Wanaka

Arriving in Wanaka we were greeted by beautiful sunshine, and the views from the lake Wanaka upon which the small town is situated on were absolutely gorgeous. There was even a swimming pontoon. I was very tempted to jump in even though the water was bloody freezing.


Lots of seagulls shouting at one another.


In order to get some of our blogging up to date we found an excellent internet cafe that had good deals for peeps with their own laptops, only to find that their wireless access was actually buggered due to some electronic interference that had been bothering them for months, as they couldn't figure out what was causing it.

Clairy spotted this little box on a shelf highlighting the strangeness of us approaching a summer Christmas.


After a very civilised night in the tent at the ... holiday park. We decided to head to the Wanaka Transport and Toy Museum, a private museum containing the personal collection of a local entrepreneur called ... . It sounded particularly OCD, and therefore just the kind of thing that me and Clairy would love.

After the introduction from the cheerfully batty lady at the ticket counter and a brief description of the contents, we knew we weren't going to be disappointed.

On the way in was an immaculate Cadillac Coupe de Ville.


The first section contained some vast toy displays interdispersed with other strange collections, and throughout everything were cars. One of the other collections that caught Clairy's eye was this vast array of salt and pepper pots. This is only a tiny part of the full set.


There was an enormous lego section, with various vast displays and I spotted many items I remember putting together when I was young. I also spotted the yellow lego motorbike that was a bone of contention between me and Caper for some time. The meccano pieces were great though, and I had to get a few piccies for Father.

I think this ferris wheel is an improvisation with the later meccano sets.


Where as these pieces look much more like the vast piles I remember making my fingers sore with.


There was also an epic collections of Star Wars toys as well as Barbies and Sylvanian Families. It was quite surreal seeing so much tat from our youths again.

The cars were virtually all immaculate and 95% of everything in the museum came from New Zealand. They had a beautiful set of morrises,

Keeping up the slightly mad feel to the place, a lot of the cars were filled with collections of teddies.


There were some beautiful old cars. I loved the front aspect on this 1955 Holden.


After looking at a rather forlorn collection of hornby railway kit, we headed out of the first building and found some lovely larger old vehicles outside including this British Leyland bus.


The next building was stuffed full of fire engines of all ages and styles as well as a huge array of old cars. This 1934 Hudson 74 Delux Sedan was definitely my favourite. Such beautiful lines. Also note the tricycles and kids ride-on toys on the shelves in the background.


Oh hi! Clairy about to be taken for a ride.


The next vast hanger had some gorgeous aeroplanes as well. This Dehaviland DH2 was a lovely shape.


As was this AN-2. I couldn't quite get over how large the single engine over my head was. It was colossal. The blurb said that it had been partially restored and amazingly was very nearly flight-ready again.


Clair spotted this beautiful specimen right out the back where they had literally hundreds more vehicles either waiting for a space somewhere or waiting for restoration. I'd say this one was definitely the latter.


A lovely shape though.


There was an unnecessary excess of mannequins on display in my opinion. It only added to the weirdness of it all.


Some more nice trucks against a beautiful background.


After this we entered the final mahoosive display hall. Here we encountered this beauty of a plane. Its called a a lodestar and was initially used by the Americans in the second world war. It was then refitted for agricultural use from 1955 to 1973. After this it belonged to a chicken ranch, a nice name for a brothel. In this case a flying brothel in New Mexico.


Not a whole heap of room in there for any naughty business. Still more freaky mannequins though.


They even had a collection of wheelchairs! Hear I am trying them out to see which would have been best for my peggar.


A monocycle! I was well pleased to see one of these in the flesh. You sit in the middle and the motor turns the wheel around you, though they have the problem that if you stop too fast then the wheel stays still and you go head over heels inside it.


I thought this Rover something looked very like the old Nelly car that Grandpa used to have.


And finally a Russian MIG aircraft that was acquired by dubious means according to the lonely planet. Nice effort with the hand painting.


The shop was filled with collectable stuff you could buy. Clairy particularly like these animals for our future electric train set diorama.


Afterwards we headed back to pretty Wanaka and sat on the lakeside to have our lunch.