Wanaka - new, old and a larger landscape that does change, be it slowly.

These days as parking becomes more of a hassle in downtown Wanaka [and sadly more Queenstown like] I park above Ardmore St. on Lismore and walk down to do my shopping and get a coffee and muffin at Soul Foods. The return up-hill exercise does me good too!

Roy's Peak in the background never changes much, but the foreground does...


Downtown the old Masonic Lodge is becoming a symbol of the past, and it's being kept tidy. Perhaps helped by funds accrued by hiring out the land around the building as parking space...


I found this photo on the wall recently out at Lake Hawea at the hotel in good enough light to photograph it. I find it so symbolic of the past history of Wanaka that I know I had no choice but to make a photo of the photo. Obviously a winter shot [note ski auction banner] - the center building is the old Wanaka Town Hall, now long gone. What a great atmosphere that building had. I even remember going to movies there 45 years ago as a kid, and it never changed really, just becoming a maintenance impossibility until it's demise several years ago. For those of you regular Wanaka visitors the Infinity Investment Group's building is now to the right of the site. From the right: Wanaka Four Square still in operation, next Tuatara Pizza just changed hands to something ... Bistro and it used to be Monley's cafe. Then we now have Soul Foods downstairs in what used to be where you did NZR bus bookings, and the Gilliams sold magazines and newspapers in the 80s. Upstairs was a yoga studio until recently, and the large carport was where the NZR [New Zealand Railways] buses used to load and unload. Correct me if I'm wrong but prior to this it was a garage [Mansons?]...


This photo I've republished from this week's Mount Aspiring College newsletter. Twenty Years Young they say, this year. I still vividly remember attending the official opening by Princess Anne. It was a very hot day, and it was the last time I ever wore a suit in my life! I was also wearing my favourite glacier sunglasses and must have looked a sight. I was so "heat struck" I missed the opportunity for meaningful conversation over little onions and cheese bits stuck on toothpicks, with glasses of wine or cups of tea!


Last night I made this shot up on the mid slopes of Mt Iron. From a Wanaka landscape photography point-of-view I quite like it's "vanishing point" point, that leads my eye on a journey into a sense of distance [Mt Iron being an area that challenges me composition wise]. Again though while the basic form of the mountains remain unchanged as you'd expect, the growing vegetation speaks volumes about the evolution of the area...