NZ : Wanaka - Eco Friendly Nature Gangsters.

After a full day on the glacier and an evening drive, it would be an understatement to say that we were grumpy and tired. The Loney Planet suggested that Red Star produced the best burgers in town with 21 different combinations to choose from... It was the perfect place to eat our emotions, again.
(See reoccurring  theme).

Fully feasted and busting at the seams, we reluctantly headed to our next couch surf but were on theverge of  detouring to the nearest hostel to avoid any kind of social interaction which would have been just plain annoying! Over the past few months we have come to realise that couch surfing can be very hit and miss. Although most of our hosts have been wonderful, other have be darn right weirdos that we've refrained from mentioning on the blog so far. We just didn't have the energy to sport our game faces in the event of meeting yet more freaks...
Luckily for us, 'The Boys' as they have come to be known, were a charming and hilarious bunch. We soon grew very fond of them and had a definite soft spot for Gordie, Jimmy, Lionel and Callum.

During our stay at 'The Boys' we commandeered their man built Den, a make shift structure in the corner of the room full of blankets, pillows and duvets. It was even fully equipped with a television and an Xbox 360. The Den could only be accessed by crawling behind the dining room table and raising the cotton door to our humble abode. We had 3 excellent nights sleeping in here which really rekindled our inner child. We even managed to all pile in for a movie night which was cosy.

We began out first day in Wanaka with a good old tramp up Mount Iron to view the surrounding mountains. We wandered off of the beaten track on to snowy ground and clambered over mossy rocks, we even dared to walk out on to the overhanging ledge at the top of the mountain.

Some years ago the idea of us opening a coffee shop together had been discussed and has been bubbling around in our imaginations ever since, so when we stumbled upon 'the Dummies guide to opening a Coffee Shop' at the boys we couldn't help but take it as a sign and enlisted their help in doing some market research in the town. We headed for a funky cafe after working up a fierce appetite on the walk and later on got ourselves an ideas journal to pour our creativity on to.

Lake Wanaka was just a short stroll from the cafe and we headed out to the end of the pier to watch the large eels and trout swimming around in the crystal clear water. The boys continued to humour our mad missions as we encouraged them to take us to Waste Busters - the local recycling centre and heaven for those who love the pre-loved. We ended up accidentally leaving with yet more vintage clothes and books for bargain prices.

We dropped the lads off back home and headed for the supermarket to grab traditional British fare of sausages, mash and spring greens which we were cooking up for dinner, in a house full of boys vegetables are a rarity and we got some funny looks about serving them!

Everyone slipped in to a food coma as we played a game of Settlers of Catan and enjoyed our herbal teas.

Our time in Wanaka really warrants two instalments in the blog as we did so much whilst we were there so for now we shall leave it as :

To be continued...

Peace and Love,

Jan and Sooz.