Wanaka

Sunday November 4, 2011

Wanaka is a town of five thousand situated on Lake Wanaka in the lakes region of southern New Zealand . This town was our stop after travelling for two days along the remote west coast of the south island.  The west coast was mountains and rainforest situated on the edge of the Tasman sea. We are now   inland and further south where we stop before travelling to Queenstown.

The lakes region contains Wanaka, Queenstown and Te Anau as the more prominent tourist areas, with most of the smaller towns as starting points for some of the major hiking trails in the area or more remote vacation spots.  All of these towns are picturesque situated on lakes in between the mountain ranges giving the area the name of the lakes region.

 Wanaka is quiet with many shops and restaurants catering to the ski hill tourists as this region is home to the skiing for the south island. We were told this town is what Queenstown was twenty years ago before the tourism business boom in Queenstown.   Kiwi’s have told us they prefer Wanaka to Queenstown based on the more quiet lifestyle, which is the common answer most people have for any town that has grown in recent years.

We went to the Paradiso theatre to watch the movie playing that night “In Time” with Justin Timberlake and the guy that plays Pete Campbell in AMC’s Mad Men TV show.    The movie was alright, but the real draw for the theatre was the unique setup and atmosphere for the “cinema” as they refer to the theatre here.  Small theatre filled with couches and an old VW bug that people could sit in to watch the movie. The cinema had a very clever system as they serve meals during the show and had an intermission break during which fresh cookies were brought out to be sold that had come straight from the oven.  They make $4 cookies seem almost worth it just from the smell.  It was a great place and we wished there was a spot similar to this back home.

This cinema business was nice to see, as it is common in New Zealand to see businesses operating independent from a chain or franchise. They  are doing good business and have a special niche market. We are not sure if this model could work in Canada with the chain stores getting most of the business, but its been great to experience in New Zealand.

On the road tomorrow to Queenstown, where we stop off at the A.J Hackett bungy jump bridge, which was the first in the world, before entering the much hyped  “Adventure Capital of the World.”