Beautiful Wanaka

This place is the best. Truly. I woke up at 6:15am to go for a run – mostly for some alone time..but also because I finally saw the sun!

The kids slept in beautifully (we’ve started a tradition of them going to bed together at 10pm and then they sleep in till 7:30 which has been working well) and Adam went to one of the many pop-up food trucks around town for some coffee and a healthy Açai bowl with granola for me (we’ve had way too much fried food since we’ve been here).

We then started off with a 1 hr hike up Mt. Iron (30 minutes up, 30 minutes down with beautiful views of Otago all around us). The kids were great (partly because of the candy necklace they got as bribery for no complaining on the hike 🙂

Then we came back to town…had lunch at a burrito stand and considered a quad tour in the mountains but, due to the ominous looking clouds in the distance, we decided to go to a local movie theatre in town (complete with comfy old couches in the theatre instead of chairs) to see the Adams Family. I promptly fell asleep on the couch and was awakened during intermission (is this a Kiwi thing??) where they stop the movie halfway so the kids can get even more popcorn and cookies??

We used the movie as a ploy to get another afternoon hike in. Despite the closures of most of the local hikes due to flooding…we found one that was open and walked around Lake Wanaka. (In truth it was actually closed off with yellow caution tape and it took quite a bit of convincing the kids that we wouldn’t put them in harm’s way to get them to even go around the caution tape). Who made these rule followers???

While the kids sang along to their MP3 players full of explicit songs that Adam had downloaded – cue Leo asking Adam was ‘Buddha’ was slang for (apparently it’s weed…who knew?), I pondered the first week of this trip. While I have spent many hours scouring not only the weather network but also local weather sites including windy.com, and metservice.com…my husband has taken a totally different tack. He just looks at the sky and makes a decision in the moment.

This is something that I both love and hate about his ‘go with the flow’ness’. He just BELIEVES that everything will work out (and somehow he’s generally not wrong which I find infuriating as someone who was raised planning for EVERY eventuality under the sun). My need to control everything is helpless when weather intervenes and while it drives me crazy…for him it’s just “part of the journey.”. Except that he’s right! Argh.

Anyway – while I pondered our marriage and our opposing ways of approaching life, we did another beautiful hike followed by more swimming time. Stella implored me to take a ‘responsible risk’ and get in the water despite how cold it was…so….carpe diem, I did. (for like 10 seconds).

While the kids swam I did my second load of laundry in 2 days…I feel like only a mom can relate to the absolute, unbridled joy I felt upon finding in-room laundry in our 2 bedroom apartment here. I liken it to how I feel with a Toblerone bar and a cheesy Rom Com movie. There’s just something about being able to do laundry on vacation that feels so good you know?

So that’s it for us. Tomorrow we leave this heavenly place and embark on an overnight in Doubtful sound. It’s meant to be a crazy trip with waterfalls, seals, penguins and maybe whales…but also rains 200 days out of 365 and we’re sleeping in a tiny room all 4 of us in 2 bunk beds and I think we will be cold and wet . But maybe…if I channel Adam….it will work out beautifully? (Has this blog felt like a weather report…ok I’m stopping. No more weather details).

It’s been an incredible first week. The kids have been AWESOME and being in the mountains is my happy place. Can’t wait to see one of the most remote Fjords in the world! Bye Wanaka!!!