Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 140

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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 26th 2006

Checked out and drove the short 2 hour journey to Queenstown. Picked up a hitchhiker, Christian from Germany, on the way. Hitching is fairly common amongst travellers in New Zealand, there's always other people with cars touring the islands. Stayed at the Southern Laughter Backpackers, each room had 8 people with it's own lounge, TV and kitchen, nice! Chatted to our roomies from England and Canada, and basically stayed in the room for the rest of the day chilling out.... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 25th 2006

Wow!! Did you ever jumped from a 43 meter high bridge?? I did it! I bungy jumped this afternoon and it was CRAZY!!!!! I've never, never, NEVER been that scared in my whole life!!! And lucky you, i've got it on DVD and I've got tons of pictures that we'll put soon on the website super soon....WOW! It was just crazy, my heart stopped, i almost lost my shoe and I screamed as loud as I could.... The feeling was just incredible...really hard to describe! Anyways, it was really worth it!! Which is why i bought the dvd and pictures, I don't think i'm gonna do this any time soon!!Anyways, while you wait for the pictures, check it out on the net: www.AJHackett.com Queenstown, Kawarau Bridge!!!!! Talk to you soon!! Leaving tomorrow for Dunedin..we'll try to ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 23rd 2006

Hey allesammen. Som vi fortalte sidst ankom vi til Wellington som er hovedstaden i NZ. Da vi var kommet os over det blaesende foerstehaandsindtryk udforskede vi byen. Vi provede den beromte "cable-car" som transporterede os til det hoejeste punkt i Wellington. Fantastisk udsigt. Saa nogle der spillede crocket (ikke cricket). Det var ogsaa heroppe, at man ku' vandre i deres botaniske have som endte ud i den prisvindende "Lady Norwood's Rose Garden". En rose bar navnet "Royal Dane" og det gav lidt patriotisk kriller. Mens vi noed en Steinlager (lokal oel) i parken henvendte en New Zealandsk graeker sig til os. Han fortalte os om hvad der var godt og daarligt i Wellington (mest godt). Pludselig blev samtalen afbrudt af et par danske toeser, som paastod, at de kunne genkende os. Vi sad noget maaloese og ... read more
Royal Dane
Fra Lady Norwoods Rose Garden
View fra faergen

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 23rd 2006

22-23 February Did you know that the population of New Zealand is just a bit less than that of Norway, and about the same as Colorado- in other words, about 4 million people. But New Zealand has 55 million sheep too! There are sheep everywhere - not in the towns and cities, but all over in the rural areas there are sheep grazing. Most of them are white, but we have seen a few “black sheep” too. Gunnar is doing a remarkably good job of driving on the wrong/other/left side of the road. His only consistent problem has been that each time he thinks he is turning on his turn signal, he turns on the windshield wipers instead! Wednesday, 22nd, we tried to see Mt. Cook which is supposed to be a most remarkable sight. But ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 22nd 2006

Hello everyone!! The Magic Bus took us to Queenstown yesterday...We didn't have that much fun in Franz Josef since it was raining and the clouds were covering the mountains and glaciers...But it's ok, we still got to experience the only bar in town : the Blue Ice bar, where we met 4 crazy quebecers with whom with drank a bot more beer than expected at the beginning of the evening :p The ride from Franz to Queenstown was going up and down and right and left....felt a bit sick towards the end and had a headache...Took us all day to finally get down here...Where it is much colder. I'm actually thinking of buying a tuque for tomorrow day at Milford Sound...People wear winter jackets (ok, it's not THAT cold, but i guess for them here, it ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 21st 2006

Wanaka - Queenstown: On leaving Wanaka our first stop was Puzzling World - world famous because of the maze and the mind numbing puzzles. The entrance of $15 seemed a bit steep but as i really did not have any other choice of anything to do that morning i decided to pay it. We all did the maze first - we had to find the watchtowers at each of the four corners. It took us a fair while, and we seemed like the only people who couldn't find the bloody towers! In the end we all got angry with it and Mark just left via the emergency exit doors, whereas I wasted even more time trying to complete the thing. Afterwards we went around the illusion centre, some bits being quite enjoyable. Pictures of the head ... read more
Eglington Valley on Way to Milford Sound
At opening to Tunnel
Queenstown - Remarkables

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 21st 2006

Okay... the suspense is over. For those of you who didn't know, Queenstown is the Adventure Capital of New Zealand. As you can tell from my previous stories, the choice of activities in New Zealand aren't exactly tame, so this is saying a lot. I decided to save my biggest challenge for here. That's right.... I've just completed my bungy jump! I had planned to do it at the original bungy site, the Kawarau Bridge. Not too shabby at 43-meters. I stopped there yesterday and looked at the site and decided... ah to heck with it... go big or go home, so I decided to take the plunge and do the granddaddy of all bungys - The Nevis. This is the highest bungy site in New Zealand - 134 meters, that's 440 feet! The other unique ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 21st 2006

Mon. 20th.Feb. In front of our lodge is the "Gondola" cable car, and also the launching pad for paragliders. At the back of us is Queenstown Hill, which at 900 m. is even higher. We were told that this is the one to climb for spectacular views, so off we go, and we weren't disappointed. Queenstown, spread out before us was awesome - a full 360 deg. view, with no tourists in sight. The paragliders were indeed beneath us, so the 2 hour slog was worth it. Luckily the rain held off until the afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day browsing around the shops in town. Tues. 21st. Another beautiful day, not too hot, so we just amble around the park and the lakeside. Lots of boats, coming and going, so we people ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 20th 2006

Sat. Feb 11th. There we are trudging along deserted streets at 8 a.m. in the drizzle with our backpacks on, when some happy soul beeped his horn and shouted "Wish I was coming with you!". We won't tell you what our response was as he drove on with no offer of a lift. The 5 hour journey to Dunedin began to reveal the N.Z. we'd been longing to see. The Southern Alps were in the far distance to our right, giving way to the Canterbury Plains, which were ful of sheep. On the left we got the occasional glimpse of the ocean, really spectacular. Dunedin was hosting a Harley Davidson Rally when we arrived and the noise from the bikes was deafening. We were told our hostel was within walking distance of the drop-off and no ... read more
Above Deep Cove

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown February 19th 2006

Since my last entry I've made my way to the South Island of New Zealand. I didn't think it was possible, but the scenery is even more gorgeous down here! My first stop on the South Island was Nelson and it was absolutely gorgeous there. I wish I had had more time to spend in the Nelson area, but unfortunately I only had two days. I spent one day sea kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park where I got to see a blue penguin, some sea lions and other birds and ocean life. The park is beautiful and I saw it from a different angle while paddling around a couple of the islands and along the coastline. The next day I saw a bit more of the park as I took the water taxi to a ... read more




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