Driving along Minaret Ridge in Wanaka in Otago New Zealand

Categories: Otago Region

Tags: driving, minaret ridge, new zealand, otago, wanaka

Added: 1 Year ago

Driving along Minaret Ridge in Wanaka, in the Otago Region of New Zealand's South Island.

Wanaka is a scenic holiday resort town on the shores of Lake Wanaka, in the Southern Lakes District, in Central Otago, New Zealand. The township sits in a glacier-carved basin next to the lake. Wanaka is the gateway to Mt Aspiring National Park and the ski fields of Treble Cone and Cardrona Alpine Resort. Lake Hawea is a 15-minute drive away, heading to the town of Makarora, the last stop when heading to the Glacier areas on the West Coast. South of the town is the historic Cardrona Valley, offering an alpine road to neighbouring Queenstown.

There's a diverse range of attractions and endless activities nearby. Wanaka is close to some of New Zealand's finest ski fields, 4WDing, mountain biking, wineries, jetboating, heli-skiing, and trout and salmon fishing. There are also Lord of the Rings tours, horse trekking, sky-diving, paintballing, and scenic flights. Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World is a must-do - an entertaining world of baffling and unique puzzles, 3D mazes and puzzling eccentricity — an ideal activity for families.

Lake Wanaka sits at an altitude of 300 metres and covers an area of 192 square kilometres. It is New Zealand's fourth-largest lake, estimated to be over 300 m deep.

Wanaka's name in Maori is a corruption of Oanaka, meaning - The place of Anaka, a local tribal chief.