Blogs from Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

We left Te Anau with the sun trying to shine but we knew from experience this was not necessarily a sign of things to come! The day started off at 16°C and the temperature rose to 25°C as the day progressed. And, wonder of wonders, it didn't rain all day! We hadn't initially planned to visit Queenstown but a friend had recommended the gondola there and, on hearing of that, I just had to go. Unfortunately, Queenstown is a very popular place for all sorts of reasons, adventure sports being one of them, and Steve struggled to find any available accommodation so we were restricted to one night, which is all we could get. We had to blow the budget a bit, but no matter. We took the Scenic Route (Road 97, then Road 6) via ... read more

I have great news... One Ear has been found! We found ourselves back in Queenstown and had a spare few hours so we retraced our steps. We found him lying face down, bruised and battered, next to Lake Wakatipu at a campsite we stayed at. It appears he had a few adventures of his own whilst we were gone. We are so excited at his return and look forward to taking him on many more adventures - after a little surgery to repair him! As we found him it started raining - we were just in time to stop him getting soaked. As a bonus, the rain caused a great rainbow. As a special treat we took One Ear to Paradise today... but more on that in a future blog.... read more

It is with great sadness that I report the loss of our beloved travel companion, One Ear. One Ear is a well loved, yellowish soft toy dog with one brown ear. He is the mascot for our travels and we miss him greatly. Sadly we lost him between 7th and 9th December in the Queenstown, Arrowtown, Wanaka or Mt Aspiring areas of New Zealand. It is most likely he fell out of my bag as we hiked up to Rob Roy Glacier or in the shops of Arrowtown. I understand that the loss of a soft toy may seem insignificant, but One Ear has a lot of sentimental value for me. I don't see a 30 year old soft toy with a gashed leg and lost fur, for me he is so much more... One Ear ... read more

Kia Ora again! Derek here to add some banter to the blog! Following on from our nights stay in Wellington, it was ferry time. Legs still in pain from the 20km walk, did we mention we done a 20km walk up & down a mountain?!? Up early to catch the 9 am ferry and drop the car back. The three hour ferry went by in a flash, some stunning views along the way & a quick chat to talk Emma "off the ledge" when it comes to shared rooms in hostels! Once off the ferry we picked up our new rented car for the South Island. Picture Dumb & Dumber when they downgrade from the Sheep Van to the Scooter. We went from a Holden Captiva to a Fiat 500! After squeezing our bags into the ... read more

W poniedziałek zaczęliśmy chyba najbardziej wyczekiwany etap naszej podróży – przed nami 5 dni w Nowej Zelandii! Z Sydney polecieliśmy do Queenstown na południowej wyspie. Jeśli ktoś myślał, że to „rzut beretem” to się mylił - pomiędzy obydwoma krajami jest dwie godziny różnicy czasu oraz trzy godziny podróży samolotem. Lądowaliśmy na lotnisku otoczonym wysokimi górami (do 2 tys. m n.p.m.), gdzie podchodzenie do pasa startowego było prawie tak przerażające jak lądowanie na krawędzi klifu w Chanii w Grecji… ;-) Pogoda w tej części kraju jest wciąż dosyć kapryśna i wczesnowiosenna. Z prognoz wiedzieliśmy, że średnio dwa dni na trzy są deszczowe i trzeba się przygotować nawet na przymrozki w nocy. Rzeczywiście, powietrze było ciągle dość rześkie, a zimny wiatr odmrażał ręce i nosy, ale popołudniami zazwyczaj świeciło piękne słońce dodające jeszcze uroku temu przepięknemu regionowi. Mieli ... read more