Wanaka, pronounced WAH-naka, is a beautiful, quiet place with a gorgeous view from the hostel. What a lake! I feel a bit scattered, but it's okay, this town is slow and peaceful. Perfect!
Tuesday night, I had a lovely Thai red curry - vegetarian. Finally, food that I recognize. I think it helped me get back on track. My body was suffering something awful yesterday from the hike to the glacier the day before. My back is still a bit wonky.
Wednesday - Today I've wandered into town. I found a nice shop and bought some souvenirs. Then I came to the organic grocery again that I found yesterday (it was next to the Thai place). What a great place! For lunch, I'm having a green juice, made with chlorella, and a vegan spring roll with lentils, avocado, green beans, zucchini, and red and green cabbage. Mmmmmh. Good.
The thing about traveling, or at least what I've heard so far, everyone is just talking about where they've been, where they're going and where they're from. And then it's back to what do you do when you're not traveling. It's a bit hard to escape this repetitive conversation. It's exciting that everyone is traveling, but I worked so hard to get here and they all make it seem so easy. They just arrived and started traveling. Not a care in the world. I don't know what I expected, but that I'm here, i can't believe out took me so long.
Thursday - I can't believe how beautiful this lake is with the mountains in the background. It feels like a little resort town in the Swiss alps might. But these are the New Zealand alps. The mountains way in the background look fake, just like in old movies. Maybe they weren't fake after all. Maybe they were real, or at least painted realistically.
The hostel I'm staying in, Wanaka Bakpaka, is quite large and has a wonderful living room and patio with large windows. It makes it really hard to leave the hostel and go do anything, especially when you can see the lake from the windows. And I'm not the only one. It's noon and there's still half a dozen people here. Mostly doing research about what they're going to do next. That's a true slice of traveler life. It's not all fun and games. Sometimes you spend all morning planning what to do.
Today I'm saddled with the task of consuming a coconut coffee smoothie and an amaranth crust pizza with feta and zucchini and onion and salami, with a side of chutney... wait, what? It's an apple and onion chutney with brown mustard seed and a hint of jalapeno. Sweet and spicy - it's actually better than the pizza! Still no idea why pizza and chutney would go together.
That's the end of my relaxing time in Wanaka. And the end of my time in New Zealand is drawing near. Only five days left.
