Leaving Queenstown (NZ Day 7)

19/9/2011

Today was pretty much a relaxing day. We had to wake up quite early to catch the coach leaving Queenstown for Wanaka. Oh, leaving Queenstown was a little sad as there was still much more to do there! Even so, we had to say goodbye to the nice little picturesque town surrounded by mountains and a lake and continue our travel in Aotearoa.

Soon we were on our way to Wanaka, stopping by at the same fruit farm 3 days ago and I bought a bunch of grapes to chew on them while in the bus. As usual on the road journeys, there were nice views of the landscapes and scenery.

Some of the many many many sheeps in New Zealand.

After about 1 hour and 45 minutes later the coach arrived in Wanaka and dropped us off at our accommodation which was called Purple Cow! Nice cute name and a quality hostel. My brother and I arrived too early for check-in (4 hours early). So we went to have a walking tour of the small town. We walked around the shops, then going to the visitor centre and the lake side to chill for a while before going for lunch.

Cinema Paradiso in Wanaka.

The showtimes they had there are quite limited.

A signboard which caught my attention while walking through the street.

My brother sitting on a log by Lake Wanaka.

Beautiful autumn-colored trees along the bank of the lake.

Consulting the lonely planet guide book, we picked a cafe called Soul Food and went there for lunch. I forgot the exact name of what I had but it's something like a chicken wrap with lots of different kinds of vegetables.

Outside the cafe full of soul!

On the way back after lunch.

We went back to the hostel and relaxed in the lounge after lunch and played a couple of games of pool before we could check-in. Our room is actually in a big unit shared among two rooms, but the other room was not occupied for the night and that meant that the entire apartment unit was ours! It had it's own toilet, living room and a kitchen.

Entrance of Purple Cow YHA.

In the lounge playing pool.

The lounge had a good view of the lake and mountains!

Cute purple donkey plush toy with a key for the luggage room.

It's been a week in NZ and it was time to send our clothing to the laundry. We went to buy a couple of packets of detergents from the front desk and went to the hostel's laundry room to wash them then rested in our room until about 5pm and went for grocery shopping at the near by supermarket.

Redundant much?

Taking our pick among the massive choice of pasta sauce.

We got some penne, minced beef, broccoli, tomato sauce for the pasta for dinner. We also bought some eggs and butter for tomorrow's breakfast. Then went back to our unit to cook for dinner. I was already quite hungry then as lunch was quite light and not really full.

Cooking dinner!

After resisting the smell of food during cooking, we finally got to eat our dinner. It was then just resting and slacking throughout the night with TV and the computer.