We woke the next morning to blue skies so rang ahead for the glacier hike - so far so good! They asked that we check in at 9 so we had breakfast and headed down. At 9.30 we were being kitted out with boots, crampons, waterproofs and a bag to take up - yay we were going! Once the group was ready we walked to the helicopter field where luckily we were given the front row seats which meant the best view! We landed on the glacier and had just over 2 hours of expl...

We woke early for breakfast and the bus to Franz Josef. The walk to the bus was not so much fun as it was torrential rain and down hill with suitcases! Once down the very steep hill the journey to the bus became more interesting as the pavements were flooded to above my hiking boots. This left us no option but to use the road but in the darkness of the early morning this was not exactly a safe option. Fortunately we made it to the bus stop where we waited for t...

Woke up to get the bus to Milford sound. During the walk we could feel the could and the change in temperature from Christchurch. On arriving at the crowne plaza where we were due to be picked up we could see a display confirming that it was in fact rather cold at a mere 2.6 degrees. Thankful the coach turned up pretty much on time we hopped on board and took our seats for the long bus ride to Milford - 3 hours long in fact. This wasn't too bad though as the vie...

The weather this morning wasn't brilliant so we went to the shop and bought food to make home made burgers. We then sat and watched face off and basic whilst taking in the amazing view from outside our window with Jimmy the hostel cat! This was then followed by more dinner and the rest of the first season of game of thrones - officially now addicted! Need to find the second season now!

The next morning we had Lie in, breakfast and then met our bus for the wine tasting tour of Queenstown. The tour included visiting 4 wineries: Gibston Valley, Mt Rosa, Remarkables and Amisfield. Turns out I like dessert wine and the mulled wine at Remarkables was amazing! Then we went to a pub with a couple from the tour and enjoyed a glass of wine from one of the wineries we had been to. Then back to the hostel for dinner and more game of thrones.