22 November - Got up really early as I was supposed to go rafting at 8.15am, but when I got there it was cancelled due to insufficient numbers, so I had to go on the afternoon raft that left at 1.15pm. So just wandered round the town, went on the internet and got some food. I was going on the Kawarau river, which is a tamer river (the other one I could have gone on was the Shotover river which was a higher grade and due to all the rain all the boats were tippi...

Saturday 13 - Had a lazy morning trying to sort out my plans for my remaining time here. Then I went on a cruise on Lake Wakatipu. The cruise was on the old steamer TSS Earnslaw that was launched in 1912. The cruise went to the other side of the lake (the western side) to a tiny place called Walter Peak. There is a farm there and you can go horse riding but there is nothing else. But it seemed nice and quaint although I didn't get of the boat to see. Through...

Friday 12 - Had a bit of a lie in in the moring and in the afternoon went on a Goldseekers tour to Skippers Canyon, which is northish of Queenstown. I was the only one on the tour apart from a DOC woman who was there to inspect the tour. To get there we drove up to Coronet Peak and then went on Skippers Road. The road was just a gravel track, very narrow and with sheer drops in places and no barriers. Lots of the corners were named and one was called 'Bus Scr...

Wednesday 10 - Went to Arrowtown in the morning, catching the 9.45am shuttle. It used to be a gold mining town, but now has about 2000 inhabitants. Went to see the restored Chinese gold miners settlement. They have restored many of the houses, which are little more than tiny shacks. They also gave information about the miners lives - they had really hard lives and had to put up with a lot of prejudice, especially in the 1880's. After this I went for a walk a...

Left Wanaka at 8.15am on the Atomic shuttle. Arrived in Queenstown just after 9am and went to by hostel which was called Scallywags. It was a small hostel and my room was the nicest I've had - the bunks were really cool. The owner Evan was a bit strange, not the sort to tolerate fools, and he seemed to think that most backpackers were, so I don't know why he ran a hostel. The view from the hostel was incredible - I could see Lake Wakatipu, The Remarkables and ...