We woke up to a beautiful day and after breakfast and a cuppa we set off for Omarama Clay Cliffs. Lance had found this place when looking for things to do in and around Wanaka and we had never heard of them before. So off we set on the 1 hour 40 minute drive to Omarama.
The drive was new territory for me and took us through the Lindis Pas. The pass takes you through grassy tussocks and through the mountains. At times were saw snow drifts on the side of the road and fortunately no ‘flurries’. I kept looking in the direction of Aoraki (Mt Cook) which is New Zealand’s highest mountain, but I couldn’t see it, probably because it was another 90 kilometres away.
Surprisingly Omarama was quite a little touristy village and I am not sure who would stay at the hotels and why? As apart form the Clay Cliffs we could see no other attractions. Perhaps they stop on route to somewhere else?
The Clay Cliffs are down a private road and we had to pay $5 into an honesty box to get in. The well maintained gravel road took us through the valley which originally was carved out by a glacier. The view of the mountains was spectacular behind the river and the clusters of green trees. We were surprised by the amount of tourists visiting; all Kiwi residents or people stuck here of course. Suddenly the cliffs were in view and were a like something out of a movie. Columns of clay were clustered together like they had dribbled from the sky and solidified. We parked and walked a short distance to the foot of the cliffs where the path snaked up into and through a crevice created by the towers. We could have been anywhere in the world other than New Zealand as these were so different to the landscape around us. They are definitely worth a visit.
As we got to the village of Omarama I suggested that a toilet stop might be a good idea and suggested the Wrinkly Ram Cafe. Whilst I browsed through the touristy merino wool shop Lance had checked out the cafe and whispered to me”We need to eat here”. The toilet by the way was nothing to write home about, hence I won’t say much more apart from that they are clean and you don’t have to buy anything to use them.
The cafe was great and had all home made food. I selected a chicken pie and Lance had a steak pie. Both the pies were spectacular! And we managed to slip a cheese roll onto the plate as well. Everything was delicious and I felt that it would be rude not to have a cake as well so managed to stuff a custard square down my throat as well (Vanilla slice for you Australians). While the cafe was in a modern building it was furnished in a variety of old original wooden tables and chairs. The whole place was festooned with fresh spring flowers, daffodils, tulips and snowbells. And by the counter was a large pile of real pumpkins, it really was a lovely place and worth a stop if you are travelling on the Lindis pass.
Back at our apartment we lazed around and had a cheese board for dinner as we were still pretty full from lunch. Off to Clyde tomorrow!
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