Day 10. Sunday 16th November 2003
Te Anau - Wanaka

Plan was to go quad-biking this morning and then head off for Wanaka. Woke up to wind and rain, really strong wind, really wet rain, so decided to cancel the biking. Thought we might as well drive to Wanaka, I drove some of the way but the winds were making it quite tough driving so Jeff took over and nearly totalled it once after a particularly hard gust at the end of the lake on the way back to Queenstown. Had a look around the shops at Wanaka, it was raining quite heavily so decided to set up camp for the night, even the lake had waves you normally see only in the sea.

Found this out of the way campsite down a gravelled track by the lake outlet called the Clutha River. Despite the rain decided to tog up and go for a walk along the river. Even in the rain it was still lovely, the water was really blue and fast flowing, Saw rabbits and a bird called a Weka (recently re-introduced back into the area) which can't fly but runs really fast. Birds, little birds, were everywhere and we saw that they were living in the banks of the river in mud holes.

Jeff said he found the campsite spooky, it was probably to do with the really old kitchen there. It was like stepping back in time to the 60's with old ripped formica chairs, ripped seats, smelly looking cookers and a ancient fridge, and it smelt old. I quite liked the campsite.