July 24th (Friday) - Day 145 - Queenstown

I woke up and I have never been so stiff in my life! I can walk miles but not with crampons it seems. All the way up the glacier you had to stamp your feet. It certainly took its toll. Slowly I walked down to the bus. It was a long one today but with lots of stops. Plenty of chance to hurt getting on and off the bus! The first stop was the next town down called Fox Glacier. Basically the exact same town but for another glacier. The driver told us about a lake where you could get really nice reflections of the mountains so Sarah and I started to hobble towards it. We walked for what seemed like an hour (10 minutes) but we could not see the lake; hence we turned back. On the way back we bumped into others from the bus who were thinking this was too far. We all went back to the car park to look at the map to find out the lake was that way after all. So once again we went back. This time we did not have long left so we had to go in a hurry. This turned out to be quite cool as the people we were walking with turned out to be really cool and on the same timetable as us all the way back round to Christchurch. We did not have time to go to the correct place on the lake but got some cool pictures of Mount Cook (Nz's tallest mountain) nevertheless. We had loads of stops along the way, most of which I don't even remember apart from a beach that was meant to have tiny dolphins swimming in the bay but we only saw one. It was funny as people got really close to the sea and all of a sudden a big wave came and most people could not get out the way and got wet feet! We drove alongside Lake Hawea and shortly after, Lake Wanaka; both really huge and spanning as far as the eye could see. Just before Queenstown we stopped at the AJ Hacket bungee - this was the world's first commercial bungee centre. We watched a few people jump (that's not me in the pictures!) and set off for Queenstown. It was already half 5 and everyone wanted to meet at half 6 for dinner. Sarah and I had to go sort out our skiing passes and clothes hire which took ages. Everyone seemed to descend on the ski centre at the same time. We were not done until half 7! We headed out to find some dinner. Everywhere was full but we finally found a make shift table in a place and waited ages for our food. For those not wanting dinner with the group we'd arranged to meet at 9. We only just made that! There ended up being about 15 of us! We'd all seemed to hear about this place that did tea pot cocktails for half price between 9 and 10 so headed straight there. We had a really cool night with the whole bunch of them.

July 25th (Saturday) - Day 146 - Queenstown

We wandered down to the ski centre at about 8 and jumped on a bus to Coronet Peak. Once we arrived we grabbed our boots and skis then headed to the waiting area for the lessons. We were a good hour early so hung around. Eventually some others from our bus turned up and we stuck with them so we'd be in the same lessons. There were about 30 people waiting for lessons so i knew it was going to be a slow lesson! We made our way out and started. It was really basic stuff to begin with like walking with one ski on. We finally got both skis on and practiced stopping for the rest of the morning. Most people picked it up really quickly but the few that didn't took most the guide's time so we had a lot of standing around. My boots were so tight and I lost all feeling in my feet so I was happy when it was lunch time. We had a quick snack and went back out to practice before our afternoon lesson. Luckily hardly anyone showed up so we had a lot more of the guide's time. We went up the magic carpet lift to a slightly longer practice slope and practiced turning for a few hours. Once the lesson was over we were feeling cocky so went up the main lift to the proper ski runs. It was horrid getting on the chair lift and once we reached the top we both fell over. Once we got up we made our way down the slope. Sarah lost control and almost went over the edge of a cliff but she managed to fall over before it was too late - we took the rest really slowly. Once we were done we returned our skis and headed back to the town. We then had to go get sized up for our skis for the following day as we were using a different company the following day. That evening we went to a burger joint called Fergburger. We waited over 45 minutes to get our order but it was worth the wait. It cut my life expectancy by about 20 years but was lovely. We then met the group from the bus again at 9 and had a really good night out with them.

July 26th (Sunday) - Day 147 - Queenstown

After the night before we got up slightly later than planned but it didn't matter as we had a lot of time to ski as it was. We made our way up to the Remarkables ski slope and hit the practice slopes. We needed to ensure everything we learnt yesterday had stuck. We did about 5 runs but the lift back up was so busy I got annoyed at it. So I left Sarah practicing and I went up the main ski run. It was not too busy and the slope down was a lot nicer than the slopes yesterday. When I got back to the bottom Sarah was coming up the beginner's ramp and then just ignored me. I had to ski down behind her to let her know I was back. I convinced her to hit the main slope with me. We did that twice with no problems and went for lunch. After lunch we hit the largest run they had. I managed to fall over off the ski lift and cause a bit of a pile up. We made it down after that with no problems. The second time round Sarah fell off the ski lift and caused a pile up. Again we made it to the bottom with no issues. We had had enough by this point so headed back to down. We dumped all our stuff then went for a walk around town to take some pictures of the lake and mountains etc. That evening we just chilled in the hostel.

July 27th (Monday) - Day 148 - Queenstown (Milford Sound)

We had a stupidly early start for our day trip to Milford Sound. Everyone we had spoken to about NZ told us to go. It is a good 5 hours each way from Queenstown. Laura and Edel were on the same trip too. We all had to meet in the office and jump on the bus. It was a really cool bus as it had windows on the roof to see out of. As soon as the driver started talking we knew he was not going to shut up and we were so right! He went on and on all day, going off on random tangents the whole time about pointless things. Both Sarah and I passed out and missed the sun rise. We stopped about half way for a coffee and head off into the national park. There was so much to see along the way and we stopped loads of times. The most impressive was going up through the mountain valley. Huge snow covered mountains surrounded both sides of the road. The road itself is classed as the most dangerous in NZ as it lies in the way of over 20 avalanche zones. Many of which had fallen the week before closing the road for 3 days due to safety issues. We stopped twice, once to fill our water bottles from a pure mountain stream and the other to see a gorge. It was all very rushed as we had to meet a boat at 1. We made it just in time and we set off on our 90 minute tour around Milford Sound. It wasn't the best weather but the scenery was still stunning. The area itself was a huge network of glaciers valleys that have been flooded by rising seas over the centuries. We went about 15km out to sea and they showed us how the entrance is hidden from the sea and no one discovered it for decades. We headed back in and they took us up close to some seals and waterfalls. Once the boat docked we were straight back on the bus. Laura had opted to take a scenic helicopter ride back; I so wanted to do it but it was a lot of money! The rest of us then had to spend the next 5 hours sat on the bus. I tried to sleep but couldn't. Once we got back we headed out to this really cool pizza place we had been told about. It's a really small place but really busy so after waiting ages we had to share a table with an older Aussie couple and another 2 that didn't say a word to us or each other.