There have been some life challenges for me recently and I'm experiencing a deep sadness. As a result, I'm finding myself with an intense longing to run away to Wanaka. Alas, I'm unable to go there at the moment, so instead I will share about this crazy funny trip I had with my friend.
A few years ago, I starting running women's retreats and I dearly wanted to host one in Wanaka, my favourite place in the whole wide world. (I may or may not have already mentioned that in a previous post or two!)
Because I'd fallen in love with Wanaka and I could see it becoming my go to place for time out, I wanted to share this little piece of paradise where I found peace and replenishment for my soul.
I wanted to share it with other women who were needing a window of opportunity to have a break from their day to day life and do some self care.
Wanaka is a place where you can relax, enjoy and do as much or as little as you want and lends itself well to people needing some wind down time.
So I started making enquiries and exploring the possibilities for the retreat. My plans were coming along well and I decided it would be of benefit to have a quick trip over to meet with some of the people I was making arrangements with around accommodation, food, activities etc.
I mentioned to my friend that I was going to do a quick trip over and asked would she like to join me. She initially said no, but then a week before my trip, she changed her mind and decided to come along.
Well needless to say that set the scene for seeing how much we could jam pack into one weekend!
We flew out of the Gold Coast to Christchurch. After we managed to make it through check in and security that is! We were just travelling with carry on luggage and unfortunately, mine was slightly overweight so it was a quick trip back to the car to ditch the little tablet sized computer, my diary and my book.
Back in, had my bag re-weighed and I was good to go. We got to security and my friend had packed a large bottle of shampoo, plus some type of vitamin powder in a larger sized tub - opened of course. After a few cheeky words to security about how dodgy she looked, she was allowed through sans the shampoo (they took pity on here with the vitamin supplement because it had only just been opened) and we were on our way.
Our flight left late afternoon and arrived after 11 pm in Christchurch. Given I rarely eat before I fly (long story but not a fan of flying), I was hungry by the time we arrived and was very grateful there was an airport cafe about to close that I was able to get a delicious little chicken and camembert quiche. My friend on the other hand, doesn't have the no food while flying policy, so wasn't hungry and was basically too tired to eat.
By the time we arrived at our motel, it was almost midnight and the quiche went down with a fair bit of over tired giggle and chatter. Both of us were dog tired, but ended up chatting for at least another hour before we finally settled. Like a pair of teenage girls who hadn't seen each other for 2 days, rather than the women slightly older than teenagers that we were who had just spent the last 8-10 hours in each other's company.
We had an early-ish start to pick up a hire car the next morning at 8 am and had a 5 hour drive ahead of us to Wanaka. There was a bit of mucking around at the car hire company because for the first time ever, I went with a mob I didn't know and I hadn't read their fine print. Meaning, they weren't located at the airport and they had a larger than expected deposit charge which meant I was now travelling on a much smaller budget than anticipated for the weekend!
Eventually we were on the road and it wasn't too long before the worms were biting, so we found a little cafe in Ashburton to have breakfast. I can't recall the name of the place now, but they did a delicious breakfast and had some of the grandest toilets I've seen in a little cafe.
Back in the car and a bit further down the road we turned off to head west to Wanaka. There's a quaint little place called Geraldine where there were some of the biggest pigs I'd ever seen in a paddock. Meanwhile, my travelling companion had drifted off to sleep! Can you believe that? Sheesh!
Never mind though, I managed to wake her when we rounded a bend and saw snow on the mountains. I can't say it was a lot of snow and I certainly wasn't expecting to see any given it was March, however, snow is snow and I still find it exciting. So of course, we had to stop, get out of the car and take pics.
Back in the car again and I can't recall whether I managed to keep her awake with chatter until we got to Lake Tekapo, however, it was a place we had to stop because the views are simply worth it.
We spent a good half hour or so exploring, having a look through the little Church of the Good Shepherd and walking down towards the water front, taking pics of everything. Well that would have been me because I always seem to have my camera in hand!
As mentioned in a previous post, the view from the window above the altar is spectacular and inside the church itself is only 11 pews. Very quaint and also very beautiful.
The waters of the lake are crystal clear and the pics here don't do justice to the colour of the water.
Back on the road again and it wasn't long before my friend was nodding off and I was wanting to stop and show her the next lake. She indulged me with a reminder that we had to stop stopping if I wanted to make Wanaka in time for my first 3.30 pm appointment. Ha! No worries, of course we'll get there in time I said.
A little further along and another quick stop (or was it a slow down? I think it was a stop) to look at the Clay Cliffs on the Omarama Lindis Pass.
Another reminder ensued that I really must stop stopping! I could see time was moving along and indeed, my friend was right. We still had a little way to go so any further stops needed to be just a slow down rather than a stop, otherwise we would be late.
I believe there may have been one or two more slow downs before we finally made it into Wanaka on time and with 10 minutes to spare before my first appointment! Of course, with 10 minutes to spare we had time for a quick lake pic before our meet and greet.
Although we had arrived in cloudy breezy weather, as we drove into Wanaka my friend said she could see what my attraction to this little place was and that it was just me all over. Of course, that gave me a smile and shiney eyes for a brief moment.
Well it seems this tale needs to be told in two parts, otherwise this post will have chapters!
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