We woke up after a rather remarkably calm night, both boys did miraculously well in sleeping through the night. Jake woke up and thought he was elsewhere – tried to open the hotel room door to go looking for us! We were in no particular rush, check out wasn’t until 11am.
So we spent time carefully packing up the room, and then headed to steamer’s wharf for breakfast. Toni had been given a recommendation for a place called Patagonia, which sells chocolate but also freshly ground coffee and croissants.
I ordered the breakfast croissants (3) which came with delectable blackberry conserve, butter, chocolate and clotted cream. Toni had chocolate croissants and we both had espresso, although Toni’s order got mangled and in the end she had to mix hers with Jake’s milkshake.
On the way back to the Novotel, we again walked past the lake on our way to the playground Jake and I had visited yesterday.
We spent about half an hour at the playground, enjoying the scenery. Queenstown was practically deserted compared to the previous day, despite the fact that the weather was markedly better. There was still a fair bit of cloud, but it was high and the mountains were clear – and, blessedly, NO RAIN!
Eventually we made our way back to the Novotel and began the procedure of checking out and packing the car (parked awkwardly for us at the mouth of the hotel driveway). We set off in our crappy hire car, heading east and eventually north out of Queenstown.
The road took us across familiar territory – we’d roughly flown in across the path the previous day. However, as we got further out – particularly as we passed Arrowtown – we turned off the state highway and took the Crown ridge north direct to Wanaka. The road winds up and eventually on top of a mountain range. We stopped twice to take photographs looking back south towards where we’d came from.
The road ahead was windy but surprisingly in very good condition. Quite wide, most of the time, and highlighted with crops of these very colourful flowers, shaded in pink, purple, yellow and green. The road meandered into a descent as we started to approach a very large valley. A stream (or small river) ran alongside the road once we’d cleared the range actual. 
As the valley grew, and the mountains moved off a tiny amount, we found ourselves driving directly into the lakeside retreat of Wanaka.
Wanaka
Our first logical stop was at the Wyndham Wanaka resort. We found our way there effortlessly, as it is just off the main road but in the opposite direction of the town center. We pulled in around 12:15pm and I went into reception which was being manned by a woman who was busy on the phone. I waited patiently for a few minutes until she put the phone on hold, then abruptly left the desk without even acknowledging me. Another women came out shortly after and asked me what I wanted.
I explained we’d like to check in, and gave my name. The dour woman returned as the second woman looked up our details. There was a slight snort of derision from the rude woman and the other woman told me as we’re in an apartment it wouldn’t be ready until 4pm. I was then asked if I knew where the town centre was, which I replied in the affirmative. She took my number and said she’d ring if the room was available any earlier. That’s a very unacceptable experience for an owner (or even a guest of an owner) to experience.
So that was that.. we’d have to lug our luggage around with us, plus two kids under the age of three for four hours in medium heat. I left very annoyed at the lack of professionalism and the rudeness mainly of the first woman. Later I looked up the check in times and it was indeed 4pm, however I still fumed that they could have offered to mind our bags, or provide me with some advice on how to kill 4 hours until check in time.
Fuming, I returned to the car and suggested that we start killing time at a park on the lake foreshore we’d spotted on the way in.
Lake Wanaka
We stopped near the play equipment and as we started to get out, Damian fell asleep in his car seat. Toni and Jake went to the play equipment where two other kids were playing, their parents up in a nearby shaded seated area preparing lunch.
I walked to the lake side where I started snapping the lake and mountains. Two ducks were wandering the shore and I managed a few photos with one or both of them as foreground subjects. A woman walked the beach and came over to ask me if I’d visited any Otago regional wineries. I said we’d just arrived, but given my other interests I asked what were good wineries in the region to look at. Turns out they plant a lot of Pinot Noir in the area. 
Heading back to the car, we decided to try to locate lunch in the town centre. Damian was still asleep, but we decided we’d have no choice but to wake him. The town centre was packed full of people, and we simply could not find a place to (legally) park. So I made a call, and redirected us to an attraction just outside of town, on the way to the nearby town of Cromwell..
Puzzling World
The location was called Puzzling World, and it contained all things puzzling (3D, visual effects etc) and a huge maze. It was on Toni’s hit list and we (correctly) figured we’d be able to kill a few hours there. The first thing you notice upon arrival is the tall building on an abnormal angle (pictured). We arrived and paid the admission and entered the illusion rooms first.
Illusion Rooms
There were many illusions, too numerous to mention here. The first room contained framed holograms, and led to a ‘tilted house’ where the whole room was on an angle, and featured illusions “defying” gravity. This led to a large area where a hologram lady spoke about the rooms, and introduced the next – the room of faces.
The Ames’ room was particularly fun and a camera set up at the opposite end of the room fed to a LCD TV outside with a 2 minute delay, so you could see yourself “to scale” afterwards (pictured). There was also a huge room of faces, the faces being built concave so that the faces appear to follow you across the room. 
Even the bathrooms had some degree of illusion, the floor being painted in a way which made it look like it fell away into another dimension.
The new section had visual illusions which were based on the mind’s ability to identity background and foreground shapes. There was even a life-like wax statue of the creator of the place looking over the room. 
We returned to the cafe and had some lunch (pie, sausage roll and noodles for the boys) before attempting..
The Great Maze
A wooden labyrinth which consisted of four coloured towers. The idea was to visit all four towers and then exit the maze. For greater difficulty, one could attempt to visit specific towers in order. We had two young boys, so we decided we’d aim for which ever tower we could get to, order unimportant.
The Great Maze
We eventually found our way to all four towers, and it took nearly an hour to do so. The boys seemed to enjoy it, but they were getting over tired and we took the ‘emergency exit’ out once we’d found all four towers.
Jake is aMAZEd
We checked out the gift shop and then returned to the car. It was now 3:20pm and we decided to hit up the New World supermarket for food and supplies before attempting the resort again.
The town centre was no less busy when we returned, and we battled our way through the supermarket to locate what we needed. We ended up leaving early because there were too many people to deal with and the boys were getting too restless and noisy.
Downtown Wanaka
Resort 2.0
It was just past 4pm as we left the town center and returned once again to the resort. Toni went in to conduct the check in procedure and this time different staff were on hand. They apologised for the experience from earlier and even came out to the car and apologised to me in person. They gave us some pool towels and helped us find our room. It’s not an understatement to say that this helped, although I must admit even a day later I’m still a bit unimpressed with the other staff from the first attempt at checking in.
We moved all our luggage and groceries up into the room, which is on the second level, overlooking the pool and spa.
Outside the resort
Pool and Spa
Master bedroom
View from our balcony
After a long spell in the pool with the boys, we eventually ended up back in the apartment at 5:30pm, cooked dinner and began the bed time routine for both boys. Damian went down at 7pm and an hour later Toni took off back to the supermarket. I put Jake down at 8:30pm without a fight and then resumed writing yesterday’s article.
When Toni returned we cooked a quick dinner which I screwed up (Caesar salad) before a bit of light TV and eventually bed.
We don’t have an agenda for today (Day 8), but stay tuned for more.