Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 132

Slept in and almost missed my bus out of Franz Josef, not my fault, no one in room again to wake me, anyways we got stuck behind a bus in a snowstorm, as you'd expect instead of throwing snowballs I helped Crunch (driver) put our snowchains on. More driving through highly attractive south island moutainville. Came across Lake Wanaka which had me choking at it's rugged beauty. Wanaka was a hit, esp the hotel, not a hostel a hotel, ensuit, tv in room, proper comfy beds with thick duvets. Sat by a big fire and watched 'top gun' on dvd, can't afford to be a party animal all the time. Had an early one but was awoken at 3am when the other guys came back, one of the girls got into my bed with me (she ... read more

Well, this weeks days off have been the best for a long time. Lots of things for young Marc to do and lots of happy Claire and Marc times for you to read about. After wangling days off work and getting shifts to fit in with my hectic schedule it was all go for darting on rivers, gardening my socks off and ‘um bongoing‘ queenstown to bits. Late on Tuesday last at work I was muchly happy to get a phone call from Claire to say that she’d been able to sweet talk a lovely man named Mick from Dart River Safaris to give us a free ride the following day. Proper jet boat stuff, but with less of the death defying antics that some of the companies offer. More of a scenic cruise with lunch, ... read more

It was well worth paying the extra dollars for the short flight from Christchurch to queenstown (1hr). The descent was perhaps the most spectacular i've ever experienced. I've landed in Cape Town, Sydney, Mexico City, New York - to name but a few, but I think Queenstown takes the best landing title. From the airport, and straight to the "Last Resort" hostel - but don't let the name fool you. It feels more like a home than a hostel, and Coco is a most welcoming host. According to the lonely planet, Queenstown has a population of 7500, however i thknk this swells considerably during the ski season. It seems to populated with more Irish and Brits than Kiwis! My new Irish pals at the hostel explained that there were very few decent flats/houses in town, and ... read more

Yesterday was, perhaps, the longest day of my life. This is probably because I didn't get to bed until 3 am the night before and we all were awake by 5 am. At 6 we left Queenstown for Milford Sound. The scenery was beautiful, but it was such a long bus ride-4 hours. When we got to the sound we all got on a large sight seeing ship. The cruise through the sound was beautiful. It took us down towards the waterfall and back. We were able to see dolphins and seals. Sadly our visit only lasted an hour and then it was back to the bus we went. The view home was great, of course. It seemed so much longer though. We stopped at a gorge, but I was feeling a bit gross to ... read more

Today was Dart River day. I had no idea what we were going to do today. All I had heard was that we would go on a hike and a nice boat ride down the river. It was a little bit different than what I expected. We took a bus through the mountains to get to our destination. It took a bit longer to get there than normal because of some rock slides in the road that needed to be cleared away. After some maneuvering we made it to Glenorchy, a little town outside Queenstown. It was so small, that really the Dart River Expedition Center is the highlight of town. When we got there we were split into two groups. Our group was to go on the river first then the hike. Each person ... read more