We've been in New Zealand for 2 1/2 weeks now and it's flown by! There have been many stunning views, a few photos (we've just posted a small selection for you to look at), a couple of 'incidents' involving the hire car and lots of nice food and wine and beer (the wine and car incidents are not connected incidentally).
We flew into Christchurch and spent a few nights there in a beautiful homely hostel. On our first night we stupidly rushed to the TV to watch Neighbours just to realise that we were in a different country and it wasn't on. Oops! We then headed inland to Lake Tekapo and some absolutely amazing scenery involving lots of lakes and mountains. The Benmore Dam was spectacular, we thought Dave would have loved it. Next stop was the East coast again where we spent a few days looking for penguins and seals, and did spot about 3 pengiuns! We briefly stopped at Dunedin where we parked outside the hostel on a steep hill and rolled into the car infront. Luckily the owner of the hostel was one of those men that can do everything so he backed it up with minimal damage. The smell of burnt clutch brought back all those memories of last summer's holiday in Italy. Mmmm! There we walked up the steepest road in the world.
Next stop was Te Anau, which we absolutely loved. We stayed in a tiny hostel which was actually a family home. Rosie owned it and baked cookies and was like a mum to us. It was great to use sharp knifes and a propper oven. We stayed there 3 nights, and on the first night went to the local pub where we were very greatful to taste real ale again (after that Australian rubbish). We went for a walk one day on the Keplar track, and discovered when we got back to Rosie's that it was the woods used in Lord of the Rings. Her husband was a National Park ranger and had to supervise the cast when they were filming. He told us lots of funny behind the scenes stories. The next day we drove up to Milford Sounds which was the most exciting drive of our lives. We stopped off loads to see lakes, waterfalls, amazing views etc. It also involved driving through a tunnel through a mountain which was on a slope and very low ceilinged. We went on a cruise tour around the Milford Sounds which is actually a fiord, not a Sound. Unfortunately we left our headlights on when we took the cruise so returned to a totally flat battery. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was coming up to closing time for the cruise company so H went to find someone and eventually came back with a man in a big truck. After about 15 mins he managed to get our car started so we could go back to Rosie's. Phew!
We left Rosie's the next day only because we had to as she was closing up for the winter, and we drove to Queenstown with 2 german girls that wanted a lift. It rained the whole time we were in Queenstown which was a bit annoying as it meant thet all we did was eat and go shopping (without buying anything). It was very pretty, just like a ski town, but it was realy busy too and we've decided that we like the really little places (we're getting old). We went to Wanaka next, via Arrowtown which is a tiny town which was used during the gold mining time. It had the remains of an old settlement of chinese gold miners - very tiny little huts! We went for a walt there up a huge hill which was a lot higher than we thought it would be, but the view from the top was pretty cool.
Wanaka is another little ski town but really small. We loved it there and went to the best cinema in the world, cinema Paradiso. It was tiny and all the chairs in the cinema were sofas, and there was even an old car body with a sofa inside that you could sit in! In the middle of the film a smell of freshly baked cookies drifted into the room and they had an interval so that we could go and buy one from the tiny cafe next door - they were soooo good and the chocolate chips were still warm and gooey! Yum! We went to Puzzeling World when we were in Wanaka too which had a huge maze (we do love our mazes) that we got stuck in for 1 and 1/2 hours - very frustrating!
After Wanaka we headed to Fox glacier on the West coast where we went for a day hike on the glacier. It was really amazing and we got to wear crampons and everything! We went through this tiny worm tunnel in the ice which was only big enough to wiggle our bodies through and we were basically just lying in icy water under the ice!
We stopped off at Franz Josef glacier just to have a look on the way to Greymouth. The only reason we stopped at Greymouth was to go to the Monteith's brewery tour. We got quite tiddly that night as we has to take advantage of all the free beer. We drove to Nelson in the North of the South Island stopping wherever took our fancy, and used Nelson as a base to get to Abel Tasman where we went for a lovely walk up the coast and got a boat back.
The last place we visited before getting the ferry to the North Island was Renwick where there are something like 40 cellar doors of Vineyards in a 25 km radius. We hired a bike from our hostel and set off to the vineyards at 10.30am. We cycled to 6 vineyards and tried 5-7 wines in each one. Em nearly fell off her bike a few times at the last vineyard. It was such a good day. I think we actually know about wine a bit better now too!