Grounded..... Down but not Out!!!

Evening..... Bit of a downer to start the day today. Our helicopter trip to the top of the Franz Josef Glacier was deemed unsafe to fly due to the ongoing rain and cloud. We were offered an alternative of a half or full day hike but considering the weather, we decided to cut our losses. We will be passing through that way again before we fly to Fiji and so may try again then. 

Until then, the weather forecast says the bad weather is coming from the South of the country and heading North slowly. Our solution....... HEAD SOUTH through the bad weather and onwards to Queenstown......

The drive was absolutely stunning and we had to stop for photos what seemed like every 5 minutes. Waterfalls just falling every 100 meters or so from each other, the noise was amazing. Turquoise water filling lake after lake beautiful and somewhat refreshing after the brown water following days of rain.  The town of Queenstown itself.... Not sold on it as yet!! It is everything that we imagined NZ not to be. Self absorbed, pompous, inflated prices, a louis vuitton shop, too busy to stop......so like London really! But Sarah is REALLY enjoying the beer! 

This now written the day after with reflection..... Queenstown not as bad as we had first feared, on day 2, the people were more friendly and we found an awesome burger / sandwich joint called 'FERGBURGER' which seems to be queuing out of the door at all times of the day.  This morning we explored the town on foot before taking a jet boat ride along the lake and into the rivers which was thrilling. Wet but thrilling. Got some great pictures and video of Sarah almost peeing her pants with laughter. The boat ride also confirmed most of what we had said yesterday. The huge houses strewn along the river bank really emphasises that this is millionaires playground. Sarah really got to house perve whilst we were out there.   So....... On reflection maybe not so bad as first feared. Queenstown is floated as the adrenaline capital of the Southern Hemisphere and there really is a lot we could do here but if we did we would be broke within 2 days, it is all that expensive!! So.... Time to move on...... Onwards to Te Anau and to Milford Sound for some appreciation of natural (and free) beauty!!

Speak Soon!! Xx