Queenstown & Wanaka

We made our way up to Queenstown from Te Anau. Queenstown is NZ's activity capital where you can throw yourself off or out of just about anything, with or without something tied to you. As it's the ski season it was pretty busy, with lots of snowboard kids (I didn't know they made trousers that baggy?!) and skiers in expensive cafes, wearing expensive sunglasses, drinking expensive coffee. Whilst we would have liked to have a go at skiing we don't really have the time or the money on this occasion. We walked up to the Skyline complex (an hour's steep uphill hike) and went on the luge (not as tame as it looked!) and then rode a gondola back down again, which was fun. As for all the various activities on sale (bungi, sky diving etc) we decided to decline for various reasons and crazy golf was our most adrenaline fueled experience.

Despite it's unfortunate name, Wanaka is prettier than Queenstown and a lot smaller (certainly more our cup of tea), but once again it was full of skiers due to the nearby peaks, so we went on a half hour walk that turned into a 3 hour hike (and we had to ask for directions to get back!) and left the next day. The weather here has been consistently spectacular, changing in a matter of minutes from hot sunshine to pouring rain. The cloud/mist/rain/snow that hangs in the sky over the mountains is pretty impressive. The drive down to Franz Josef this morning was quite special - bright blue lakes, enormous snow capped mountains, waterfalls, torrential rain, rain forest, icicles... Tomorrow we may go walking on the glacier.

With just a week to go, we are looking forward to moving on. NZ has been amazing, but it feels a little like a long holiday rather than travelling, and it is much more expensive than we had budgeted for. Looking forward to staying with friends in Oz and not having to get up and check out by 10:00am!