New home in Mount Doom- Life is Sweet!

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Funny how things work out, never thught id be living opposit Mount Doom (Lord of the Rings)! in a luxury chatlet style house with panoramic views over Wakitipu lake and stunning mountian ranges. Well we all have to have some luck at times!

I now understand why everyone loves New Zealand so much, its the best country in the world! Not only is the landscape so interesting and breathtaking, they have fantastic pies! and every extreme sport imaginable, great friendly people and generally just a better standard of living.

We took a week to travel in our new Nissan Bluebird, from Christchurch across to the West coast and down to the Southlands. I shocked myself by taking on Avalanch Peak in Arthurs Pass, an 8 hour walk, 1000 metre climb up the steepest mountain ive ever seen. Fortunatly Paul didnt point out where we were climbing to otherwise there would have been no chance I would have agreed! It was particularly painful but the views were truely magnificant, we actually saw a small avalanch on the mountain next to us, besides a glacier. Even in Summer snow lines the tops of the peaks.

The next day my legs felt as if they had seized up and every step I took really hurt! but we were at Franz Josef Glacier and only had one day to climb it so rather than take the easy way out opted for another day long ice climb. In mountaining gear including crampons, (metal spiked shoes) we set out to the Glacier. From a distance it looked like about a 10 minute walk away but because of its huge size it was actually 45 minutes away, like an optical illusion. When we got close the scale of it was unimaginable. There was a large sign saying 'Extreme Danger do not proceed'!! Very reassuring! Climbing up the freshly hacked ice steps was difficult, every step required ones full attention and a a heavy step to insure the crampon griped the ice. The further we climbed the more impresseive it became, giant spikes of blue ice towered above us. I just hoped that we didnt fall through a cravass! We squeezed through ice tunnels and cimbed up vertical slabs of blue ice. It was spectacular to say the least. Our instructor fell down a vertical drop towards the end which was quite scary. Boy did my legs kill coming back down!

The following day on route to More Glaciers and Wanaka I needed a rest so pulled over in the car next to a glacial river, and took a breather, a helicopter landed near us and they offered us discount journey for 4. Couldnt really say no. My life long dream of wanting to fly in a chopper came true! It was so amazing, fantastic views from the front seat and the driver spun us round in circles, terrifying me as I saw the world spin round through the glass door! Brilliant! Best road side break ever!

Now we are living in Queenstown, a lovely, small town beside the gorgeous lake Wakitipu, it is a ski-ing resort with stone pubs with big open fireplaces and is known as the party town of New Zealand with heaps of late night bars - 'Sweet as Bro'. Its getting vold already, Snow has already fallen on the peaks of the Remarkables mountains, getting prepared for snowboarding.

I have exhauseted the funds and I am now working, I was attacking vines all day at a vineyard in the Gibbston valley, great for the tan but a little repetitive. Now I am waitressing in the town centre, (ocassionally acccidentally poisoning people or stbbing them with forks!) however meeting some nice locals (mostly English!) and trying to save for my next road trip up to the North Island in April. But we will return to our house and jobs for the winter in late May.

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Photos

View from new house
The view changes everyday with the light.

New House
Rainbow view

Queenie from the remarks
Queenstown from Remarkables mountain range

The remarks
The reamrkables from Coronet peak- the ski-ing area.

Lake diving at Bobs cove
Lake diving with our Kiwi friends from the Vinyard

Bobs Cove
Bobs clove on route to Glenorchy, outside of Queenstown. Good diving spot!