Short but sweet – Wanaka without the skydive!

The Crown Range Road from Queenstown to Wanaka is gobsmackingly stunning.

It winds up over the Southern Alps past the alpine ski resort of Cardrona and then follows the Cardrona river Valley to Lake Wanaka, which even has it’s own Dublin Bay!

The Cardrona Hotel is a pretty cool spot to grab an bite to eat. The grounds are lovely, with a quaint  gold-rush theme.

We stayed in The Wyndham Vacation Resort. The room was beautiful – new with all mod-cons and even though at first the TV didn’t work, they sent a guy over straight away to fix it. We headed out for a walk while he worked … and because we hadn’t gone all the way to New Zealand to watch TV!

Wanaka is just beautiful. I’d fallen in love with it back in 2003 when I’d first visited it. I wished we’d more time to stay longer – a recurring theme in New Zealand. How do you see it all and yet get enough of each place. If it wasn’t so far from Ireland, I’d move here in a heartbeat.

We walked by the lake and watched the sunset…

…and admired the sculptures.

Wanaka is one of those places were you can do as much or as little as you want to. Last time I was here I did my skydive. This time was all about pure relaxation – which makes for a very short blog post, but trust me, if you travel to New Zealand this is a stop you don’t want to miss.

Byddi Lee