Well we have made it to New Zealand, first stop is Christchurch for a couple of days. First impression is that it’s a nice city, but we were so busy sorting ‘stuff’ out that we are planning to return to see the whole thing. The trip from Christchurch down to Queenstown was amazing, we took a scenic tour bus rather than a direct route; only $19 more and well worth the extra. The first stop was Fairlie, a small town in the middle of nowhere and Em found a ‘luxury’ chocolate shop; all the way to NZ and Em’ finds a chocolate shop in the middle of nowhere. Next on to Lake Tekapo, as the first lake we’ve seen in NZ we thought it looked lovely and peaceful, and was amazed at the views; more was to come. The next stop was Lake Pukaki which was on our way to Mt Cook, this lake had the most amazing colour water we’ve seen. When the sun hit the water it reflected the Blue rock flour that is washed into it from the Glacier River, it’s formed by the weight of the Glacier ‘crushing’ the rocks underneath and washing the fine powder into the Lake; I promise you that the picture has not been ‘touched up’ in any way and it’s the colours that we were faced with when the sun broke through. Mt Cook village is nowhere near Mt Cook, the only connection is that you can see excellent views of the mountain from the town; and it’s a 3hr hike from town to base of the mountain. We arrived in Queenstown in time to see the Tandem Paragliders taking off of the Mountain behind our Hostel, and we arrive just in time to get a free Pizza from Tony the Hostel Manager. Tony told us we had a nice view from our room and told us to look as soon as we got up the next morning, he was right; lovely view over Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu and the Mountains that we would be snowboarding.
