Traipsing out of Wonderland...

...and into a wonderworld! so far in my six month stint in wanaka i have got to explore a few other scenic gems in the deep south (thats otago to you other lovely kiwis).

my friend/flatmate gina and i have sometimes gotten restless during our small town residence. i feel bad saying it, but i guess you stop admiring the spectacualr beauty that every fresh face to town notices and start to feel a tad claustrophobic. this is especially true in the sense of feeling landlocked. even though wanaka has a lake, the sea is my anchor. around the 1st few days of spring we both were craving the sight, smell and feel of the sea.

so, on one overcast morning in wanaka, jeans and i along with our other friend emma, ventured out to the wild west coast. destination: haast.

After blinking and almost missing the classic kiwi town centre of haast (which consisted of a dairy, tea rooms/takeaway and a pub!) we drove a few more kms to the beach with itching toes...

Not having spent much time at west coast beaches we were amused at the gorse-ridden walkway to the beach, surrounded by paddocks of miniture horses and half fallen down shacks.

Who wears stockings to the beach?!

I definitely had to loose those on the soft sand, but as typical west coast weather goes, it was overcast and windy.

But we didn't care, loving it in the icy salt water

...and played at the cold coast for a good 10 minutes before we froze our toes off and retreated to the car. even though the west coast doesnt have the same peachy pristine visage to it like the east coast beaches, the contrasting colours and untamed atmosphere actually make it

worth it.

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another spring morning, after going on my daily ritual of walking around mt iron and running home, i got a call from my boss alisha at base backpackers telling me to get to the airport in 20 minutes... im going on a flight to milford sound!

talk about the perks of working in tourism. so off i went in a flurry to the wanaka airport and pretty much boarded the 6 seater plane straight away... 'bagsed' the front seat!

flying over mount aspiring and surrounding snowy ranges, westward

starting our decent into the sounds, greener than ive seen in a while. i got to do a boat cruise as well, which i have done with my bestie monique at the start of this year. it wasn't the same without her... though the best part was seeing dolphies in the water! my favourite animal.

again, here's west coast weather for ya, it started to rain on the way out

and i found somewhere over the rainbow!

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our last little excursion was to dunedin for a couple of days. we became students again, crashing with fellow student friends in a typical dunedin flat with 5 boys. i have visited them a fair bit over the past few months, but i think gina may have supressed her former grunge student lifestyle and was a little shocked at the state of their abode.

again drawn to the beaches, jeans and i visited aramoana with matt to take a look at the surf...

it was a teensy bit windy, and offshore so no waves for matty to surf. but doesn't gina look like a little pixie blowing in the wind?!

we found the surf at st. claire's beach

along with an odd looking cylindrical concrete structure

what's left of the st. claire pier

after the day spent at the dunedin beaches and the nights re-living our student days it was time to head back to work - 3 hours drive away.

over the weekend we kept hearing the rumour of the worst storm in 100 years to hit otago, the storm the size of australia! not thinking much of it in the spring weather we hit the road in the trusty (or not so trusty) mazda familia who struggled to start when leaving the city. not so long out of town, we started to rub our eyes when we saw white pieces of rain float by the car window... soon the whole country side turned from green to white and the snow got snowier!

stopped in milton for a frollick

magical.

much loved adventures xxx