Out and About in Albert Town

Sun, sun, sun, that describes the weather we’ve had so far in Albert Town. Well OK, today is overcast and it’s sort of raining, but not a full on gale. We‘ve managed to fill the past 4 days exploring the local trails and enjoying the beautiful weather. Temps are in the low 20’s C and enough breeze to make it comfortable. We’d been told that the must do hike is the Mt. Iron Loop trail, just on the outskirts of Wanaka and about 10 km from our AirBnB. The trail loops up, over, and down Mt. Iron and gives you great panoramic views around the area. It’s a good vertical hike, about 250 meters, and great exercise. We met a lot of locals who do the hike regularly for the exercise (BTW, we’ve done it twice since we‘ve been here). Wanaka is the main town in the area and Lake Wanaka is the 4th largest lake in NZ. It is unique on the South Island as the only lake remaining with an unmodified shoreline and is protected under the 1973 Lake Wanaka Preservation Act. There are other natural lakes, but hydro dams have changed their shorelines. Hydro electric power is a mainstay of electricity in NZ with most of it is produced on the South Island and used on the North Island.

The next day We took a nice flat walk along the Clutha river. The walk started in Albert Town and is popular with local‘s for both walking and mountain biking. I will say that the bikers on the shared trails have been very considerate of us slow walkers! The cafe/bakery in Albert Town supplied us with baguette to go with dinner and a couple of small (ish) treats for dessert.

Lake Hawea was next on our list of places to go, so we headed there yesterday for a nice 4 km hike along the lake shore and then on to the local cafe for our morning coffee break. We pretty much treat ourselves to a coffee out every day. Continuing north, we drove up to the end of Lake Wanaka, found a good place to park by the lake for lunch, and sat admiring the view. Had a nice chat with a young German couple who were traveling in a rented camper van for 4 weeks. They were three weeks in and headed to Queesntown to get a hotel for the night. Not sure they were sold on the whole camper van culture in NZ.

We’re taking a slow day today, maybe a drive this afternoon but nothing planned. Tomorrow, we have a few more hikes planned then off to the Queenstown area for a couple of nights.