Diamond Lake

(Let's face it. This blog is random. I'm back to talking about our trip. For more on that or where we left off, click on the "travel" label over on the right hand side of the page.)

So when I last left off, Alex and I were trying to fly to Milford Sound only to be thwarted by clouds. Instead, we headed just west of Wanaka (per Anna Kate and Jaime's suggestion) to the Diamond Lake Loop for a bit of hiking, er, tramping. Tee hee.

The goal was to get to the top where we could see this:

Click on the picture above for a larger view

The trail started out pretty innocently and looked pretty tame.


Until you got to the slippery ladders of doom.


But we survived those and were able to take in the sweeping, stunning vistas and the smaller sights along the way.

Moss, up close.

Diamond Lake

The views were beautiful the whole way up and in every direction.

Another great view from the hike (of Lake Wanaka, not Alex - if you hike the Diamond Loop expecting to find Alex standing there, taking it all in, you'll be sorely disappointed)

Getting there...

And eventually, me and my camera were on top of the world. Or at least on top of this hill. That's where I took the panoramic above.

The summit rocks, aka my photographer for the photo below.

Me, on the summit

Tomorrow: we leave Wanaka and head for the glaciers!(unless something else comes up)