Blogs from Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Geo: -44.6987, 169.133Not sure how many more lakes and snow topped mountains we can stand...Wanaka is lovely, more relaxed than Queenstown, and just a bit warmer.We stopped at Arrowtown and the Bungy bridge on the way, then picked up some cheese and bread from the Cheesery - for lunch.Checked into another Lakeview holiday park, and went for a wander around town.Back to the camper for cuppa, cake, reading and blog updating.Home cooked chicken shnitzels and salads for dinner. ... read more

As the weatherman had forecast we awoke to 0C temperature although there was no frost. The sky though was again clear and the sun making an appearance an hour later than what we had been getting used to as daylight saving had kicked in at 2am this morning. Today is the day of the return of The North versus The South challenge with the Benvie’s representing the North and the Roughton’s, the South. This time though it is to be in a sport that you do not hear a lot about unless you live in Central Otago or perhaps have an absolute passion for that you would travel all the way from Auckland to Naseby, as apparently some people do, just to play it. The sport of course is curling. For the Northern representatives this will ... read more

Having made well over 100 reservations for hotels through www.booking.comover the past few years on the BBA V1 and V2 we can now get some really good deals with special discounts called ‘Genius Deals’(where available)and so we managed our room at Tanoa Aspen Hotel in Queenstown with its panoramic view of Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables mountain range. Our fears last night that a noisy group of Contiki Tour people might have disturbed our sleep when they came home from the clubs and bars of Queenstown at some ungodly hour of the morning were unfounded and we had a perfect sleep. We woke to the light coming up behind the mountains giving them a different perspective to how we viewed them yesterday afternoon when we arrived. We should have splashed out on breakfast in the hotel ... read more

After sorting out our gear, Lindsay and Neil headed off up the hill to bike the bottom end of the Roxburgh Gorge Track. Karilyn and I drove the cars down to Millers Flat where we left one at the Camping Ground and drove the other back to the Dam to be picked up later in the day. Since the men were not back to the Dam, we headed off up the hill too to go and meet them. It was too steep and bumpy to ride up so we pushed the bikes up instead until we got to the top car park and the beginning of the track. We biked for a bit until there was a steep zig zag downhill and decided that there wasn't a lot of point in doing that when we'd have ... read more

My initial plan was: do update about Hobbiton; do update about driving in NZ and post some of those funny sign-posts I photographed; do update about working at Punchbowl near Auckland, referencing to some of the adventures around Auckland. Then do updates about each day of travel of when I was doing this mad dash across the North Island to meet the ferry deadline (and why). Then my impressions of the South Island, when I was doing this slightly mad dash around it in order to get to Queenstown on time (and why). Then my experiences working in sleepy Roxburgh and neighbouring Ettrick. And of course stories about all the amazing people I've met! But somehow I keep delaying it. It doesn't help that my laptop regularly overheats when I view too many pictures (I mean ... read more