The first Magic Bus tourist stop out of Fox was Thunder Creek Falls. Very impressive, with the amount of rain we've had. The sand flies impressed everyone, also. It was mostly shoot the picture and get the heck back to the bus.
Looking back toward Fox Glacier village.
Lake Wanaka as we approached the town. Wanaka is a resort, and property values are starting to soar to what the locals regard as outrageous heights. We would find them comparable to a moderately upscale development = $450,000 and up.
View from the hostel. It got cloudier as the day progressed, and the area east of the mountains needs the rain, but none fell.
Wanaka has been flooded at least 5 times, and the heights of these cylinders serve as both sculpture and reminders. Yup, that's a tavern in the background that happened to serve the local brews.
One of the most popular local attractions is Puzzling World.
These buildings at the right side of the attraction house the tilted rooms. They are cleverly constructed optical illusions, where a ball appears to roll uphill and water to flow uphill.
At the entrance is a special clock tower.
The gentleman I asked to take this picture didn't get the handrail quite horizontal, but I think you get the idea. The room is tilted such that standing on the stairs makes it appear that I should be falling on my face.
Lastly, there's a cleverly executed mural depicting what ancient Roman toilets were like. It's in an atrium with actual access doors to the men's and ladies' rooms. The mural wall is evident if you pay attention to where the windows are.
And finally, for this post, the Paradiso Theater. Evidently, it's unusual in NZ to have a cafe and bar incorporated into a cinema. The sculpture on top was placed there some time ago when the movie Black Sheep (filmed in New Zealand: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/) was released.
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