Blogs from South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1174

Hey Guys, Just a quick hello, how are you message from home before I leave, to let you know how I'm planning on updating you all. (ps Thanks for the great travel diary idea tiff, hopefully mine will be as cool to read as yours.....;o)) It's pretty exciting realising that departure is so close! A little scary too, but not too much! Just to remind you all....I'm off to Lyon tomorrow, via Chch, Auckland, LA and Frankfurt....all in all about 38 hours of airports and planes....sigh. Well lots of packing and last minute organisation to do here, of course, Sending masses of love and hugs to you all, hoping everyone is well and happy, I'll email from France when I get a chance! Any emails will be gladly recieved at my end, I'm sure I'll be missing ... read more

After deliberation, I decided to go back to the Remarkables for another days' skiing.  I had enjoyed the first day so much and my skiing had come on heaps in a short space of time so I hired all the gear again and headed up the mountain. At the end of my last lesson the instructor said I was about a level 3B so I went along for my morning lesson and stood in the 3B line.  We headed straight up the hill and went for a test-run to make sure all the 3As & Bs had assigned themselves to the correct ability group.  Well I had managed to forget almost everything from the previous days skiing and was tkaing it a little too slowly for the 3B group and I was demoted :( This must ... read more

A more reasonable start this morning a cushie 9.50am pick-up from my hostel by the kayak instructor Wayne. Yes, I am going kayaking again - this is the one place I was determined to have a go at it before I even arrived in N.Z. so despite being on many kayak trips already, I booked a full day trip - surely I should be good at it by now....This is the furthest south I have been on my trip and this was also set to be the coldest trip I had been on to date, so I was pretty pleased that the kayak folk had lovely matching stripey thermal gear to dress up in as well as fleeces, beanies (hats) and spray jackets in a fabulous shade of purple.Back in a tandem kayak - which are ... read more

It was an early 6 o'clock in the morning start from Queenstown and when my alarm went off I could not remember why - possibly because of the whole tea-pot I drank last night without any help or the few hours sleep I had recieved but after a few minutes I came too and remembered that I was taking the most scenic tour in New Zealand to the Milford Sound I have since learned that Milford is actually a fiord (glacier carved then sea flooded) rather than a 'sound' (river carved then sea flooded) In preperation for the long winding roads to one of the most remote areas in the country and the 3hr boat cruise I took one of handy travel-sick pills - I am now blaming this substance on the reason why I missed ... read more

I spent the morning recovering from the party the night before.  We had all gone out to the Red Rock to meet up with other Kiwi Experience passengers and drivers past and present.  Queenstown is normally the point in the trip where people split up and do their own thing or carry on with the tour so we were promissed a party - which is exactly what we got!!  A few of us braved the cold in order to experience the Minus 5 bar, where everything is made of ice including the glasses.  The half hour in the bar wearing thick 'parka' style jackets and furry booties and drinking cocktails was great fun, the maximum time you are aloud to stay is half an hour, but my warm scottish blood could easily have lasted another 30min. When ... read more