Wanaka

It was a tired Tarun who eventually came back on Saturday night. He'd done the Rob Roy Glacier walk with his friends and it had been quite hard he said. They'd collected a young Japanese man on their  walk. It's great how these young people seem to attach themselves to others along the way.

The next morning was wet so we wandered down to a cafe under umbrellas and by the time we emerged the sun was shining. It seemed a good day for a trip to Arrowtown. Once again the trip over the Crown Range was beautiful and we made two stops. The first was at the famous ( in NZ) bra fence. When Tarun saw this the look on his face was worth seeing. I think he thought we were a really crazy lot of women in NZ.

The second stop was to look at the view... Time to take another photo for the 'Tarun doing handstands around the world' series. 

Once again Tarun was keen to walk so he talked Ainsley into walking up the hill with him. She has now decided that he is half mountain gate and quickly realised that she is ahead of him in age but he is ahead of her in fitness. He is the speck in the distance in this next pic.

We continued on to Arrowtown which was looking beautiful with the beginning of Autumn.

No trip over the Crown Range is complete without a stop at the Cardrona Pub ...  just a quick one before heading back to Wanaka for a spa and bed.

Monday morning we woke to another beautiful day. Ainsley and Tarun went off for a bike ride along the lake and a swim. That's a pretty brave thing to do in one of our  southern lakes on April.

After a coffee we all drove round the lake for a bit. I keep marvelling at just how beautiful this place is.

We parked the car by the lake and started the walk up to Rippon vineyard. Loved the barrels of water along the way inviting us to water some of the newly planted trees along the track. 

We met a local woman along the way who showed us a short cut through the vines. It  is currently harvest time and many of the grapes had been picked but others will still on the vines and covered with netting ... and very ripe!!! It wasn't too hard to put our hands up underneath and pick a few. They were good!! Very good!!!

Tarun has had lots of new experiences on his trip around NZ and wine tasting was to be another.

We bought a bottle and sat outside looking at what must be one of the prettiest vineyards in the world. 

We sat in the sun looking at this view  with a  bottle of wine and a cheese platter. We were joined by a young couple and their baby that we had Metin the spa pool at the timeshare the night before. Tarun really is great with kids!

Ainsley was keen to go paddle boarding on the lake and the conditions were perfect for it. She'd done it once before but it was another new experience for Tarun. Actually I was surprised at how good they were but then maybe the very cold water was an incentive not to fall off.

Tarun of course saw it as another opportunity to add a photo to his 'handstands around the world' collection. Note that the second photo was taken very quickly after the first. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get the splash!

This crazy pair then swam for a while  with Ainsley teaching Tarun how to bomb from the pontoon. By this time the sun was setting and it was time for dinner.

Indian is always a good choice when you are very hungry.

Walking back after dinner Tarun spied a pool table and Ainsley and Tarun  had two games. It was an interesting result. Going by her rules Ainsley lost both games ... going by his rules  she won both!