NZ trip

Our flight arrived at Christchurch in the morning. We picked up the car and then went to the lodge where we had booked our room. It was still pretty early in the morning and the room wasn't available for next few hours. Nothing was open this early in the city and we were stuck with nowhere to go. We drived around the town looking for a place to eat. The CBD is still under construction after the earthquake. Finally we were able to find a McDe which had just opened. It was a lot better after that and I enjoyed the drive around much more after that.

 Christchurch is known as a garden city with a few hundred gardens. The air is very crisp and clean and people very friendly and welcoming. I went for a morning walk in one of the gardens, there were people out there walking their dogs. Its fun to watch dogs running after balls but since one of them was running towards me and a big one at that i hurried back to our car.

 We were able to check in the lodge after that. Still running on Australian clock we went for a long sleep. I love animals and wanted to see NZ wildlife so dragged Tarun to the local zoo.

It was raining in the evening so went to see Hobbit. Didn't care too much for the movie but the cinematography is great.

Drive Christchurch to Queenstown

 South island has a lot to offer in terms of natural beauty and the drive from Christchurch to Queenstown in considered to be one of the best. We started a bit late from Christchurch  around 10 in the morning. The GPS was showing 460 km on the route. Both of us were pretty excited and I had a map open on my lap to keep track of our progress.

 The first hour or so was pretty routine with the backdrop picking up after that. The roads are great with most of them allowing a speed of 100, there was plenty of traffic with the highway running through some town every hour or so. Tarun wanted to cover as much as possible before stopping for lunch.

 Around midday we arrived at Lake Tekapo. The water is blue. Deep aqua blue and so clean that you can see the sea grass at the bottom for a good distance along the shore. The water is very inviting and you just want to jump in and play. We contended ourselves by walking along the shore and sitting on the rocks enjoying the atmosphere. Had lunch at a nearby cafe offering a nice view, there were a lot of people sitting on the grass outside with their picnic baskets. We were reluctant to leave the place so decided to stop on the way back and stay overnight there. Lake Tekapo is famous for its night sky as well with lot of people putting up camping tents to sleep under the open sky. There is an observatory where you can go up and see the stars from glasstop. There are lots of lake around that part with the water having same aqua hue. We drived through some of the most amazing sites across the lakes. After a couple of hours the water started changing colour with it becoming more green than blue. The green goes on getting deeper as you approach Queenstown from cyan to forest green.

 Tarun was tired after a few hours and we took more frequent breaks. The best one was at Cromwell where we had fruit icecream. There was a beautiful rose garden at back with stone statues and we laid down there in shade for some time.

The amazing thing about queenstown is 10 km away from city and you are still in bush. For a moment we were scared that the GPS is taking us to the wrong address, the hotel was at the given address only on lakefront with amazing views from terrace.

 I had a hot shower and crashed in the bed for night.

 Day 1

 Queenstown has so much to offer in way of adventure sports bungee, sky diving, para sailing  hand gliding... that it is difficult to have your pick. We wasted a good hour deciding which one to go for, then decided to head for town centre and book whatever we fancied at the moment. I was pretty much ok with anything except for bungee jumping. Statistically it is one of the safest adventure stuff to do but i didnt have the stomach for it. The city offers a beautiful view. There was a green majestic mountain at the backdrop with people sailing down on their colourful sails. That decided it for me, we were going for para sailing.

We booked the tickets. Most of the companies have shuttles that take you to take off point. They pick you up from city centre or even from your hotels if you have prior booking. We had an hour to kill. Queenstown has an old world charm about it and it is easy to just loiter around the city doing nothing. There are street performers and musicians and lots of shops were you can go for window shopping. Shopping doesn't make too much sense as prices are too high. Although if you are looking for souvenirs, there are dollar shops selling traditional Maori tokens.

 I was feeling a bit scared right before the take off. Its a tandem surf with a trained instructor. After he hooked me up with the equipment I was suppose to start running when he says. We were airborne before i realized it. Para gliding is lot easier and much more comfortable than it looks. Its like sitting in a comfortable seat and slowly floating down. The view down was breathtaking, the experience is difficult to put in words. It can be done even by the most faint hearted.

 During evening, we went for a walk down the lake behind the hotel. I was pretty sure i had seen black swans in the lake so i was looking out for them. But no such luck. There were just a few ducks in the water. I wanted to get some food to attract them towards me but was feeling too lazy to go up the room to get it. Tarun asked some people and they told us we can catch a water taxi from there to city and back. The taxi ride takes about 15 min and is nice. We just roamed around in the city in the evening and caught the last taxi back.

