Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Back to Queenstown for our final day in New Zealand. I can’t believe how fast this time has passed by and how much we have seen and done. But the vacay isn’t over yet! There’s still Fiji to come. On arrival back in Queenstown, the bus dropped us at the Harbour front to go find our own lunch. Jane, Anne & I sat on a bench and ate cheese, crackers and salami and then wandered around the pedestrian shopping mall until it was time for us to check into the hotel (same one we stayed at a couple of days ago but different rooms this time). Going out for a short walk - 6 kms later we struggled back up the “Torture Hill” from the downtown. But what a beautiful walk we had around the headland ... read more

Here we go again! It isn’t raining, believe it or not! There is blue sky and we can see the snow capped mountains in the distance. Because it’s fairly clear we are able to get a spectacular view of Fox Glacier which is bigger than Franz Josef glacier. Yesterday there was no view of Fox because of widespread mist and rain. Some interesting things about NZ: there are metal bands part way up each hydro pole. These are to prevent the possums from climbing up and chewing on the wires; possums are different than opossums in N. America. They are a cat sized marsupial with a long bushy tail introduced to NZ for the fur trade. The fur of possums is very soft and warm; there are multicoloured lupines and foxgloves growing wild everywhere; all the ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Pour Odile, le décalage horaire, 12H, quand tu regardes Naguy le soir à 19H, moi je me lève. Les aiguilles de ta pendule, sont sur la même position, 7H pour moi, 19H pour toi. A ce sujet, je savais que ça allait être dur, à absorber ces 12h de décalage. Comme je le préconise depuis des années, se mettre de suite à l'heure du pays, c'est plus facile vers l'ouest, ex: Canada, et il n'y a que 6H. Les somnifères comme hier au soir aide à passer de bonne nuit. Ce qui n'a pas arrangé pas les choses c'est tous ces temps de transport, il y bien sur les temps de vol, il faut pas oublier, le temps passé en salle d'attente, les formalités, les nuits en avion sans dormir. Mais là je ... read more

The fine sunny weather keeps following us and this morning dawned fine and clear.OK it did take a while longer than we might have expected for the sun to infiltrate the area where we are staying opposite Kingston Heights but with a cruisy day ahead we were in no rush to get up. The apartment has a gas heater that is very efficient even on a low heat and we left it on all night and the temperature inside was just perfect without being stuffy. It was a bit too chilly to sit out on the deck area in front of the lounge and watch the planes come and go into Queenstown airport but we had a good view from inside anyway. One must admire the skill of the airline pilots that get to fly in ... read more

Queenstown. Rain. Cloud. Cold. We got here by driving from Franz Josef - again a slight underestimation of how long it would take but made easy by the scenery along the way. Fox Glacier, Bruce Bay Lake Paringa, podocarp forests; Rimu, Kahikatea, Totara, Kahikatea and beech among others. A good road surface, winding at times but with a good surface mostly, the forest leaning out over the road or pressing in on both sides. It's majestic. No other word for it. We have a beautifully, spectacular country. There was little traffic. We stopped at Haaaaast (forgotten how many 'a's) for lunch at the Hard Antler Pub/cafe. Not recommended. Poor service, not with a a smile and the food seemed old and tired. It's one of the only games in town so there's little choice. Ce'st la ... read more