Lake Wanaka

Fabled Lake Wanaka... at least that's how I thought of it, due to one of my favorite PBS cooking shows, "The Free Range Cook" hosted by New Zealander, Annabel Langbein who does her show from her gorgeous cabin located somewhere on the shores of this large lake. We had finally left the rain behind us and arrived to a gorgeous day in this lakeside resort town. I was on the lookout for Annabel in case she was strolling around town, but only saw one of her cookbooks in a shop window. 

Emily and I strolled through the town, poking in and out of shops and then went for a walk along the lake, where Merisha told us to look out for Lake Wanaka's "iconic" tree in the lake. We walked along noting several large trees that were very near the lake's edge but not actually IN the lake, until we came across a couple dozen photographers focused on this: 
  I mean, it was nice and all, but it's practically a shrub. Whatevs, it was a really nice evening in a nice town. 
 The next day, Bas and Merisha took us a great hike to get views of the lake. We hiked through some meadows and fields, with views of the smaller Medicine Lake, until we ended up here:

At some point before this spot, half the group split off with Bas to continue up the trail to a much higher point, while the rest of us stayed here and did yoga with Merisha (who along with being a guide, pilot, and all-around-awesome chick, is a also a yoga instructor!) Mike, Jack, Lisa, Dale, and I stretched out our aching limbs and then did a circuit around Medicine Lake before meeting back up with the group for dinner.