10 years of living in Wānaka as an expat

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8 Apr 2024

There is a reason this little New Zea» 10 years of living in Wānaka as an expat

Exactly ten years ago, I arrived in Wānaka in a little red car with my whole life packed inside it. Back then, Wānaka was still a sleepy little mountain town where Instagram wasn’t really a thing, and no one cared about a tree in the lake. I cannot believe I’ve passed a decade of living in Wanaka. When you start to remember in decades, you feel old.
Way back whent, I was blogging full-time and could live anywhere. After my lease ended in Wellington, I headed south. Preferring the chiller Wānaka to Queenstown, I ended up settling here. It was an easy place to fall in love with. It still is.

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Like so many expats who settle here, I came for a little while and just never left. Well, I did move to Lyttelton (Christchurch) for a couple of years during COVID, you know, for love, but I’m trying to forget that. As soon as things went tits up, I ran straight back into the arms of all my friends in Wānaka. Home.
While my feelings for Wānaka have become more complicated over the years, and I’m still reconciling myself with them, it still feels like home to me. Don’t get me wrong; I love it here. But Wānaka’s changed so much over the past decade, growing and expanding rapidly, just like so many resort towns worldwide.
Truthfully? I’m mostly disillusioned with the cost. The average house costs around $1.5 million today, which has changed the town’s vibe. I’ve never owned a home before, and I don’t really see how I could ever afford my first house to be here. It’s $175 to fill up my car. One bag of groceries is $100. Lunch is $30. It’s really hard to get ahead. Recently, I was in Melbourne, and it was cheaper than Wānaka!
Anyways, New Zealand is officially in a recession. I also know this is just how things work. Towns grow, especially beautiful ones. As I reflect back on these ten years, my heart fills with emotion. While I’m unsure I’ll be here forever, Wānaka definitely buried under my skin and has become a big part of me.
Here are ten of the many reasons I fell in love with Wānaka.

1. The epic landscape and mindboggling views

Ok, I’m going to be honest here. Wanaka could have a million things going for it (and it does), but one will always top all the rest: it’s insanely beautiful. Like, it doesn’t look real kind of beautiful. This is why people pay millions of dollars to live here. And why young people will live in their cars for the chance to spend time here.
You’ve seen it all over social media. No matter where you walk outside, you have a beautiful view of the mountains. Right next door to a national park and nestled along a pristine blue lake with even bigger mountains as the backdrop, it’s no surprise that we all are wooed by her beauty. You can’t take a bad photo here. You can’t.
You’re never far from an amazing hike or outdoor adventure in Wānaka. A mecca for outdoor enthusiasts as well as curious travelers, you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque backdrop.

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2. Small-town vibes for real

Even though the population here in Wānaka has doubled in the decade I’ve lived here, it still exudes small-town vibes. A kind and friendly place (also very wealthy); you’ll always see people you know when you go out. It’s the kind of place where everyone knows your name, from the postie to friends of friends to your barista. It’s wonderful but also makes dating hard and somewhat incestuous.
Crime is never on anyone’s mind in Wānaka; it’s the kind of place where you can leave your wallet and phone on a cafe table, and it’ll still be there when you come back. In fact, our weekly news bulletin, The Messenger, has a Crimestoppers column written up by the local constable, and it’s generally hilarious. Firstly, because the “crimes” a often not even crimes, like the one time the police went to the local petrol station at night to inspect an alarm going off and accidentally set off the anti-burglar fog canon on themselves.
Or the fact that they love to share their own thoughts and opinions on the crimes themselves: “Now you’d choke on your cornflakes if you saw how many crashes we’ve had on our roads over the past two weeks. I won’t bore you with the list, but we’ll share a couple. Oh, to be a tow truck driver…”
Love it.

3. You’re surrounded by adventures

One of the first things I noticed while living in Wanaka was that there is no shortage of adventure to be had here. And there is no shortage of badass adventurers, either.
The gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park, Wānaka, is the perfect base for those who love to spend their time outdoors. Established in 1964 and covering over 3,500 square kilometers, the national park sits at the bottom of the Southern Alps and sprawls towards the Haast Pass to the west coast, across to Glenorchy, and down to Fiordland. Lorded over by the perfect peak, Mount Aspiring/Tititea (3,033 meters) and many glaciers, it’s a beautiful place to explore.
Whether you’re tramping in the mountains, sailing on the lake, skiing fresh powder, rock climbing down the valley, or mountain biking after work, Wānaka was made for the adventurous.
In many ways, adventure here is much more down to earth than in Queenstown. The hikes can be really hard and often not easy to access. If you want nature, you chuck on your boots and walk to it.

4. Every season is amazing

One of my favorite things about living in Wanaka is that we have four distinct seasons. Granted, they are reversed from the northern hemisphere but you get used to it. Christmas in the middle of summer is actually awesome.
In autumn, everything turns red and gold. We have almost no native deciduous trees in New Zealand, and sadly, all of the natives were burned for farming once humans settled here. But because of all those farms, many other trees were introduced, like poplars and other old-school European trees. Also, there are tons of vineyards, so the landscape here pops with color come autumn (April). It’s one of the best places for fall foliage.

