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Published: October 27th 2008
So no one told us it was going to be so bloody freezing in New Zealand! We are here a week already and we are only just warming up. Some bloke returning his van in the campervan hire place kindly give us some blankets saying "it can get cold out there". D'ya think?! Its jaysus freezing! We've been sleeping with the duvet we got with Ruby (our campervan), our sleeping bags and the kindly donated blankets and its still jaysus freezing!!
But enough whinging, apart from the temperature, New Zealand absolutely rocks. It is completely stunning. We are in South Island at the mo, spending most of our time here, before heading up to North Island. We started in Christchurch and made our way to Lake Tepako, Mount Cook Village, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Lake Mavora (I think its called) and now we are in Wanaka. That's well over 1000km so far. The internet isnt cooperating very well at the moment so I'll try to be brief!
South Island is a stunning land of snow-capped mountains, lake-filled valleys and rolling green hills. And lots of sheep. Its everything Id ever heard it was and more. We've been having ourselves a
great time travelling around in Ruby, getting well into the camping lark - going for "tramps" (that's treks/hikes in Kiwi) with our home made cheese & mustard sangers and cooking breakfast and dinner for ourselves everynight. We've climbed Mount John overlooking Lake Tekapo, and then visited Mount John observatory at midnight where we star-gazed - Ive never seen so many stars. This is big sky country. There are all sorts of reasons for it, but I wont go into them here - far too scientific! We've gone jet-boating in Shotover Canyon (amazing 360 degree turns at high speed in what is basically a giant jetski), moutain biking and ice-skating - all in the same day in Queenstown. Well, I went ice-skating, Si just watched and laughed. I chickened out of paragliding after completely cacking myself just by going up the gondola to the look-out view over the city. Moving heights and me are not friends. I completely fell in love with Queenstown. Its just gorgeous. I could completely move here! Id have to develop a serious tolerance for the cold first though. After QT, we went to Milford Sound and did a nature encounter cruise and then camped in the
back of beyond on the way back - the view from teh back of van was just fantastic! Tomorrow we are doing the Rob Roy Glacier track in Mount Aspiring National Park. They know how to name things here!
Anyway, enough waffling, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
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Queenstown from above
