Queenstown and the sounds

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On the drive down to Queenstown, we had some stunning views driving through the Lindis Pass, Lake Dunstan, Lake Hayes and the Gibbston Valley - where we stopped at Waitiri Creek and sampled some of their wines. During our drive the speakers on the van broke, so we decided to replace them the following day and headed to a car garage and we then organised a radio mechanic to come and fit them. In the mean time, whilst we waited for all of this to sort itself out, Jonny and I headed up on Gondola and went on the Luge and walked around the top of the hill and admired the views overlooking Lake Wakatipu.

The following day we decided to do an adrenaline activity that neither of us had done before, so white water body boarding down the Kawara river for 7Km it was then! It was quite good fun, but when we came to the grade 4 rapid part muggins here decided she would try and ride the waves rather than, as instructed, dive them! It meant that I ended up with lungfulls of water and coughing and spluttering like a drowned rat! That evening Jonny and I went out on the town for a few drinks (we'd been given lots of 2-4-1 vouchers) and met up with some of the people from the white water boarding.

The next day with a little hangover we had quite a long drive to Manapouri - the entrance to the Fjordland area of New Zealand. We had some stunning views of Lake Wakatipu and the Remakables, saw a vintage steam train return to its station at Kingston and we tried to rough camp at a place called Frasers Beach, but got moved on by the parking attendant at 11.00pm so ended up at the entrance to a farmers field 7km out of town. In Manapouri we arranged a triple trip for the next few days with a company called Real Journeys which included a trip around Doubtful and Milford Sound and a trip to the Glow worm caves at Te Anau. That evening we also did a beach walk along tFrasers Beach at the edge of Lake Manapouri and the old coach trail.

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Photos

The Kawara River
Our rapids were a little further up stream