Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Day6, te Anau > Wanaka: January 15th 2014

We had one of our larger distances to travel today, about 227km.
After heading back towards Queenstown along the picturesque Lake Wakatipu we turned east and headed towards Cromwell. About 2 weeks ago I was watching TV and the GT Cup (motor cars) was on at the newly opened Highland Motorsport Complex just out of Cromwell, about half way between Queenstown and Wanaka.
It looked like a pretty impressive setup and had hot laps, go carts and self drive laps on offer. Well you don’t have to ask me twice to pull into a motorsport park and by lunchtime we were walking around the showroom museum and trying to figure out what we (read I) wanted to do.
They have a Suzuki Swift left over there from the Swift Cup series that was popular in both Australia and NZ a couple of years ago. They are not exactly stock but they’re not exactly a V8 supercar or a Subaru Impreza either but most importantly they are not mine and I have no responsibility for it after I have finish my 7 laps. So the waiver was signed, I was suited up and we headed out to the track.
I was devastated when he told me we are not using the whole track just some bit about 700mtrs long they have pegged out in the middle.
I soon recovered from my disappointment and carved up a few laps.
It was a heap of fun and he let me do a slow lap (120kmph) after the little laps were done to give me a look at the main track. It’s stunning, long smooth sweepers, a nicely banked hair pin, a bridge, a tunnel, and 200+k straight.
Anyway we finished up and headed off to cover the last 50ks into Wanaka where we are staying overnight. Wanaka is a funny place, it’s got some stunning scenery and is nice next to the lake but it kind of reminds me of Port Macquarie, so I’m not really sold on it to tell you the truth.
It seems to be the ideal place for a family holiday where Mum and Dad do nothing and let the kids entertain themselves all day, there’s heaps of kids running around and you can hear kids yelling and laughing and playing all the time, it’s a very family type of place. We had half an hour to kill so we headed out to the Museum.......this place has everything from jet engines, motor bikes, cars, trains, plains, toys, you name it it’s in one of the four sheds.
Well that’s about it for today, we have a 10% off ticked at the local Ale and Steakhouse so we’ll probably head there directly. Off the Mt Cook tomorrow.

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