New Zealand- Day 3: Thursday, October 2nd

We woke up around 5:45 in the morning so we could leave for Wanaka by 6:15. Leslie was leaving us around 10 to head back to Christchurch, so we had to be up kind of early to make the 3 and a half hour drive. We had about a quarter tank of gas, so decided we could make it to the Fox Glacier before getting more. Unfortunately, none of the gas stations were open and we couldn’t get our cards to work at any of the 24-hour ones. This meant we had about 160 km before getting to Haast and we were getting very low on gas. The last quarter of the trip was quite stressful as the gas needle continued to dip below the empty line. We were running on the last wisps of fumes when we came upon a gas station. I paid NZ$96 to fill up a 45 litre tank. Completely ridiculous.

The rest of the drive to Wanaka was quite enjoyable (after I was done being totally stressed out) and about halfway through we drove across a bridge which went over an area called the Gates of Haast. It was absolutely gorgeous. One of the best spots we’ve seen so far. It was just a really strong river rushing over some really cool rocks. The pictures look pretty good.

We made it to Wanaka just as Leslie's bus was pulling into the station. After dropping her off, Jordan and I found a little café called Ritual where we had pasta salad before walking around town. After that we headed over to the Puzzling World where there is a 1.5 km, two-story maze. It took us about 45 minutes to make our way to each corner of the maze and then back to the start. It was much harder than I thought it was going to be.

After the Puzzling World we checked into our hotel and I took a long nap. Jordan went off and explored the town a little bit more. When I got up we went ahead and booked our bungy jumping for the following day and the Milford Sound cruise for the day after that. Later, we drove around and got some take-away from a gourmet pizza place. The pizza was quite good. After dinner we headed over to the pool (nicely heated) and hot tub. We called it a night after that.