Last day in New Zealand

 We are almost at the end of our New Zealand adventure. Yesterday, we made the long drive from Queenstown to Christchurch. Today has been a quiet day: some gift shopping, a visit to the enormous Christchurch City Library (or Turanga) and some great food from the fabulous Riverside Market.

Tomorrow, we have a 4am wake up call for a 7am flight home to Melbourne.

It has been an incredible holiday. NZ must be in the top 3 of World's Most Beautiful Countries. There just aren't enough superlatives to describe the astounding scenery we have seen. The only way to understand this is to visit yourself. No words or photos can really convey how staggeringly gorgeous the country is. I will say, however, that the appeal of NZ (to the visitor) is the natural environment. The cities are OK but they aren't the big drawcard. But get outside the urban areas and you will be amazed.

It's been great but it is time to go home.

Skiing in NZ

The weather forecasters were wrong again and we had a fabulous day skiing at Coronet Peak. Ian got over his foot injury and all 3 of us enjoyed the quintessential Queenstown experience. We all started the day with a lesson. Ian and I were in the not so novice group as we had skied before (35 or so years ago!). Clare started the day in the beginners group. Like so many of us on our first day skiing, she found it frustrating. To her credit, after a reviving lunch break, she came back on the slopes with Ian and I and found her mojo again. We all had a fun afternoon, albeit on the Novice runs.

Clare described today as the best experience ever. As the climax of our Queenstown stay, it was pretty epic. Having said that, Ian and I definitely found skiing as 50 and 60 somethings a lot harder on the body than our previous adventures in our 20s.

I just have to mention how good a skier Ian is. I am competent and he talked like he was about the same. But, once we got on the slopes, he really impressed. Beautiful parallel skiing all the way.

As we wrap up our time in Queenstown, I just have to say that this town is incredible. The beauty is beyond description. Photos cannot do justice to the scenery here. It is getting busier and busier and I am glad that we came in spring and not the middle of winter but I am so glad we came to Queenstown. Visiting this gorgeous part of the earth should be on everyone's bucket list. 

Tomorrow we drive back to Christchurch for a final stay before we fly home on Saturday.

Queenstown Day 2

 This morning, we enjoyed one of Queenstown's most popular attractions. We caught the Skyline Gondola to the top of Bob's Peak. It is a spectacular ride with an amazing view of Queenstown from the top. We also had a lot of fun taking multiple rides on the luge that runs at the top of the mountain.

Lunch was on the Queenstown waterfront at an Irish pub called Pog Mahones (eye roll). Despite the name, it was a great pub with a great menu. We all enjoyed it.

After lunch, we headed to Coronet Peak which is the ski resort just outside Queenstown. We threw a few snowballs at each other and watched the skiers enjoying the last few days of the ski season. If the weather holds up tomorrow, Clare and I might go skiing. Ian is struggling with a foot injury after dropping a suitcase on his foot so he will give skiing a miss. Fingers crossed for okay weather but the forecast isn't promising.

First day in Queenstown

Queenstown is pretty impressive. We are staying outside the main town area in a Quest Apartment Hotel. We have a lovely 2 bedroom apartment that has everything we need. Our view from every window is huge, snow capped hills. Even though we are not in the centre of Queenstown, it is a great location.

We started our day having a look around Queenstown and doing a little shopping. Clare was very anxious to get a gift for her teacher who has looked after her throughout her 6 years at OLSH. We were successful finding a beautiful red cashmere shawl made in New Zealand. The town is picture perfect. I have never seen the ski towns of Switzerland or France but I feel sure that Queenstown holds its own against any of them. 

Next stop, the destination of every visitor to Queenstown, the Shotover Jet Boat ride. It was a ridiculous amount of fun. I couldn't recommend it highly enough. Not only is it exhilarating but the Shotover River is seriously beautiful. Just the best day out.

We finished the day with a walk along the Arrow River about 10 kms outside Queenstown. Arrowtown is an historic goldmining town. We are planning on spending more time there before we leave this part of the world. 

Speccy +

 Definitely a bucket list day. We left Greymouth this morning (not sorry) and began our drive to Queenstown. Before I start describing our day, I have to say that words and photos are really not sufficient to share the sense of gobsmacking awe that we have experienced all day.

Before we started the big drive, we had a couple of stops to make. First one was at the Franz Josef township where we went to see the Franz Josef glacier. Clare and I had never seen a glacier before so it was a huge experience for us. We decided against the helicopter flight over the glaciers and instead took to the walk to the viewing area. The viewing area is around 3km away from the end of the glacier but the view was still very impressive. You will see from some of the photos that there is a big wide river bed between us and the glacier. Had we visited 100 years ago, the glacier would have filled the river bed. Unfortunately, it has receded a lot and is still receding so if you want to see the Franz Josef glacier, you might want to visit sooner rather than later.

Next stop was the Fox Glacier. It is bigger than Franz Josef but it is further away from the viewing area so it seems less impressive. The great part of the Fox was the beautiful (but strenuous) walk through the rainforest to the viewing spot. FUN FACT: the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers are the only glaciers in the world that are next to a temperate rainforest. It is wild how two such different natural features can exist next to each other.

After our glacier spotting, we hit the road in earnest and drove to Queenstown. The journey was a attraction all on its own. The west coast of the south island is sandwiched between the Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps so we found ourselves next to soaring mountain tops, sandy beaches, gushing rivers, gigantic lakes and rolling farm land all in the space of one journey.  Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea  were so astonishingly beautiful that we had to stop and take a moment to take it all in. As I said above, words and pictures cannot do it justice. The west coast has the best natural scenery that I have ever seen. I find it hard to believe that there is anywhere in the world that could top this.