Well Queenstown was a lot of fun! Where to start...well I guess the beginning!

The drive across from Dunedin took us through some more spectacular scenery, as we got closer we became surrounded by snow capped mountains and beautiful lakes. The landscapes here are all so immense, it is hard to keep a perspective on size as everything is huge and there is so much space surrounding everything. Our van chugs along nicely along the winding roads, although it is a good job we are never in much of a rush!

So we arrived in Queenstown on a lovely sunny afternoon and had a look around. It is quite a small town but very lively, it is school holidays here at the minute so everywhere is full of holidaying Kiwi's. We decided that seeing as the weather was nice enough it was probably time we spent our first night in the van! It was pretty cosy and we had quite a decent night's sleep, but then got a telling off in the morning from a man from the council for sleeping in town...oops!

The next day we decided to take advantage of some of the many activities on offer in and around Queenstown and we went jetboating which was loads of fun! Queenstown sits by the side of Lake Wikitapu (the 3rd largest lake in NZ, fact fans!) and we went zipping around the lake and then onto the Kawarau and the Shotover Rivers, with plenty of 360° spins thrown in to keep us entertained, in case speeding along waters which were at times only a couple of feet deep wasn't enough! After about an hour we arrived back where we started, all intact if a little windswept!

The next day we had a horribly early start but a brilliant day. We were picked up from our motel (the van is ok for one night here and there but we needed a shower!) before 7am for a long bus ride out to Milford Sound which is in the Fiordland National Park. The journey was actually pretty fab as we enjoyed the amazing landscapes we were travelling through and our driver gave us loads of facts and figures about it all, he was a very knowledgeable bus driver! The National Park is a World Heritage Site which means it has to be preserved exactly as it is, so they are not allowed to change the access road to the Sound, which is a very long one way road!

The last part of the journey took us through the Homer Tunnel, a very scary long dark tunnel through a mountain, with only one lane! When we finally emerged at the other side - wow - the mountains just got even bigger! We eventually reached Milford Sound and went out on a 2 hour boat trip through the fiord and out to the edge of the Tasman Sea. We were incredibly lucky as Fiordland is one of the wettest places on earth, it rains at least 2 out of every 3 days, but our day was perfect - blue skies and glorious sunshine, barely even a cloud! During our cruise we saw a few little penguins along the side of the water and also some fur seals basking in the afternoon sun, they were not perturbed by the boat going up close for a look! As you will see from the pictures we took that day, it was just so beautiful, it was hard to stop taking photos! A long day but very worth it, highly recommended for anyone who may be in NZ at any time!

The next day we were up and about in good time for another activity we had lined up and something Nick was very keen to do - skiing! We had hired out all the right ski jacket, pants, goggles etc...so trussed up ready for the Arctic we waddled down to the Snow Centre in town and got on the bus to the Remarkables Ski Range just outside Queenstown. The journey was somewhat epic itself, taking us winding very steeply up the side of a mountain with sheer drops only feet away, looking out of the window was a little stomach churning! However, we made it, and were soon kitted out with skis, boots and poles - we were ready for our first lesson! What followed was great fun, as we slid down the baby slopes learning to stop at the bottom without the help of the crash fence! We both really enjoyed it, and had a go at some of the bigger slopes after our lesson, terrifying but fun, even if Nick did require the help of the fence to stop on one occasion!!

That afternoon we had another lesson and got to grips with turning corners, I think by the end of the day we were both feeling a lot more confident than we were at the start of it! It was a shame we only had one day to spend on the slopes, but we are hoping we may get chance somewhere else along the way to have another go. We ended the day in considerable pain from our ill-fitting ski boots, but thankfully no calamities from the actual skiing!

The next day we were due to leave Queenstown, but not before we had a ride up the gondola to enjoy some great views out over the town and the lake, and a few goes on the luge! After I beat Nick in a high speed race, we were off and heading towards our next destination of Franz Josef, up the West Coast. As it is quite a long way we stayed overnight at a motor park in a very small town called Haast, what a random little place! It has a population of about 60 and exists solely as a stopover for people heading to and from the glaciers on the West Coast, we walked around the whole place in 5 minutes!

So today we got to Franz Josef where we are for a couple of nights, we are hopefully heading out onto the glacier tomorrow which is exciting, I can definitely say I have never walked on a glacier before!

Oh I must mention a couple of odd things that happened whilst we were in Queenstown. The first was when we had just arrived, we sat outside a bar/cafe having a drink in the sunshine, when Nick suddenly noticed a girl he knows from uni walking straight past! I think they were both as shocked as each other at the randomness of the meeting! Then secondly, when we were on our lunch break at the ski resort, amongst the grim looking sandwiches on offer, I spotted a familiar face too! It was a girl I went to school with and have not seen for probably six or so years! It was nice to see a friendly face even if it was totally random, and we managed to have a bit of a catch up later that night (over a drink or two of course!)

Anyway...Queenstown was a really lovely place and we thoroughly enjoyed our few days there, but had to leave before it drained all of our (very little) remaining funds! We will be back soon to report back on our trip to the glacier and see where we have got to!

Ciao for now blog fans,

Katie and Nick xxx

Just a note from Nick here...Katie had a big headstart on the luge...otherwise I'm sure she'd have only just pipped me to the post!!!