Jamie: Wanaka, New Zealand

Let me show you this place I never knew existed, and am really glad I discovered.

Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand.

Surrounded by mountains and situated at the southern end of Lake Wanaka, this town of at least 7,000 people.. only.. almost made us decide to migrate to this paradise.

It is 1.25 hours away from Queenstown, but we drove from Franz Josef Glacier which is 3.5 hours away.

Passing by Lake Hawea.. what a beauty!

Almost there, and a rainbow says hello :)

We're here!

Let's have some fun for a short while at Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World.

These old men could not take their eyes off me!

(It doesn't show properly in the picture though.)

At the Hall of Following Faces.

Nature calls.. Taking a dump with the guys.. haha! ;)

At the Roman-Style Toilets.

Time to get lost.. but please do not enter this labyrinth if you have limited time. The achiever in you will just get stressed ;)

At the The Great Maze.

And now.. my dream paradise awaits.

Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps.

Yes, this is the town.

Don't you just envy those two? Lying on the sand.. Reading a book..

Waiting for this sunset!

Ok.. the tree blocked my sun.. but it is there, you can see right?! :)

Twilight.. How darkness can be so beautiful!

Good morning!

When we were on our way to Wanaka through the Haast Pass, we passed by a sign that says

"To Blue Pools"

We did not know what it was, so we didn't stop. When we got to the hostel, we googled pictures of it, and knew we had to go back the next day.

Only a 30 minute drive away.. and here I am, trying to be one with them.. whoever piled up all these rocks :)

The glacier-fed icy cold water in these pools has a distinctive blue colour.

It is so clear that the swimming trouts look like they are suspended in the air.

The Blue Pools.

Lesson learned - If there's a sign, just stop! Check it out, and have no regrets!

Now let's go back to town.

Gosh, it's really so pretty!

Time to have a movie date at their classic Cinema Paradiso.

Where you can choose to sit on.. a car seat inside that yellow car, a lounge chair, a couch, an airplane chair... and eat freshly baked cookies and home made ice cream.

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Back to Lake Wanaka for some precious moments :)

Since we were already engaged, and we knew we would be coming to this amazing location, we hired Swedish photographer Fredrik Larsson for a 2 hour pre-wedding photo shoot.