Explore Central Otago
Pronounced evenly as Wa-Na-Ka, WANAKA, only 55km northeast of Queenstown (but over an hour by road), is kind of like its laidback cousin. There is a similar combination of beautiful lakeshore surroundings and robust adventure activities, but Wanaka remains an eminently manageable place, with the tenor of a village and a feeling of light and spaciousness – an excellent place in which to chill out for a few days.
There’s no beating the setting, draped around the southern shores of Lake Wanaka at the point where the hummocky, poplar-studded hills of Central Otago rub up against the dramatic peaks of the Mount Aspiring National Park.
Although central Wanaka is a pleasant place to café cruise or relax on the foreshore, there are no sights as such. For attractions you’ll either need to head 2km east to Puzzling World or a further 7km to the museums, a micro-brewery and airborne adventure activities around the airport. Alternatively, head 3km west to the delightful Rippon Vineyard. A half-day around the sights will leave plenty of time to go kayaking, jetboating, rock climbing or, best of all, canyoning.
With the jagged summits of the Southern Alps mirrored in Lake Wanaka’s waters, the lure of Mount Aspiring National Park is strong and Wanaka makes a perfect base for easy walks and hard tramps.
During the winter months, Wanaka’s relative calm is shattered by the arrival of skiers and snowboarders eager to explore the downhill ski-fields of Treble Cone and Cardrona, and the Nordic terrain at the Snow Farm.
Brief history
Founded in the 1860s as a service centre for the local run-holders and itinerant gold miners, the town didn’t really take off until the prosperous middle years of the twentieth century, when camping and caravanning Kiwis discovered its warm, dry summer climate. Though still only home to around 7000 people, it is now one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing towns, with extensive developments and new housing subdivisions popping up everywhere.
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The Cardrona Valley
The Cardrona Valley
William Fox’s unwitting discovery of gold at Arrowtown in 1862 quickly brought prospectors along the Crown Range and into the Cardrona Valley, where gold was discovered later that year. Five years on, the Europeans legged it to new fields on the West Coast, leaving the dregs to Chinese immigrants, who themselves had drifted away by 1870.
Tiny CARDRONA, 25km south of Wanaka, comprises little more than a few cottages, a long-forgotten cemetery, the Cardrona Hotel and the similarly ancient former post office and store.
South from here, the road twists over the Crown Range Road (SH89), the quickest and most direct route from Wanaka to Queenstown, though it is tortuous enough in places to discourage anyone towing a caravan or trailer. Reaching an altitude of 1076m, it is one of New Zealand’s highest public roads and is sometimes closed by snow in winter. Nonetheless, on a fine day the drive past the detritus of the valley’s gold-mining heyday is a rewarding one, with views across bald, mica-studded hills to the tussock high country beyond. At the pass, a great viewpoint overlooks Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu, before it switchbacks down towards SH6 and Queenstown.
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The Matukituki Valley and Mount Aspiring National Park
The Matukituki Valley and Mount Aspiring National Park
The Matukituki Valley is Wanaka’s outdoor playground, a 60km tentacle reaching from the parched Otago landscapes around Lake Wanaka to the steep alpine skirts of Mount Aspiring, which at 3033m is New Zealand’s highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Extensive high-country stations run sheep on the riverside meadows, briefly glimpsed by skiers bound for Treble Cone, rock climbers making for the roadside crags, Matukituki-bound kayakers, and trampers and mountaineers hot-footing it to the Mount Aspiring National Park.
The park, mooted in 1935 but not created until 1964, is one of the country’s largest, extending from the Haast Pass, where there are tramps around Makarora, in the north to the head of Lake Wakatipu (where the Rees–Dart Track and parts of the Routeburn Track fall within its bounds) in the south. The pyramidal Mount Aspiring forms the centrepiece of the park, rising with classical beauty over the ice-smoothed broad valleys and creaking glaciers. It was first climbed in 1909 using heavy hemp rope and without the climbing hardware used by today’s mountaineers, who still treat the mountain as one of the grails of Kiwi mountaineering ambition.
