Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 134

So another week of work over and the prospect of my Tuesday / Wednesday weekend loomed ahead. As usual I was looking for something of interest to do and after talking to (the now swiftly departed on a whim) Jeff a few days before about the subject, I decided that Mount Cook could be a good plan. After looking up the weather advice on Tuesday for a trip on Wednesday, I decided it was definitely a good plan. Mount Cook is a strange beasty which only uncovers itself on rare occasions. Indeed, I’d spoken to a fellow at one point in the north island who said he’d stayed at Mount Cook for a whole week, during which time he’d seen nothing but cloud. Being the highest thing in an area bombarded with moist weather moving in ... read more

I bit the bullet and got a Ford transit from appollo at 65 dollars a day excellent I roughed it in Australia in a shit van for three months and was fortunate to sell it Lots of people here seem to be getting stuck with Vans 65 may seem a lot to people on a budget but I'm travelling with my girl so its half the beds excellent totoally self sufficient got a shower toilet etc...... False ecconomy buying a van and doing the kiwi experience 65 dollars for a mobile home well worth it you only need four weeks in NZ and thats quite long too Excellwent place but 4 weeks is ample... read more

Queenstown is very cool -- in more ways than one. First of all, the temperature is a lot lower than we had thought it was going to be. I guess we couldn't convert celsius into fahrenheit, but it's been quite cool here. The first day we arrived, it was raining and we felt cold in our jackets with sweatshirts underneath. Our first day we wandered around the town and were frozen! However the weather has been pretty good since (though it's raining today) and we've been able to explore and enjoy this city. Upon our arrival, Whit and Andrea (Whit's friend) picked us up from the airport and helped us check into our hostel. We've been staying at Deco Backpackers, just a short walk from downtown Queenstown. It's been a cool place, but we learned that ... read more

Hi again folks. Fresh on the back of my wander up to the top of Queenstown Hill last week, my days off this week were to be filled with a run of the Routeburn Track. However on Brain and Jeff’s return from their doing it reports of such a feat were not positive. In fact Jeff’s words were ‘…dude, that would be reallllly difficult, I’m not kidding..’, possibly with a bit more Anglo-Saxon included. Consequently the original plan was ditched and so I used my day off on Tuesday to find a more realistic activity. After a ponder around the local DOC (Dept. of Conservation) office in town, I finally decided on tackling Ben Lomand, a 1754m peak rising up to the left hand side of Queenstown. As I’m writing (the day after I did it) ... read more

I spent the day with Hiromi - we walked around town for much of it and generally chilled out! We made Okinomiyaki for dinner, Japanese pancakes with (in our case) Cabbage, mushrooms and bacon in them, and topped with the (non authentic!) mayo and brown sauce.... read more