Our drive to Lake Wanaka is peppered with four colorful stops.

Spoon (our Stray bus driver) pulls over at this coastal lookout so we can admire the shoreline.

Next we stop at a beach to search for pieces of jade. While the odds are against us, every once in awhile someone on the Stray bus gets lucky and picks up a free piece of this semi-precious stone.

Spoiler alert: our group walks away jade-free. At least the beach is pretty.

I climb that water tower for sweeping views of the shore.

Next we drive inland and pull over to photograph mountains in the distance.

Our last stop before Lake Wanaka is the Blue Pools. Have you ever seen that deep turquoise color in a river before?

We skip stones over the glassy blue surface.

There’s a field of cairns marking the way back to the car park.

Not bad at all for a day spent mostly on the bus. Next stop: Lake Wanaka.