I didn’t sleep fantastically in the bunk house, very hot and quite smelly with lots of people in there, and then at 6.30am we were all woken by the hut shaking and a deep grumbling, thunder like noise. This shaking continued for around 30sec (though it felt a lot longer) and we all laid silently, when it had finished someone said, ‘wow, that was an earthquake’ and then we all started talking, and didn’t really go back to sleep after that. It turned out the earthquake was a 4.2 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre located only 2miles underground and 20km North of Milford Sound – luckily no damage was caused! After breakfast and moving my stuff to a now vacated bed by the window in the main room – for the 5* views we ... read more

I sleep SO well in the dorm and have a relaxed morning before heading off to do the Ben Lomand Summit track at 10am. First it’s a bit of a climb up the track behind the gondola, and then it levels out to a fairly easy alpine track climb through the forest, opening up to stunning views of the lake and Queenstown. This takes a few hours and then from Ben Lomaand Saddle it is an hour of hard steep walking to the peak on rough shingly/mud ground. The views from the peak however are amazing – 360 degree views of Queenstown, the lake, the Remarkables and the surrounding mountains. I eat my lunch at the top and chill for half an hour before heading back down. Coming down on the shingle is quite difficult – ... read more

Good lay in, but back in the dorm room last night so up and around by 8am. Today I have decided to change hostel – my bus to Queenstown leaves outside a hostel which is the other end of town at 7am tomorrow morning, and as I wasn’t going to stay tonight originally, I hadn’t booked into the YHA, and they only have expensive rooms left, so I have booked tonight at the hostel where the bus comes from for ease in the morning. So I check out of the YHA in the morning but make the most of the YHA facilities, having breakfast and using the internet etc until lunch time. I then trudge all my stuff to the other hostel, not as nice as the YHA but still nice. Chat to some of the ... read more

Fiona and Susan want to finish early so they can head off to Queenstown late morning, so it is an early start for us at 6am, and my alarm clock wakes me as I am in such a deep sleep. My bag is packed and ready to go, so again dressing with only a torch is tricky but I am soon downstairs eating my breakfast, with what must be the best breakfast scenery I have ever seen. The hut is above the clouds and the sun is rising with the mountains across the lake (Murcherson mountains) as the back drop – beyond stunning. When the other two are ready we set off, and quite a fast pace to start, I am almost jogging to keep up, ignoring the pain from my feet! We settle into a ... read more

The first day is a fairly and short easy walk so I have time in the morning to do another big sort out of my stuff. I head to the DOC visitors centre in town to pick my hut tickets and set off from town at 11.40am. I am soon at the control gates – the official start of the trek and I am off, walking the Kepler trail. The walk is in the forest (through beech trees) and fairly flat, every now and again you get great views of the river when the trees clear, and you even get to cross a very ‘movey’ suspension bridge across the river at one point. I see a few people walking out (in the opposite direction to me) finishing the treck and after a while two girls walking ... read more