Puzzling World

Wānaka (Māori pronunciation: [ˈwaːnaka]) is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. At the southern end of Lake Wānaka, it is at the start of the Clutha River and is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. Wānaka is primarily a resort town with both summer and winter seasons. Its economy is based on the many outdoor opportunities this offers. Historically, Māori visited the Wānaka area to hunt and fish in summer, or on their way to seek pounamu (greenstone) on the West Coast. Ngāi Tahu abandoned their seasonal camps after a raid by a North Island war party in 1836. The current town was founded as Pembroke during the gold rush of the 19th century, and renamed to Wanaka in 1940. Along with the rest of the Queenstown-Lakes District, Wānaka is growing rapidly, with the population increasing by 50% between 2005 and 2015.

Mount Aspiring College is a state coeducational secondary school in Wānaka, New Zealand. It was founded in 1986 after the division of Wānaka Area School into separate primary and secondary schools. The college, though normally a day school, operates a hostel beside the school grounds for 30 Year 13 students.

Albert Town is located to the east of Wānaka in Otago, New Zealand. Until recently only a farming settlement, the population boom in this area has led to much new development. The confluence of the Clutha and Hāwea Rivers is located here. The town was named after Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Albert Town was formerly called Newcastle.

That Wānaka Tree, also known as the That Wānaka Willow, is the nickname of a willow tree located at the southern end of Lake Wānaka in the Otago region of New Zealand. The tree grows alone in the water and is a popular destination for tourists to take Instagram photos.

Bull Island is an island in Lake Wānaka of Otago, New Zealand.

The National Transport and Toy Museum in Wānaka, New Zealand is one of the largest private collections in the Southern Hemisphere and displays a large collection of items including over 650 vehicles, 23 aircraft and 100,000 toys plus thousands of miscellaneous items. Owned and operated by one family, the museum is located adjacent to the Wānaka Airport on State Highway 6. The main building houses part of the toy collection, notably a very large collection of Star Wars toys and memorabilia, a display of Barbie dolls through the decades, classic wooden and metal toys, as well as teddy bears and porcelain dolls. A toy shop at the entrance also sells a range of modern toys and models. The collections of vehicles and aircraft are on display in several large hangars. The hangars include a range of vehicles including cars, aircraft, airport ground support, construction vehicles, farm implements, farm tractors, fire engines, military vehicles, motorbikes, scooters and mopeds, pickups, trucks, horse-drawn vehicles, marine vehicles, and a range of additional miscellaneous vehicles. Outside of the buildings, the displays continue with machinery in various states of restoration, such as a long row of tractors and farming machinery. The museum has indoor and outdoor playing areas with adult-sized pedal cars, a play area and a range anti-aircraft guns that can be sat and moved by visitors.

The New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum was an aerospace museum located at Wānaka Airport on New Zealand's South Island. It closed in March 2011 (2011-03) and was replaced in December 2011 by the Warbirds & Wheels museum of military aircraft as well as classic and vintage automobiles and motorcycles. The museum was founded by Sir Tim Wallis and housed in a new building at the Wānaka Airport. It was opened in 1993 (1993) by retired Group Captain Colin Gray. Its first curator was Ian Brodie. In 1996 museum became one of the first aerospace museums on the internet. The museum includes the Alpine Fighter Collection, dedicated to New Zealand's fighters during World War II. The museum was funded, in part, by grants from the Community Trust of Otago.

Warbirds & Wheels in Wānaka, New Zealand was a museum displaying military aircraft and early 20th century classic and vintage automobiles and motorcycles. It opened in 2011 and operated for ten years from premises located at Wānaka Airport on State Highway 6. The museum was opened in December 2011 under an initiative by the Warbirds Over Wanaka Community Trust and three local businessmen to replace the former New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum. After the death of one of the owners and the drop in international tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum closed in September 2021.

