Wanaka - Mt. Iron

We were getting more and more south with every passing day. After passing Franz Josef and the Misty Mountains, we reached the town of Wanaka.

Wanaka

Wanaka is a really nice town roughly 100 km before Queenstown. While it has an almost equal size and a maybe even more beautiful location next to beautiful lake Wanaka, it doesn't have the number of tourists and tourist attractions of Queenstown. Wanaka is rather quite and unhurried compared to crowded busy Queenstown.

We spent some time in the town centre, checked out the local library, made use of the post office, restocked supplies at the super market and sat down at the lake side and enjoyed the view for a while.

But then we also wanted do something in the vicinity and paid a visit to the local i-Site for a brochure of nearby hiking trails. We decided to go for Mt. Iron the next day.

Mt. Iron

Mt. Iron barely deserves to be called a mountain. It's only 250 meters higher than it's surrounding and can easily be climbed in under 1 hour. The Mt. Iron Walking Track is circular around the mountain and takes you to it's top from where you can enjoy a wonderful 360 degree view of Wanaka and its surroundings. There are also educational panels, that explain how the mountain and Wanaka was carved during the last ice age.

Also worth mentioning is the unbelievable number of hares in the vicinity of the mountain. The whole ground is covered in rabbit droppings, and although rabbits are shy animals you will at least see a dozen when walking the track.