Our 3:30 AM wakeup call came quickly but we were both excited for this day! We had Roy’s Peak planned for sunrise, which was a 10 mile hike, with a little over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. When we arrived at the trailhead, there were already ~20 cars in the parking lot, but many of the camper vans parked there overnight. We hopped out of the car and the fun began.

The night was clear and the moon was FULL. So full and bright, in fact, that we quickly turned off our headlamps and let the moonlight take the lead. As we started on our trek, we noticed a few flashlights above us on the face of the mountain…had we started too late? Naturally, we turned this into the game of how many people could we catch. Somehow, in just over two hours, we found ourselves first to the summit! Once the initial adrenaline wore off, we realized we had over an hour wait until sunrise…was it freezing? Yes. Jumping jacks, pretend jump rope, and pushups helped a little. Once the 7:15 sun did decide to join us, we were awestruck. WOW – top sunrise for sure.

Next up – eat all those burned calories. Scroggin was was our first stop for sourdough toast with butter and jam and a solid chocolate chip cookie. We met a couple from Whistler that recommended a The Secret Sauna for a lakeside dip & sauna combo at Lake Hawea. This lake was stunning and significantly less developed than Lake Wānaka. The local sauna experience involved 3 rounds of the following, 15 minutes of sauna followed by 3-4 minutes in the cool water. It felt awesome. Ok back to food.

Lunch #1 was delicious sweety and spicy chicken poke bowl at Kamino. Lunch#2 was a shared plate at the Big Fig. This spot was highly recommended by locals and it did not disappoint. Super fresh and super tasty. Lunch #3 was snacks and lots of hydration back at the AirBnB for some downtime.

Honestly, this day was awesome and probably best of the trip so far. We found our way back to the local food truck area and shared chicken pad thai for dinner. After a little lake walk to check-out the Wānaka tree, we headed back to the AirBnB where Anna fell asleep watching Alone while Brian tried to figure out if there was a way to watch Liverpool play Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final early the next morning.