After Christchurch we headed off down south. Leaving the city behind and heading along the road towards the snow capped mountain was a good feeling, after sitting in Cairns for all those weeks dying to get moving again. From the start the driving in New Zealand was good at least in that the scenery was interesting and not always the same as it oftern felt in Oz, I can't say the same for some of the kiwi drivers, Crazy Madpeople with overtaking manouvres on blind hilly corners a speciality!
With a rough idea of where we were heading, partly influenced by planning to meet up with Sam's cousin. We spent our first night was spent at the little town/village of lake Tekapo where the water was supposedly really blue due to sediments in the water (i have to question the guidebook here though). It was really stunning at the lakeside especially near the landmark little church right by the water. I think what we will both remember most though is dinner at the little pizza place. Sitting next to the big open fire it was the first time that we had heard of seen, let alone eaten a pizza with venison on it or one with lamb and mint sauce and they tasted amazing. The next morning we got up and went ice skating at the outdoor rink overlooking the lake. Good fun until the blisters that rental boots always cause got a little too painful.
After Tekapo we made our way through some more outstanding scenery to the laid back Wanaka where we were to meet Sam's cousin Matthew. After one night in Wanaka we headed to Queenstown for a night and yet another yummy dinner of NZ lamb. From here we wanted to go to Milford sound and made it there after a sleepover on the way down to try and break the journey up a bit. The drive was once again stunning and thankfully we did not have to use the snow chains that we had been told were essential to carry at this time of year. The weather was good, well at least it was until we crossed the mountains to the milford side where it started to rain, unsurprisingly for milford apparantly. Our cruise boat was the smallest one operating and in the end there were only around 12 people on the boat. I was grateful for that especially after seeing the other boats and later on the way back all the dozens of coachs heading to where we had just left, phew, i think that the beauty of the sounds is best appreciated with as few people as possible. It is certainly a stunning place, there were dozens of waterfalls some we were told are the highest in the world although they don't count as they are not permanent features, the sheer rock faces meeting the water and while we were there the mist that clung to the rocks in places adding to the sense of enormity and awe inspiring atmosphere.
We drove back to Queenstown after our morning cruise on the sounds where we settled ourselves in for a few days to try out some of the things that the famous place had to offer. We did not go as all out as some people mainly due to budget and the fact that i am such a wuss there was not much that i would dare do! We did have a go on the shotover jet boat which with its 360 degree spins as close calls with the gorge walls was a good hangover cure! Sam being a bit more adventurous than myself and beind egged on by me had a go on the unique fly-by-wire. It is like a little plane you are strapped in which is powered by an engine and then is steered by the occupant through a valley trying to get as high and fast as possible it works a bit like a pendulum. It is harder to explain than some of the other things that sam could have chosen but we have photos so people can see for themselves and we don't confuse people. Anyway. We enjoyed being able to wander around queenstown for a couple of days taking advantage of happy hours and deciding where to go next. With the weather being not so good one morning we went to the crazy caddyshack crazy golf where we battled with volcanoes and fairgrounds to try and get a respectable score, my patience definately let me down and after a good start i lost concentration and it was all down hill from there. And Sam would have got a very good score if it was not for getting a score of 8 on one hole! One of the last things we did was to go up the Gondola which was just up the road from the campsite, nice views but we wanted to go on the luge, too late though!
While we were in this centre of adventure we decided we were going to blow the budget a bit more and go skiing for a couple of days. Being near the end of the season it was not too busy and we only had a small group for our lessons which we felt were definately needed me being very rusty and Sam not having been before. It was a lot of fun and i think that it has encouraged us to go skiing again maybe not on this trip though. We stayed in Wanaka and drove up to the slope at Cadrona. No mishaps unless you count leaving the lights on and getting back to a flat battery. Thank God for geordies and scots for that matter_ they helped us get started again, luckily as otherwise it would have been a little more difficult as we were the last car in the carpark!
