New Zealand - September

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In September, we were lucky enough to get away to New Zealand for a couple of weeks. We travelled to the south island and landed in Christchurch (C.C.) to collect our hire car. The next day, we set off on the 450km / 7-8 hour journey to Queenstown (Q.T.). Little did we know, we left CC about 12 hours before a huge earthquake hit the city. Luckily for us we weren’t affected, but the quake left a trail of devastation behind it with aftershocks that continued for several weeks later.

One very long drive later and after taking in a LOT of beautiful mountainous scenery and stunning blue lakes, we arrived in Q.T. and went to stay with friends Sarah and Simon from the UK that we hadn’t seen in 4 years since they left England. Lovely to catch up with old friends! The weekend we arrived, we experimented with snow-boarding for the first time! Pretty difficult, a lot of sore limbs and bums and freezing fingers!! Good fun though, and I was quite good at the going backwards, but trying to face forwards was a different matter all together! So I spent a lot of time not knowing where I was going. Another slight problem was the fact that when I fell over, I was un-able to get up again. Hmmmm.....! After a day of snow-boarding came the après-ski drinks. Good night!

The following week, Michael and I had a mini 3 day trip around the south of the south island and had a great time despite the terribly cold, windy and wet weather. Although the weather prevented us from seeing some scenery, we still managed to visit the attractions that were inside such as an old manor house in Dunedin. On the final day of our mini road trip, the skies were clear blue which was excellent for the day we had planned. We ventured to a place called Milford Sound. The road was deserted and there were no petrol stations or settlements from the time we left the nearest town to the Sound and on return - 300km round trip. The Sound was a beautifully tranquil place with some lovely walks and a lot of wildlife. We took a boat trip around some of the Sound and out to the breakwaters of the sea which allowed us to see some waterfalls and sea lions basking in the sun.

The next few days included visiting a little township of Arrowtown which was a historical New Zealand town on a river with all of it’s lovely old buildings. It was quite refreshing to visit somewhere that clearly has history in comparison to Queensland in Australia that is so new and modern that the history is still in the making. We also ventured to Puzzle World which was situated in another town on a huge lake. Puzzle World was a bit of fun including walking around a gigantic wooden maze for hours looking for the exit.

Towards the end of the week, we hit the snowy mountains again for the night-time session, but this time I decided to ski rather than snow-board! Felt much more comfortable and had a great time actually being able to pick up some speed and whizzing down the flood-lit slopes. Finally, on our last “holiday” day, we took the gondola to the top of a mountain overlooking Q.T. and took in the view of the town. Truly beautiful!

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