started to lift further and the afternoon really started to warm up.
We ended up walking back to town and stopping off for an ice cream, they even had a range of sorbets for Eric to choose from! We enjoyed our treats whilst looking out at the lake.
After our snack we headed out of town into the mountains to get in a longer hike to take advantage of the sunny afternoon.