Lake Wanaka...a rest before heading north

Today after a nice morning chat and yummy breakfast served by Liz and Terry, we headed back towards Queenstown, stopping in the old mining town of Arrowtown for some shopping, before heading up the steep and scenic winding road along the Crown Range to Lake Wanaka. We were upgraded to a 1 bedroom unit with a sleeper sofa and kitchenette at the Edgewater Resort.  After a pleasant lunch on the lake, we lounged at the beach (which unfortunately had no beach chairs and is rocky) and spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up with technology.  The Resort offers kayak and bike rental, there is paddle boarding and boat rental at the public beach, numerous hiking trails and wineries surround the area and it is a scenic site.  We probably didn't appreciate Wanaka like the Kiwis do as the place was packed with travelers enjoying their holiday retreats, but we took advantage of the rest stop which moved us north 3 hours towards Mount Cook.  This stop was scheduled to give us wiggle room so if we needed more time in either Te Anau or Queenstown area, we could fit it in with this layover.  The Bungy jumping site is actually along the route to Wanaka so you could schedule that here.  Pretty sure Chad and Rachele hoped I'd change my mind and do it along the way. Plus we got laundry done and had a nice sunset stroll along the lake.  The town also seems to have a small center with shopping and bistros, and a young nightlife, but we opted to snack and share a bottle of wine in our suite.  Also there was a small grocery, but we had replenished at a larger store closer to Queenstown.

 If you go here, there are a lot of options:  hike the Rob Roy Glacier, boating activities, bike rentals and there is a winery.