A Day of Play in the Rain

We woke up to the pitter patter of the days first rain drops. It's a good thing it didn't rain all night because I'm not sure how well our tent contraption would hold up to a lot of rain. Since we were spending the day in Wanaka waiting for my wheel, our first order of business was to find a hostel where we could put our stuff in a dry place and spend our next night out of the rain. What better place to stay than the "Purple Cow"? We booked a room for the night and were told that we could use the facilities until the afternoon when we could then check in. So we sat down in the warm and dry eating area to enjoy some breakfast and then proceeded to hike back to camp, pack up our gear and wet tent, and pile it up in the dry Purple Cow.

Afterwards, we set out to enjoy the rain and explore Wanaka. The town is situated on Lake Wanaka, one of the lakes we passed on our way into town.... a large lake with beautifully blue, clear water and mountains looming all around. Today, the lake was blanketed in grey and covered with circles left behind by raindrops. Quite a contrast from the sunny view of yesterday, but still gorgeous. Mally and I put our running gear on and headed out for a run along the waterfall creek trail. The trail hugged the shores of Lake Wanaka and undulated up and down the surrounding hillsides. We reached waterfall creek, discovered that the waterfall was not in fact anywhere near the creek... and continued on along the path. There weren't a lot of trampers on the path, and soon the town and all the people faded in the distance and the large lake, the surrounding peaks, mighty grey clouds, and a small rock island filled our view. We continued jogging along, splashed in all the puddles on our path, and pushed eachother into the wet bushes on occasion. If it's raining, you might as well get wet and enjoy it... and we did!

The path finally ended at a secluded rocky beach... we stopped, took in our surroundings, and began to head back. As the path kept sweeping close to the shore of the lake, you could see through the clear waters to heaps of rocks below...I couldn't help but want to jump in... so I threw off my shirt and shoes and went for a brief swim. The water felt wonderful... crystal clear and a warm escape from the cool outside air. Ahhhh...

We then headed back to our hostel and stretched our soggy selves on the steps. Somehow we got more weird looks than the purple cow on the sign outside. Luckily, we were still allowed in, and they let us use a shower and dry off while we waited to check in. We then ate some lunch, rolled up our pants, and went for a barefoot walk through town (Kiwi style). The town, while quite small, is huge compared to the small villages we passed on the west coast. It consists of several streets with small shops, restaurants, and plenty of tourist stores luring people in for adventures of all sorts.

Unfortunately the wheel was not ready today (the hub has to come via courier service that travels once a day... and we were a bit late to order it...). But Wanaka is not such a bad town to be stranded in. I am sure we will find another adventure for tomorrow... rain or shine.