Travelling along the unsealed section of the Mount Aspiring Road beside the Matukituki River, you don’t get to see much of Aspiring, as Mount Avalanche and Avalanche Glacier get in the way. Still, craggy mountains remain tantalizingly present all the way to the Raspberry Creek, where a car park and public toilets mark the start of a number of magnificent tramps into the heart of the park.
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Winter in Wanaka
Winter in Wanaka
In June Wanaka gets geared up for winter, mountain-bike rental shops switch to ski rental (see Scenic flights), watersports instructors don baggy snowboarder pants and frequent shuttle buses run up to the ski-fields. If you plan to drive up to the ski-fields, you’ll need tyre chains, which can be rented at petrol stations in Wanaka.
Downhill and cross-country skiing
Cardrona Alpine Resort Reached by a 12km unsealed toll-free access road branching off 24km south of Wanaka, near Cardrona t 03 443 7411, w cardrona.com. Predominantly family-oriented field sprawled over three basins on the southeastern slopes of the 1934m Mount Cardrona. Expect dry snow and an abundance of gentle runs (five beginner, thirteen intermediate, nine advanced). There are quads and several learner tows, and a maximum vertical descent of 390m and everyone has the run of three terrain parks. You’ll need snow chains to negotiate the access road to the base facilities halfway up the field.
Treble Cone 22km west of Wanaka, accessed by a 7km toll-free road t 03 443 7443, w treblecone.co.nz. More experienced skiers tend to frequent the steep slopes here. Its appeal lies in open uncrowded runs (four beginner, sixteen intermediate, nineteen advanced) spectacularly located high above Lake Wanaka, and a full 700 vertical metres of skiing with moguls, powder runs, gully runs and plenty of natural and created half-pipes. Three new groomed trails make it much better for beginners than previously and snowboarders will have a ball.
Snow Farm Across the valley from Cardrona, 24km south of Wanaka, then 13km up a winding dirt road t 03 443 7542, w snowfarmnz.com. With so many Kiwi skiers committed to downhill, it comes as a surprise to discover a cross-country ski area. It’s an inexpensive way to get on the snow, negotiating the 55km of marked Nordic trails. July–Sept.
Heli-skiing
Heli-skiing is not cheap, but there’s no other way of getting to runs of up to 1200 vertical metres across virgin snow on any of six mountain ranges.
Harris Mountains Heli-Ski t 03 442 6722, w heliski.co.nz. Offers almost 400 different runs on 150 peaks – mainly in the Harris Mountains between Queenstown’s Crown Range and Wanaka’s Mount Aspiring National Park. Strong intermediate and advanced skiers get the most out of the experience, where conditions are more critical than at the ski-fields, but on average there’s heli-skiing seventy percent of the time, typically in four- to five-day weather windows. Of the multitude of packages, the most popular is “The Classic”, a four-run day.
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Wanaka festivals
Wanaka festivals
New Year’s Eve The one-time youthful revelry has been curtailed in recent years, and the new year is welcomed in with a family-oriented celebration.
Rippon Festival (w ripponfestival.co.nz). One-day rock, roots and reggae festival with a top Kiwi line-up and a magical setting with superb lake and mountain backdrop. There’s always a lively after-party. First Saturday in February every even-numbered year.
A&P Show (w wanakashow.co.nz). Town meets country at Wanaka’s showgrounds on the lakefront with everything from calf-wrangling demos and biggest pumpkin competitions to the perfect Victoria sponge and a Jack Russell race in which up to 100 dogs chase a rabbit dragged around behind a man on a horse. Heaps of food, drink and fun, but accommodation is hard to come by. Second weekend in March.
Warbirds over Wanaka (t 0800 224 224, w warbirdsoverwanaka.com). Wanaka airport plays host to New Zealand’s premier air show – three days of airborne craft doing their thing watched by over 60,000 people. Easter every even-numbered year.
Festival of Colour (w festivalofcolour.co.nz). A biennial celebration of visual art, dance, music, theatre and the like, with top Kiwi acts, including the symphony orchestra, performing all over town and at Hawea. Lots of free stuff, or buy tickets for individual performances. Mid-April in odd-numbered years.
