RTW Trip Day #81: Lake Wanaka and the Mount Iron Track

18 December 2025

Steps: 12,233

Today was Granny’s first day with us in New Zealand, and we visited Lake Wanaka, although Susie stayed home as she still isn’t feeling great. She’s trying desperately to get better before we leave Queenstown for the rest of our NZ road trip.

The route passes over a stunning mountain range, along a windy switch back road. There are some great viewpoints over the valley and Queenstown in the distance.

The Cardrona Hotel

As we dropped down into the valley we stopped at the Cardrona Hotel, which is a lovely old heritage building, built back in the late 1800’s.

There is a very British looking pub inside and a lovely beer garden out the back, with some stunning flower beds. It was a great spot for some lunch - we got nachos and southern fried chicken, and of course I had to give the Cardrona Ale a try!

Lake Wanaka

We eventually arrived at Lake Wanaka, and the girls enjoyed playing on the pebble beach. It’s amazing how kids just find a game to play with driftwood to occupy themselves!

There was also a really strange public toilet, where a voice over the speaker told you how long you had left before the door unlocked!

Mount Iron Track

We all wanted to stretch our legs a bit, and as the weather was improving, we decided to walk up the Mount Iron Track, as it is a great short 4.5km loop, that is suitable for kids. The track is a glacier carved, rocky knoll that rises above the surrounding countryside.

The track starts off fairly steep, and you walk in between some fairly large and prickly bushes, but the higher you get the more the views open up.

The views back over lake Wanaka were great, as well as Lake Hawea. We noticed on Google Maps that there was a public bench called the, “Schofield family bench” much to the girls amusement (it’s nothing to do with us)!

At the top there is a trig point and you get panoramic views all around. After spending some time admiring the view, we headed back down the back side of the mountain, and looped back around to the car park.

In the evening we met back up with Susie for some dinner, and we went for a Thai meal, although after all of our travels, it was pretty disappointing.

Tomorrow we leave Queenstown and start our road trip all the way up to Auckland over the next 3 weeks which is very exciting!

Previous Day #80: An Amazing Day at Milford Sound

Next Day #82: Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook National Park

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