With one day left in Queenstown the only must do activity left was to complete the 3 hour Walk to the Queenstown hill basket. This infamous uphill trek of ice and snow is known for providing the best view of Queenstown and its surroundings from the peak. Making it with only one fall we took in the natural beauty of NZ. It is difficult to describe NZ without making the country sound repetitive but the endless scenes of mountains, trees and lakes created by huge fa...

Our 2nd day at Cordrona Ski resort was made better before we even left as Hes and Emma surprised us on arrival. They had woken up at 5am before everyone else and booked on to the ski bus. With Tes, Carly and Arias also joining us our kiwi ex group were skiing in force. It just so happens that one of our new best friends we have met over the last week, Johannes, is a ski instructor and out of the goodnes of his heart he gave us both an hour long private lesso...

As Queenstown is known for its winter sports its a good place for Charlotte to learn how to ski and Matt to practice. The bus ride up to Cardrona resort was an experience. The driver explained to all the passengers that he was new to the job and was being assessed as part of his training. This became clearly evident. At one point we were driving uphill when after a huge crunch of the gearbox we started to reverse. Not what you need on winding mountain roads with ...

Queenstown The hostel we are residing includes free breakfast and dinner so in true backpacker style we were up nice and early to beat the queues and fill ourselves up to try and save us being hungry at lunch time. All morning one thing loomed over us and the whole coach. THE CANYON SWING. Today is the day where at 11.30 we will be free falling off the worlds highest cliff dive at 330ft into the canyon below. As the third and last item on our adrenaline lis...

Wanaka to Queenstown The first stop today was Puzzle World but not wanting to pay to complete the mazes, we sat with the majority of bus in the cafe trying to figure out the puzzles and games which were there to amuse us. WinterFest was in Queenstown this week, so what a perfect time for us to visit. With skiing on the agenda we needed gloves and socks so we hit the shops. But being on a tight budget due to our adventurous activities coming up, we searc...