On Wednesday we went to Wanaka. Although it is only 68kms from Queenstown, the best route to get there is quite difficult and takes ages. It was my turn to drive, but little did I know that once we got onto the Wanaka road, that it would be so steep and winding (not my kind of road at all) for the first 20 or so kms. Patrick didn't think so either. Poor thing vomited so we had to find somewhere to stop to clean him up. Once we go there it was fine.
Lake Wanaka is very picturesque, surrounded by mountains. As all the lakes we have seen so far have been, it is very blue. It was a lovely day and there were lots of people out enjoying the sun and atmosphere of the tourist town.
Patrick felt sick a few times on the way home too, once we hit the winding roads, but he was fine. There were some great places to stop and take some good pics closer to Queenstown.
Looking towards Queenstown through the airport.
On Wednesday night, Ben and I went back up the gondola to the top of the mountain to do the Stargazing experience which started at 10.30pm. Our host was a very knowledgeable and engaging Australian who took us through lots of interesting facts about the inhabitants of the night sky.
It was a brilliantly clear night and lots of thing happened that don't usually happen which made our guide very pleased. We saw shooting stars (I didn't), meteors and the International Space Station. We got to see activity from the Southern lights - more than he had seen for a long time. One member of the group had a really good camera that was able to take a photo of some of it. It was quite something to see the light that the human eye cannot see.
We looked through large telescopes to see Alpha Centauri, star clusters, and even Jupiter. I couldn't see the smaller ones overly well with my glasses, but I did see the different 'lines' on Jupiter. It was a very interesting experience.
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