Blogs from Otago, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 40

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Dunedin August 29th 2004

Hey Guys, Just a quick hello, how are you message from home before I leave, to let you know how I'm planning on updating you all. (ps Thanks for the great travel diary idea tiff, hopefully mine will be as cool to read as yours.....;o)) It's pretty exciting realising that departure is so close! A little scary too, but not too much! Just to remind you all....I'm off to Lyon tomorrow, via Chch, Auckland, LA and Frankfurt....all in all about 38 hours of airports and planes....sigh. Well lots of packing and last minute organisation to do here, of course, Sending masses of love and hugs to you all, hoping everyone is well and happy, I'll email from France when I get a chance! Any emails will be gladly recieved at my end, I'm sure I'll be missing ... read more

A Remarkable Fall

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Queenstown August 2nd 2004

vikki5678

After deliberation, I decided to go back to the Remarkables for another days' skiing. I had enjoyed the first day so much and my skiing had come on heaps in a short space of time so I hired all the gear again and headed up the mountain. At the end of my last lesson the instructor said I was about a level 3B so I went along for my morning lesson and stood in the 3B line. We headed straight up the hill and went for a test-run to make sure all the 3As & Bs had assigned themselves to the correct ability group. Well I had managed to forget almost everything from the previous days skiing and was tkaing it a little too slowly for the 3B group and I was demoted :( This must ... read more

Did it for the first time on snow!!

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Queenstown July 29th 2004

The Remarkables

vikki5678

It was an 8am start on the ski shuttle to the 'Remarkables' ski area - apparently in the summer months they filmed some scenes for LOTR here. This mountain range is one of the few that runs North-South. It was a little cloudy but the journey up the hill gave me a perfect view of Queenstown and the surrounding area. The Remarkables ski area is the highest in altitude in the region and after 13,5km of winding twisting steep and at times very scary paths in the big bus I was glad to get my feet on steady ground / snow. But almost immediately I was carried in wave of people onto a less stable surface!As a novice skier and a snow virgin I am not accustomed too the ski/board jargon - what the heck is ... read more

Rest Day

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Queenstown July 28th 2004

Minus Five

vikki5678

I spent the morning recovering from the party the night before. We had all gone out to the Red Rock to meet up with other Kiwi Experience passengers and drivers past and present. Queenstown is normally the point in the trip where people split up and do their own thing or carry on with the tour so we were promissed a party - which is exactly what we got!! A few of us braved the cold in order to experience the Minus 5 bar, where everything is made of ice including the glasses. The half hour in the bar wearing thick 'parka' style jackets and furry booties and drinking cocktails was great fun, the maximum time you are aloud to stay is half an hour, but my warm scottish blood could easily have lasted another 30min. When ... read more

New Zealands Scottish City

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Dunedin January 11th 2003

The Train Station

Ali

Dunedin is New Zealand's Scottish city, Christchurch was founded by English Christians and Scottish Christians founded Dunedin. Today Dunedin is one of the most important university towns in New Zealand, home of some really nice architecture, and the site of New Zealand's largest chocolate factory. We stayed in the city centre Nomad backpackers, not as nice as the little hostels out in the small towns but a good location for going out and seeing the city. Laura and I drank a bottle of wine each and went out for a really great evening at the Raa Bar. The next day we had two activities first the chocolate factory tour - Cadbury's World then the Speight's Brewery tour. Cadbury's World Dunedin was pretty interesting, lots of detail on the history of chocolate, from Central America and Mexico ... read more

Queenstown

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Otago » Queenstown January 3rd 2003

Queenstown

Ali

Clare offered me a lift to Te Anua, she had been lent a car from a friend in Christchurch. We got just past Queenstown and it broke down. All power from the engine went and it wouldn’t start. Due to not being able to buy vouchers in New Zealand for her phone Clare was only able to text message to ask her friend how the AA works over here. Her friend had assured her that the AA covered the car. We spent a couple of relaxed hours sunbathing and chatting whilst text messages went back and forth. The final message arrived, problem with the policy, not covered. We hitched back to Queenstown, found a telephone and Clare phoned her friend, he had just called a tow company and the vehicle was about to be recovered. Clare ... read more

Brief history of New Zealand

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year...more history

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