Wanaka & Mt. Roy's Peak

Wanaka is a little town situated on the bank of a deep blue lake, surrounded by rugged mountains. A beautiful place to rest up after our hard walks in Mt. Cook! However, we'd been told of a hike up to Roy's peak that's not to be missed... so you've guessed it we strapped on the walking boots and headed to the hills!

The gradient was more gentle than our recent walks, but with a 1578m accent over 16km's, it was still enough to get a sweat on!

Almost immediately we were rewarded with panoramic views over the lake.

Rounding the ridge we were greeted with views of Mt. Aspiring and surrounding peaks far off into the distance.

But this wasn't the top!

A narrow ridge climbed steadily to the true summit...

... we had really gained some elevation!

Dave sat/perched on a rocky outcrop to admire the Southern Alps with the route we had taken clearly winding its way beneath him.

The wind on the top was a bit fresh, luckily we had brought our jackets & gloves.

The town of Wanaka stretched out far below us as clouds cast strange shadows upon the lake.

A friendly German couple were on hand to take a snap of us (we've met more German people in NZ than we did in Germany).

An outstanding walk with spectacular views of a lovely setting. Wanaka is the place to be!

The way down felt a long way (it was a long way) and we had a few breaks. Maybe we will now finally have some rest time... but we doubt it!!!