Authenticity has a lot of currency these days and Wanaka might just be New Zealand's reserve bank, as Hamish MacLean finds out. Whether it is skiing or world-class wines that you are after, it is the people who provide them that will make a visit worthwhile.
There are so many reasons to love spring.
There are the colours of spring, the longer days, the warmer nights, there is spring fever ... and best of all, there is spring skiing.
Cardrona Alpine Resort has been a spring getaway this year since late August and winter closing day on October 11 is just around the corner.
Nearby Wanaka offers a relaxed mountain lifestyle to its residents but to visitors it is welcoming and warm, and feels like it could be a home away from home.
The balance between world-class sophistication and comfortable small-town charm still exists.
When tourists flock to world-class destinations, far too often the people that support them get lost in the pursuit of growth; far too often they lose the feel of the community that gives them a sense of place.
In Wanaka, the people that call the place home, and how they sparkle, is just as important as the shimmering snow-capped peaks.
Up at Cardrona the staff all act like it's the best day of their lives and for a lot of them, it doesn't look like they're acting.
It rubs off on everyone: spring skiing 60-year-olds mingle with 6-year-olds, the 20-somethings can act like they're ... 20-somethings, and everybody can believe they are the hippest people on the planet. And while they are up above everyone else, they might be right.
Apres ski, or for a less physical challenge, you can bop around the Wanaka countryside in a 600cc two-cylinder Citroen 2CV with tour guide Deane Weastell, of Funny French Cars. Mr Weastell and wife Julie Nicholson grew their business out of their love for touring in Citroens.
Far too tall for his tiny car, Mr Weastell makes a tour of Wanaka's boutique wineries feel you are getting an inside scoop.
''The car is usually a laugh at the start,'' he says.
''As soon as you pull up with the car, people go, 'Oh, what?' They start laughing.''
But the old classic rattles and hums along the road and getting around between vineyards really is half the fun.
At former UK geologists Ian Percy and Fiona Aitken's Aitken's Folly vineyard, take a look around 3ha of chardonnay and pinot noir before taking a sip of the goods at an informal cellar door where guests have written their praises on the walls.
The wine is ''grown in Wanaka and it's made in Wanaka as well'', Ms Aitken says.
''It's that 'full circle'; it was something that was important to us.
''We're huge fans of chardonnay, and chardonnay has taken a real battering over the 25 years that I've been drinking it,'' Ms Aitken says.
''It's gone from breaking into the world, really popular, to down, down, down. You can't even force people to drink it.
''There has been a lot of bad chardonnay in the world, but we're trying to make good chardonnay and make it the best that it can be.''
Dr John Harris and Dr Marilyn Duxson's kitchen serves as the cellar door at their Maori Point vineyard.
They produce a variety of styles, including Gold Digger, a prosecco-style naturally sparkling pinot gris, but picking a favourite would be like choosing a favourite child, Dr Duxson laughs.
''One day this is your favourite, then the next day that's your favourite, depending on who's behaving at the time.''
All that wine deserves some great food, and salmon, paua and pork belly cooked in an oak barrel at Wild Earth Wines hits the spot.
Californian native and Wild Earth Wines owner Quintin Quider knows he has hit on something special with his barrel-cooked food.
''You can't replicate that anywhere.
''A friend of mine came up with the concept nine years ago; we both built one.''
Mr Quider converted his to gas four years later and has been refining the design over the past five years.
As evening approaches, a glass of Bannock Brae Barrel Selection Pinot Noir 2011 at Crawford and Catherine Brown's Bannock Brae Estate is a magnificent end to a day sampling Wanaka's delights.
The 2011 was ''nicely rounding off just now'', Mrs Brown says.
''... It's quite luscious.''
• The writer visited and stayed in Wanaka courtesy of Lake Wanaka Tourism.
