The community festival closed last night with the Rugby World Cup final played on a big screen in Pembroke Park, wrapping up several days of events, including the Passion for Fashion show, a two-day wine and food festival, a pet parade, pie eating contest, wheelie bin races, crate stacking competition and a street parade and party on Friday night.
Crowd favourites, the Wanaka Rotary duck race, the polar plunge and the Kahu Youth cardboard boat race attracted hundreds of spectators to the Wanaka lakefront yesterday morning.
Dozens of people - many in fancy dress - threw themselves off the wharf into the chilly water or paddled out to a buoy and back in their flimsy vessels.
Festival co-ordinator Laurel Morrison said this year's festival had undoubtedly been "bigger and better" than previous years.
"It's such a great atmosphere. Everybody's really relaxed and really friendly," Ms Morrison reported from day two of the wine and food festival yesterday.
"Maybe it's becoming a bit of a known thing now, for the festival to be on at Labour Weekend, so it feels like it will just grow and grow. It almost feels twice as big as last year and last year it felt twice as big as the year before."
