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Published: June 11th 2009
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From Franz Josef we made our way down to Wanaka stopping at Lake Matheson to get some beautiful shots of Mt Cook's reflection in the water.
Wanaka is set beside lake Wanaka and is a small town which is very pretty, we had a nice hostel and chilled out before heading down to the bar underneath for a few drinks but the music was a little out of our taste so we didn't stay too long- although long enough to discover one of the guys from our bus knew cousin Ste from playing football with him at Exeter-small world!
From Wanaka we headed towards Queenstown, stopping just outside Wanaka to go to puzzle world- a quirky place with several different rooms to baffle the mind and a cafe with tons of puzzles in it for you to do.
On leaving Puzzle world we drove around lake Dunstan and headed towards Kawarau Gorge where we stopped to watch some people off the bus do a bungy jump. Matt tried and failed to bully me into doing one but i stood my ground-im considering taking the plunge on our next trip.
On arrival in Quessnstown we found our way to Wrighty
and Rodney's house to be met by absolutely STUNNING views-lucky boys!The house was suprisingly tidy and clean considering 4 boys live there although no heating!! brr! We took a walk into town and stopped for a famous Ferg burger- absolutely HUGE burgers but very yummy!
later that evening we headed down to the minus 5 bar and kitted up in big coats and gloves before heading into basically a glorified freezer-value for money though it was in fact minus 8 in there! We selected our cocktails and then spent a thoroughly enjoyable but somewhat chilly half an hour messing around with the sculptures and seeing how long we could sit on the ice sofas for before our bums froze! After thawing out we headed to the world bar to catch up with some of the gang from our bus and have a famous 'teapot' cocktail. (just a cocktail but served in a teapot with shot glasses to pour it into!)
An early start the next day with a journey to Milford Sounds a fjord range about 4 hours away from Queenstown. It was pretty foggy to begin with but it soon cleared so we got to see some stunning views
of snow capped hills and landscapes. We hopped on the bus and chugged on through the sounds passing some stunning views and waterfalls and some lazy seals in the water. We had a nice hot lunch and then stopped at the underwater observatory to take a closer look under the water which was suprisingly clear.
A faster journey back again and nothing too spectacular that evening as we didnt get back until around 8pm.
The next day we set off for Christchurch again and had a lazy evening just relaxing..but limited to what we could do seeing as the bank has decided to lose all our money between Aus and the Uk so we don't have any funds! haha.
We got the shuttle out to Akaroa about 1.5 hours from Chirstchurch along the coast, a pretty hairy trip on the winding roads in high winds!!
We arrived in the little town and met with Bob Masefield our host on his farm for the next couple of days. The farm itself was astounding! we drove down a track for around 15 mins only to be told that everything we could see was their land; 1500 acres to be exact! We
spent our first evening having a little look around and making friends with the 'killer' cat (a wild cat tamed..well supposedly) and Banjo the un-likely farm dog (see pictures later!)
The following day we went for a walk down to the beach with Bob's wife MArilyn and saw their herds of cattle and sheep, walked along by the small river only to be met with the sight of baby seals in it-not your average farm animal!! but very cute! we then went climbing over the cliffs looking for yellow eyed penguins but the only one we found had been devoured by something much bigger than it.
We had a yummy meal of lamb that night which Matt was very pleased about!
Our final day in Akaroa consisted of a ride around on the back of the quad bike having a look at the land further away, right up to the coast and further the other way, taking a look at Bob's brother's farm on the way and the horse who had a part in the LOTR film- of course more LOTR fanatics!! We headed back on the afternoon shuttle stopping at the little cheese factory on the way for
a tasting session.
We flew through Christchurch and Kaikoura on the bus over the next few days having already done them once over. We arrived in Picton and i was extremely happy to find out the water was calm so that meant a nice smooth crossing into the NOrth Island!
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