Jul 2006

After a restless night with very high winds we arrived in Te Anau.

After checking out Information we headed to the specially design local cinema where a movie about Fiordland (the region we were in - including Milford and Doubtful Sounds) is played. The movie was good, the guy who filmed it (its has no dialogue) flies his own helicopters and caught some awesome footage. I ended up buying the dvd believing it to be a good investment.

Since the weather hadn't cleared and showed no signs of getting any better we abandoned the idea of visiting Milford Sound (Mum deciding that she will just come back in Summer) and had lunch on the side of Lake Manapouri.

The afternoon was then spent once again crossing the island as we returned to the eastern coast and spent the night outside Dunedin.

The morning was spent shopping in the centre of Queenstown, its a very cute place and if it wasn't for the cold I could handle living there.

Dad, Tiff, Court and I took a trip up to Bob's Peak via the Gondolas. An awesome view of both Queenstown and The Remarkables. At the top, Courtney (the adrenaline junkie we have realised she is) had 2 luge rides which she seemed to love.

We then headed out of Queenstown towards Coronet Peak to visit the famous Shotover Canyon and take a trip on the Shotover Jet. Initally only Mum, Ebony and Courtney were going (Dad and Tiff would be sick and I hurt my back last week) but I decided I had come a long way and should brave it. It was a lot of fun and Mum thinks its the best thing she has done in NZ.

From the Queenstown region we headed south towards Te Anau with the hope that the weather might be clear enough to venture to Milford Sound and stayed the night just outside Te Anau.

Not a lot to say here, we spent the whole day skiing at Cardrona. Everyone but me took the beginner class and there is some video to watch there. I spent the day with some ladies from Brisbane (well Tugun and Hamilton but close enough) and had a lot of fun on the bigger slopes. I have some pictures of the awesome view from up there you can see Queenstown and almost Wanaka. Needless to say, Mum had her eyes shut again for the whole trip (1.5 hours each way) but she had a good day too.

A big thanks to Nanna, who we really have to thank for the oppurtunity to ski, we really enjoyed ourselves - and we will call soon, promise.

We have decided to leave the skiing at one day and will head away from Queenstown now. We hope to see more around Christchurch (in particular Hamner Springs) which we missed due to bad weather on our way though the first time.

We drove through Wanaka and headed towards Queenstown with a bypass to PuzzlingWorld. Once again, a place that is difficult to describe (esp when my family is yelling at me to hurry up and write) we had a lot of fun in there and it made a nice change to the mountains and scenery. Some very interesting rooms and a huge maze took up most of the morning.

From there we ventured to Queenstown with a stop to watch the bungy jumping over the Kawarau River.

Queenstown is a very cute little town, we did some shopping and booked skiing stuff at Cardrona for the next day before heading up to the nearest caravan park for the night.

It was only a short drive from where we had slept to Franz Joseph and the Franz Joseph Glacier.

We wandered around the town comparing heli-flight prices and eventually decided on a company that would give us a discount if more than one of us flew. Dad, Tiff, Court and I decided to fly, Mum and Eb thinking they couldn't handle the height.

Just before we paid though, Mum changed her mind and decided to join us. So the 5 of us flew up and over the Franz Joseph Glacier over a mountain range to the adjoining Fox Glacier and landed on the top. Then down Fox and back around to Franz Joseph. The experience was unbelievable and is almost impossible to describe. The glaciers are unlike anything I had ever seen before and the concept behind them is also incredible. You really have to see it to believe it...luckily for everyone else, we videotaped the whole thing...no commentary though cause the helicopter is too loud.

The rest of the day was spent driving down the coast to Haast and then inland to Lake Wanaka where we spent the night. We saw some cool ice formations on the side of the road too, where it was obviously cold enough to freeze runoff from the mountains.