Day 2

We hadn't planned anything specific for today. Got up late, that's the whole point of holidays isn't it. You can sleep as late you want, mess up the entire timetable prepared for the day and still not feel guilty. We started late arnd 12 for Glenorchy. It doesn't take long to drive and the view is awe-inspiring  We stopped at a few place to take photos and just to admire the scene. Its perfect, blue-green lakes, green mountains as far as eye can see, few of them with cattle grazing, a bit of white snow on the upper slopes capped by clouds on the top. Nature has been partial to this part of the world. I have heard a lot about NZ beauty but it hasn't prepared me for this!

 Glenorchy is a small place with few cafes and shops at the town centre. There were few hikers and people with their kayaks. There are few walking trails around there which are quite popular. I wanted to follow one of those trails but Tarun wanted to drive to Paradise Place to see the location where Lord of the rings movies were shot. we didn't had any specific idea about the route,just followed the road signs towards the place. The backdrop just goes on getting better with the drive. I had camera on my lap but didn't wanted to spoil the moment by taking photos all the time.   From Glenorchy the roads get rough. Its really just a gravel path with nature running wild along both sides. And then we hit a small water pool created by a narrow water creek running across the path.

 We were not able to decide whether to risk driving over it. A few more people pulled over the spot and we were wondering what to do next. The first one took the longest to take the plunge, after that we all just followed through.

We encountered a few more pools along the way, emboldened by our first success we just drived over them. So much for our bravery the road led to a dead end and to top it, it started to rain. It was the start of Dart trail, it was too narrow for car but its pretty popular among backpackers as a walking trail. We met a few backpackers there who were on road for a few days. Covering these parts on foot must be an entirely another experience  We gave lift to two of them back to Glenorchy. They were an elderly couple talking about going horse riding with grandkids. Gave me hope that i have plenty of years to go for such adventure. Maybe after i retire :)

 It was raining in the evening so we stayed in the room having pizza and watching TV.

Day 3

 I wanted to go for jet ski. We got in the car and roamed around trying to find a place to rent jetski. The sun was playing hide and seek with it being sunny one moment and cold the next.

We were able to locate a place to rent the ski. Changed into wet suit and got in water. The weather got pretty depressing with wind blowing and the water freezing cold. Tarun was driving the ski with me sitting behind. We did a few loops at crawling speed and came back. Tarun claimed he was scared of dropping me in water. Didn't did much after that. Just roamed around in the town and came back to hotel. I was able to find an Asian mart where i got frozen indian food so i was happy. The hotel room had a kithenette and i liked doing a bit of cooking now and then. Its pretty relaxing to eat in comfort of your own room, and if we made sandwiches in breakfast ourselves we didn't needed to rush getting ready in the morning.

 Again took the water taxi in the evening. There was a black swan this time and pretty closeby as well. I was kicking myself for not carrying the camera. I did have some food with me and tried to attract the swan but it just ignored me and went on pecking itself with its red beak.

Day 4

Skyline is one of the major attractions of Queenstown and a must see. There is a gondola (trolley on wire) which takes you to mountaintop and there are a lot of stuff to do up there. The mountain is surrounded by Lake Wakatipu.

As the story goes it was created when a maori man killed a monster for his love. The view from up there is amazing and is itself worth going up. Bungee, sky swing, Ludge (go carting down the mountain slope, a lot of kids were doing it. A few people were doing it with toddlers on their lap), there was a Haka dance in the evening. Haka is traditional dance of Morai people and is pretty fierce. Some people choose to stay the night there and look at the stars. We spent pretty much the entire day there with Tarun going for Bungee jumping.

 It was New Years Eve, in the evening we hit the city to watch fireworks at lakeside. Water Taxi was cancelled due to bad weather so we were forced to take our car. We were lucky to find parking, a few youngsters have camped in the parking lot only treating their vans as camp.  We hanged around in the casino till midnight. I managed to lose all the money i was carrying by then. The weather was freezing cold with it raining. But still a large crowd has turned out to see the fireworks. The fireworks are great with none of the jostling and hustling of crowds like Sydney or Melbourne although there were a few drunks fighting and shouting. The stars of the evening were all those young girls braving it out in that weather in small dresses.  We roamed around the lakeside having street food and watching the crowd dance to open air show.

 After that the weather was pretty much crappy with it raining all the time. We started indoors watching TV and having take away food. The most we went out for was movies. The drive back to Christchurch was nostalgic with us stopping at the same places we had in the previous journey. We spent few hours as Lake Tekapo on way back. There is hot pools and springs there with ice skating and skiing in winters. It was raining so we stayed in cafe sipping hot tea and watching the view from there only.

 Returning back home after a vacation has its own joy, more so if the trip has been a satisfying one. NZ is one of the most beautiful places on earth with something to offer for people who like to relax and take it easy on their vacation to more adventurous minded and everyone in between.