Wānaka Airport (IATA: WKA, ICAO: NZWF) is an airport serving the rural town of Wānaka in Otago, New Zealand. The airport currently has scheduled commercial flights from one airline, SoundsAir, with Air New Zealand having ceased flights to the airport in 2013. It largely serves as a base for scenic and charter flights to destinations such as Milford Sound and Mount Aspiring National Park. The airport is located beside State Highway 6, on a plateau above the small village of Luggate, and is 10 km south-east of Wānaka township. It was originally a private airstrip owned by Tim Wallis, but in 1985 it became the main commercial airport for Wānaka, replacing Mount Iron Aerodrome. The Warbirds over Wanaka air show has been held biennially at the airport since 1988, regularly attracting crowds of more than 50,000 people. Other attractions, including the National Transport and Toy Museum and the Warbirds & Wheels Museum, are also located at the airport.

Warbirds over Wanaka is a biennial air show in Wānaka, held on the Easter weekend of even-numbered years since 1988. It is held at Wānaka Airport, 10 km south-east of Wānaka, in the southern South Island of New Zealand. Initially conceived by New Zealand live deer recovery pioneer, Sir Tim Wallis, as a show for him to display his collection of World War II aircraft, the event has grown into a major institution. Roads are closed and traffic is detoured around the area during the weekend. Hotels, motels and backpackers around Wānaka are usually booked well in advance (two years ahead). Accommodation is impossible to find if one does not have a booking. A large contingent of historic and contemporary aircraft of note from all over New Zealand and the world converges on Wānaka each second Easter for the air show. Numerous aviation personalities from all over the world attend Warbirds over Wanaka, Gen Chuck Yeager and Buzz Aldrin being the most notable of recent times. The mainstays of the display have traditionally been the aircraft from Sir Tim's Alpine Fighter Collection, based at the New Zealand Fighter Pilots' Museum. However, this collection is currently (2006) in the process of being broken up. A new charitable trust has been established to run the event in the future. At Easter on the alternate (odd) years a similar air show is held at Omaka air field in Blenheim in the northern South Island, under the title of Classic Fighters. Its emphasis is on World War I aircraft including as many as seven Fokker Dr.I triplanes. Also on alternate (odd) years Wings over Wairarapa airshow is held at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton, in the North Island. It is traditional for RNZAF aircraft heading to Wānaka for the airshow to perform aerial displays over the cities of Christchurch and Dunedin on their journey to the show.

Stevensons Island (Te Peka Karara) is a small 65-hectare (160-acre) island in the Stevensons Arm section of Lake Wānaka, New Zealand. There are two small islets close to the south end of the island. Buff weka were introduced to Stevensons Island in 2002 from the Chatham Islands. In 2009 they were removed due to a rabbit outbreak that attracted predators which killed four birds. They were then reintroduced in 2013.

The Crown Range is a mountain range that lies to the east of the Wakatipu Basin in Otago, New Zealand. It is noted for two features, the Cardrona Alpine Resort, on the slopes of the 1900 metre Mount Cardrona, and a highway, known as the Crown Range Road (formerly State Highway 89), which winds steeply between Arrow Junction, just south of Arrowtown, and Wānaka to the north. Travelling from Arrowtown towards Wānaka, the Crown Range Road starts at the bottom of the "zig zag". This steep and winding section climbs to the Crown Terrace, a large flat and fertile area capable of growing grain crops. To the left, Glencoe Road leads to Glencoe Station, the large high country station behind Arrowtown. At the end of the Crown Terrace is the Eastburn Road to Eastburn Station, which runs from the Glencoe boundary almost to Cardrona. Just past the Eastburn Road the road twists and climbs up to the Crown Saddle, where a bronze plaque at the vista point claims that this historic summit, at 1076 m (3530 ft) is the highest sealed road in New Zealand. Officially it is the highest sealed local road and the highest sealed pass or through road, 2m higher than the Desert Road summit on State Highway 1 in the North Island.Eastburn Station has provided a number of viewing areas. The distant views down and over Lake Hayes, Arrowtown and the airport to Queenstown are stunning. From the Crown Saddle the road follows the Cardrona creek which becomes the Cardrona River flowing down the iconic snow tussock valley until it opens out at the small settlement of Cardrona. The area was heavily populated during the Central Otago goldrush of the 1860s, the town of Cardrona, now little more than a dot on the map, briefly having a population of several thousand prospectors. There are visible remains of gold prospecting beside the Crown Range Road over the saddle on the west bank opposite the East Burn Stream two miles over the saddle, also six miles below the saddle on the east bank. In 2001, the last section of the Crown Range Road was sealed by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.