Queenstown!!

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Have arrived in Queenstown after days and days of driving. Queenstown is amazing. Loads of boarder type people milling around, shops selling mulled wine by the bucket and of course the Mountains.

After finding our feet in our new home, we can see The Remarkables just across the lake. Everyday, I become more and more like the local MET office and find myself measuring the snow on the peaks of the Mountains, cloud coverage and general drops in temperature. I am on constant snow watch.

Strangely the whole town seems geared up for Christmas, with some shops with fairy lights and snowflakes in the window. I am very confused, and also itching to rent out Home Alone 2 and Muppet Christmas Carol.

Managed to get myself up Coronet Peak and onto a Snowboard. With our housemates egging us to go up the learner slope and onto a magic carpet before having a lesson, it was made it much more interesting having to get down it again. Managed to (sort of) stand up, even though everytime you try to stand, the board wants to slide out from under you, and then very (un)gracefully slip slide down the mountain. After two hour lesson, I thought I would be able to get the hang of it all and slip slide down the mountain on your heal edge, and then turn around onto your toes and be a "falling leaf" backwards. Wrong. Very difficult, and for some reason I always ended up in the one patch of icey badness. After what felt like a thousand sit ups, cracked knees and a sore bum, it was the end of the mountain fun. By the time I got home, I couldn't actually move my body and my knees had swollen up to an unnatural size. Brilliant. Snowboarding rocks.

The apres ski is quality, and lots of bars to chose from. We watched the All Blacks thrash England, and I was slightly relieved that I had sold my tickets before I left, which made it smart a little less.

Living in Fernhill, about 30 minutes (steep uphill) walk from the town centre. The views are priceless, and sitting with the log fire on, looking out at the mountains is breathtaking. I couldn't tell you how many times I have thought, thank god I'm not working in an office in London right now.

Loads of walking tracks around our house through the woods. We went on one yesterday which took about three hours, but the summit was great, and had lovely views over the lake. Will climb up Ben Lomond soon which takes about 6 hours or so, but waiting for the snow to fall, just to make it that bit more difficult.

Queenstown so far is amazing, and will not disappoint. Now just planning the skydiving, shotover jets and the canon swings for the full experience.

Photos to be uploaded soon.

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