We made it into Wanaka last night, and got up this morning ready to try something a little new. We are discovering that a lot of the biking in New Zealand is along hilly gravel paths that are geared more towards mountain biking. In Wanaka, there was a beautiful “family friendly” trail - nothing extreme! - that takes you along river banks and lakes, so we decided to give it a try. This was our first time on “real” mountain bikes (glad I brought my handy dandy gel seat cover!), and it was actually a lot of fun! It really was just a few baby steps away from what we typically bike on, and a good warm up for our next stop in Greymouth in few days - our 5 day bike trip!



Along the way, we found this guy river surfing. I didn’t know that was a thing … but it sure looked like it! He was having fun, and it was fun to watch!

We made a full day out of it, and ended the day with a walk along Lake Wanaka and a visit to the landmark Wanaka tree. It is almost 100 years old - Sadly it used to look like this, until it was vandalized a few years ago…

… and now it looks like this. But it seems to be hanging in there anyway, and is trying really hard to come back.

The town is still very proud of their tree… it’s beautiful!