We arrived in Queenstown, after travelling around New Zealand on long empty roads, entering Queenstown was like London in rush hour. Queenstown is packed full as it is the school holidays at the moment and everyone comes here skiing. We only just about found somewhere to stay. It's a pretty town but packed full of Ski shops and cosy little cafes with log fires. It rained the entire time we were there. Queenstown is supposed to be the adventure capital but I don't think winter is quite the time for a skydive, bungee jump off a bridge or a speeding boat ride (there is no way I'm doing a bungee anyway). We decided not to go skiing here as it was just so busy, unfortunately we have timed our trip badly as it is the school holidays the whole time we are here, oh well. Queenstown does offer some great places to go out, and it's very relaxed most people turn up with their ski gear after a heavy day on the slopes and have a mulled wine around the fire, which we happily joined in with. New Zealanders love fish and chips even more than the British, their fish is great but their chips are frozen rubbish (as in Oz) but luckily it's really cheap. After Queenstown we went to Wanaka, which is a cute little town, surrounded by mountains and on the edge of a beautiful lake, which is actually just the norm in New Zealand I think. After looking at the ski fields near by in Cardrona we decided to head up there as they had loads of beginner runs. It was extremely busy though and it took us an hour just to get our gear. It was freezing up there. I have never been so cold in all my life, I couldn't feel my fingers it felt like they would snap off. It was a high of minus 8 and a low of minus 14! Don't know how I coped. I managed to improve a bit and Chris did too with his snowboarding. On the way back we picked up some local hitch hikers, students who hitch up the mountains everyday in their hols, which seems to be quite common around here. They have all been skiing since they could walk (very jealous). We had to use snow chains up the mountain, but we only had one on, as the other is fixed shut and we just cannot open it to get it around the wheel, but the roads haven't really been that bad for us at all.