Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 11

Today Emily and I had an early start for our rescheduled bungy. I was super excited as I've been waiting the whole trip for this! It was a perfect day for it with clear blue skies! We got to the jump site and it all happened so quickly! We got harnessed up, reweighed to confirm our weight with all the equipment on. Then we were taking to a viewing platform where we got a nice view of the drop! We waited for everyone in our group, about 10 people and the n got a cable car across to the platform which was suspended in the air! Once there we sat on a glass seat and put all our other equipment on. Then within about two minutes the first guy had jumped. There was some glass floor ... read more

My flight to New Zealand from Melbourne was not the easiest. The flight itself was fine, in fact it was so empty that there seemed to be more crew members than passengers aboard so after take off I excused myself to the lovely Kiwi bloke sitting next to me and went into a row of my own so I could get some sleep. I had arrived at Melbourne airport so early that I had to wait for 2 1/2 hours before the check in desk opened 2 hours before my flight as my hostel bus could only drop me off at that time. New Zealand is 3 hours ahead of Melbourne, my flight left at quarter to 10 at night and it was a three hour flight. This means I landed in Christchurch airport at 5am ... read more

It is going to be fun writting this entry, and some of you may laugh few times at some of the comments. After being 4 years and a half away from New Zealand, I'm back to the land of welcoming people, gorgeous scenery and amazing wine....this time, to ski in Queenstown....4 nights here, and 3 full days of skiing. My last visit to Queenstown was in the summer, on a campervan, with the kids...and a campervan full of wine. This time, I'm coming by plane...Bangkok to Auckland, and a fast transfer direct to Queenstown. But first, the kids are going to Vietnam for the coming few weeks, as it has been over the last few years. We went all together at the airport as there flight was just 3 hours before mine. All this after running ... read more

It snowed all night, and we woke to a few inches of snow frosting our balcony and nothing visible out on the lake. The snow continued into the morning, so we decided to bundle up and walk into town. Much to our surprise the snow stopped a few minutes into our trek and the skies brightened a bit. With the clouds lifting we began to appreciate the dramatic after effects of an early snowfall! Many Good Things today which we both agreed upon: We enjoyed exploring the wharf area and walking around the point, then through Queenstown Gardens. Next we headed over to the base of Bob's Peak, which looms over the town, and caught the gondola to the top where we ate lunch in the bar, while being entertained by the bungee jumpers and enjoying ... read more

(Note to self: You are too old and cranky to book yourself into any more 24-plus hours travel ordeals ever again!) Somehow we survived the first leg of our journey and arrived in Auckland, where our connecting flight, once again, was delayed--this time due to weather (wind) issues in Queenstown. While canceling the flight was considered, we ended up being the last one to land in Queenstown for the day. Some good things eventually came out of that situation (see below), and we arrived safely in a very wet and windy Queenstown, minus a few fingernails, but otherwise fine. Sharon: Good Thing--The fortuitous last minute gate change and delayed flight (Auckland to Queenstown) that resulted in us sitting next to Frasier, a Queenstown resident, in the gate area, who gave us advice about things to do ... read more