These were lazy days. We got up and had breakfast in Wanaka, then we packed our bags ready for the flights to Christchurch. After leaving the hotel we went to a pharmacy in Wanaka to buy some analgesics for the insect bites we had suffered on the west coast and some lozenges for Barbara's sore throat.
We then went to the Puzzling World in Wanaka; it has a three dimensional maze, an exhibition of holograms, a crooked house and a shop and coffee shop. The maze was readily, if slowly, solved by taking left turns only. The holograms were rather above average and the shop well stocked with interesting puzzles and books; if we had had room we probably would have brought some back with us. We were particularly taken with some puzzle picture cubes which flexed so that there were up to twelve different pictures that could appear on the faces of the cube. However, certainly the highlight was the crooked house. The room was built properly but tilted to an angle of about 20° to the horizontal. The effect was quite worrying; we both became disoriented by the apparent distortions. Later, after the experience of the effects of the wind on the Southern Ocean when the ship was constantly at 10 - 30 to the horizontal, we would have thought nothing of this crooked room. We would probably only have appreciated the stability.
We took lunch at the Penguin Tea Rooms in Wanaka. The walls of the cafe were decorated with posters from the Antarctic; we became excited in anticipation of our trip.
We drove around a little to admire the scenery for a final time before leaving and then returned the car. The whole attitude was very casual and trusting. They tore up our deposit Visa slip on our word that the car was not damaged and that we had only done 500 km so that there was no further charge. The owner then drove us back to the airfield (before taking a party out on the lake in his hovercraft!). Graham then flew us back to Queenstown in his Cessna, from the air we saw the 737 that was to bring us to Christchurch coming in to land; again it only just made it. Watching the plane come in and listening to the air traffic controllers talking was worse than being on the plane. It really doesn't seem possible, or very sensible, to land such a large plane on such a small airstrip. But that is how air travel in New Zealand works; talking to people throughout our holiday we found all New Zealanders to be very casual in their approach to air safety. Indeed we were told that most pilots die young: in crashes.
The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel in Christchurch deserves a mention for the driver. She gave us a running commentary of 'touristy' places and things to do while shouting at other road users to get out of the way etc. In fact she behaved rather like any New York taxi driver. But when we arrived at the hotel she absolutely refused to accept a tip.