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We have two epic ski fields nearby and snowy mountains in winter. Spring turns the landscape into a rainbow of colors, and our summers are super hot and dry, where everyone hangs out by clear blue lakes. Perfection.

5. Hāwea is actually the best

Is it weird that one of my favorite parts of Wānaka is Hāwea? A little suburb of Wānaka, Lake Hāwea is just fifteen minutes down the road towards the West Coast on another magical alpine lake. Spoiler alert – Lake Hāwea beats Lake Wānaka. I will die on this hill. Clearer and quieter, it is colder, but it’s so relaxed and beautiful. Sometimes, I’m the only person on the beach, as far as I can see.

A decade ago, Hāwea was just a little collection of baches (holiday houses) and home to the hippier hippies of Wānaka. Artsy, quiet, and creative, it seemed so far away back then. Now, many of the paddocks are being developed and turning into those cookie-cutter neighborhoods, a little more “affordable” at around a million dollars. It’s where all of my friends have moved to and built houses.
I’ve lived in Hāwea for nearly two years now and love it. It is still really chill. We have a corner shop, and that’s about it. I take long walks daily and can easily stroll to my friends’ houses. In the summer I swim in the lake almost every day. It’s magic.
When I was working on a ship in the Arctic, I met a passenger who had an artist friend they met traveling living in Hāwea. They wrote him a letter and asked me to give it to him. I had no idea who he was. When I got home I posted the name of the person in our community Facebook group about it and found him to drop off the letter. Everyone loved the story.

6. Work doesn’t define you

Wānaka is the kind of place where the people who live here really want to be here. You have to really want it to afford it. It attracts really creative, interesting, chill, and outdoorsy people, all united by a love of nature. Without the job opportunities of big cities, people just take whatever work they can get to continue living in Wanaka, even for a little bit.

But what is so cool is that your passions and hobbies matter more than your job. Who you really are. No one really cares what your job is. I love that.
I will say making friends in Wānaka isn’t super easy. A transitory town by nature; if locals think you’re only here traveling or seasonally, they might not bother with you. Harsh, I know. But once you’re in, you’re in. And one of the best ways to meet likeminded people here is getting involved with the outdoorsy stuff. There’s so much of it.

7. Epic ski fields nearby

By and large, Wānaka is a ski town. Cardrona and Treble Cone are two of New Zealand’s most iconic ski fields, and they are both next to Wānaka. Wintertime is just as busy as summertime here. It’s very much a resort town but not as super duper flashy, like Whistler. We also have great heliskiing too.

We’re old school here and proud of it. There aren’t any big gondolas to carry you up to the top of the mountain. You have to drive up dirt roads to reach the ski fields, and there are only a few chairlifts at each. But it’s so amazing. Above the alpine layer, we have no trees, so the views out are spectacular. Also, surprisingly, we have the calmest weather in winter. Not a lot of wind. We get plenty of bluebird calm days in the sunshine.
Wānaka in the wintertime is really just perfect.

8. It’s close to all the best spots

One of the best parts of living in Wanaka is not just what’s around town but the fact that it’s so central to some of the best areas. Just over the hill, you’ve got the bigger hub of Queenstown with the main airport, plenty of single men, and, most importantly, Kmart.

In addition to being surrounded by national parks, wine country around Central Otago is less than an hour’s drive away from Wānaka, with some of the best pinot noir around. Clyde, Cromwell, and Alexandra are easy to get to. We have two great ski fields within an easy drive, and Cardrona and Arrowtown are both cute stops on the way over the Crown Range to Queenstown.
The coast is only a few hours away, with most of us either bopping down to the Catlins or Riverton or heading over to the west coast for some sea air. Dunedin, the main city for our region, is three hours away.

9. It’s super cute and quirky

While development in Wānaka is booming, the great local haunts endure. Full of charm, history, and super quirky, they’re the places that make so many of us fall in love with living in Wanaka.

We have a huge fence covered in bras down the road at Cardrona. Not much more to it than that. The Cardrona Bra Fence has been going strong for decades, though occasionally pissing off locals enough that they rip them all off during the night only for them to reappear quickly.
Our local cinema, Cinema Paradiso, has comfy chairs, couches, and even a convertible car for watching the latest films. During intermission, they also serve freshly baked cookies. Puzzling World is a weird and beloved local attraction filled with optical illusions, deceptively hard mazes, and other deceptively hard puzzles. We also have a toy museum.
Long live small, eccentric towns!

10. The clearest night skies

Finally, one of my favorite things about living in Wanaka has to be our clear night skies. Still remote compared to the rest of the world, we have little light pollution in and around Wānaka. This means that on clear nights, the stars are incredible—even in town.

You can step outside your home at night and see the Milky Way. And if you’re lucky, we often have the aurora or Southern Lights dancing on the horizon.
Well damn. Writing this just made me fall in love with Wānaka all over again!
Written by Liz and was published on April 2, 2024 in Confessions, Destinations, Get Inspired, Moving Abroad, New Zealand

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About the author

Liz

Hi, I'm Liz, and I got my first taste for traveling when I was 16 years old. On my own, 10 years and 50 something countries later, my wanderlust has only grown and the list of countries I want to visit longer.

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