Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

DN-QN After a BBQ breakfast at Uncle Marks, we looked to the overcast sky hoping for a chance to break through the mountains to Queenstown. Around midday we piled into his 4x4 and went for a tour around Dunedin, making a quick stop at Baldwin St before heading over to the airport. After waving goodbye to our good friend Chris Moss who decided to fly Air NZ back to wellington, we jumped into the planes and got airborne. Beautiful scenery along the valleys was sadly covered by cloud which we continued to dodge. Finally making it to Alexandra where the cloud had lifted, we decided to head straight into Queenstown instead of our original plan of heading via Wanaka. After a phone call to Queenstown Tower and reading through the CAA GAP publication booklet "In Out ... read more

The coach duly arrived and we loaded our 1 bag into the bowels of it. A 20 minute journey took us to the shores of Lake Manapouri where we checked in and picked up our "Deluxe Hamper Lunch" which was actually a small cardboard box but very nice all the same. The lake cruiser then took us at some speed over the water to where we were dropped off to cross Wilmot Pass over to Doubtful Sound. The weather was a bit iffy but not too bad at this point. A coach then took us over the mountain (on unpaved roads!) to the other side stopping off for some dramatic pictures (which I'll load at the weekend so don't forget to check back blog followers!) We then joined a very impressive 3 masted schooner for our ... read more

Wir stehen mal wieder bei Regen auf, die Stimmung steigt ;) Auf gehts nach Wanaka, ein wunderschöner Ort am See aber ausser der Puzzleworld gibts da jetzt auch nichts weltbewegend spannendes ;) also gehts weiter nach Queenstown. Erstmal schauen wir uns die älteste Bungyjumpbrücke der Welt an!! und dann geht es weiter in Richtung Ortsmitte. Mit der Gondel fahren wir auf den Mitre Peak und leider wurden die Bilder nicht so gut, wegen zu viel Nebels. Dann gehts wieder runter und mal eine kurze Entspannungspause, ein kleiner Stadtbummel in Queenstown. In Queenstown habe ich wohl den besten Burger meines Lebens gegessen!!! Vielleicht lag es aber auch daran, dass nach 5 Tagen selber kochen, das heisst Reis und Nudeln, mal wieder etwas mit mehr Geschmack einfach richtig richtig gut geschmeckt hat ;) Dann gings weiter nach Te ... read more

Originally 23rd January 2011 We don't do much in Queenstown. It feels a bit manufactured; as though it is the set of a film, or a postcard come to life, it is so pretty. A tiny plaza of grass, designated to be the 'Village Green' encourages this feeling; it's as though somebody somewhere just decided that Queenstown needed a village green. Hotels, motels, guesthouses, B&Bs and amiable little holiday homes suggestive of ski lodges are scattered all over the surrounding mountains. Weddings are a regular occurrence at the church opposite our hostel, but with no walls there is no privacy and we can watch proceedings from our balcony. This time of year, 'bogans' from southern parts circle the town centre in American muscle cars shouting at people through open windows. Walking around, the streets are claustrophobic ... read more

Hellooo from Quenstown! We've been here for nearly 4 days now & are sad to have to leave today - amazing place! It's a ski village pretty much (probably why we love it so much!) and has a whole load of shops, bars, etc. plus all the adrenaline stuff too! As promised, we did our skydive yesterday - best thing ever! Went up to 12,000 ft attached to our 'jump-masters' (massive blokes so we felt pretty safe lol!), felt pretty high as the tiny plane kept climbing up until the red light went off, the door opened and people started dropping out! Sitting with your whole body dangling out the edge of the plane was pretty scary, and the first drop was awesome! I screamed (a lot I think!) but apparently because of the altitude my ... read more

The answer? Meet a group of 7 South African rugby fans on the ferry from Wellington to Picton who have a van, and accept their offer to give you a lift to Christchurch. When Steven, JJ, Johno, Deon, Neill, Stuart, and Dedrick came into our lives, early Monday morning before boarding the ferry, we thought they were a bunch of rowdy, hungover, rugby boys (well, they kind of are). But what we didn't know is that they would become our family for the next week of our lives. They ended up sitting next to us on board, as we had picked the best seats in the "movie theater" section of the boat. We made small talk about our travels in NZ, and it wasn't long before we realized we were both heading to Christchurch that day ... read more

Morning all! We arrived in Queenstown late on Sunday evening after a pretty incredible drive from Dunedin. I feel like we're starting to repeat ourselves with how amazing the scenery and views are; but i defy anyone on their first or even a hundredth visit to New Zealand to be any different, simply put its breathtaking. We parked the van up by a lake in a much more busy looking town than either Christchurch or Dunedin has looked so far, (we've since learnt that it holds more bars per capita than anywhere in New Zealand). we found an awesome little Irish bar and proceeded to spend an enjoyable hour drinking guiness and watching wales lose, always a favorite past time of mine. The next part of this blog will be given over to explaining in accurate ... read more

Aloooooo!!!! Ai meu deus!! Novamente deixamos o blog respirar por um tempo enquanto as experiências novas não vinham para podermos escrever sobre assuntos interessantes!!! E eis que agora temos um bocado para compartilhar com vocês!!! Bom no último post falamos da Trip do Greg, Rafa e Curi pela ilha sul e no anterior sobre a minha vida em Wellington e um pouco da minha chegada em Queenstown. Nesse post vou falar como foi viver nessa cidade e da minha viagem pela ilha sul!! Queenstown Cheguei na cidade no meio de Maio com a Maria e o meu irmão tinha acabado de partir pra Auckland onde pegaria o vôo pra Londres. O Curi ainda estava lá e passamos uns 3 dias trocando idéia a respeito da viagem deles, dos seus planos e o que tinha acontecido para ... read more