The day was sunny without much wind so we decided to drive up to Wanaka. We had a short stop near the lake before driving around Glendhu Bay to West Wanaka Road. We stopped for a quick lunch – an SUV drove up while we were eating and three climbers unloaded themselves and their equipment. We continued on up to the turnoff to the Treble Cone ski area where we had a better view of the two waterfalls we had spotted last week. We also saw a parachutist hangliding near the ridge. The road turned to gravel at this point. We drove on for another 15 km as we kept waiting for a better view of the snow capped mountains "just around the next bend." We finally captured that view as the road swung away from the valley wall. This was open range and we had to dodge sheep and cattle (mostly the former) as we made our way up the valley. On our way back, we saw a couple of dark swans (one was black, the other was gray) and several young swans swimming in a roadside pond. We also caught a glimpse of the climbers working on sheer rock walls near the road. Best of all, we captured some lovely views looking north and east across the lake to Wanaka and the southern route to the West Coast of the South Island.
