The Hammer & Nail Bakery & Cafe sits at 3 Cliff Wilson Street in central Wānaka, holding a 4.3 rating from 62 Google reviews, with its latest news posted on its Facebook page.
Bakeries run to the rhythm of the oven rather than an all-day menu: loaves and pastries come out through the morning, and the popular things are often gone by mid-afternoon. When sizing up a new one, watch which trays empty first, since that tells you what is genuinely good, and ask at the counter what came out of the oven that morning. In a lake town that swells with summer visitors, going early is the local habit worth copying.
A short walk from the lakefront, it makes an easy stop on a town-centre stroll, and the Facebook page will show what has been baking lately.