Mt Cook

I wasn't feeling well leaving Queenstown, think I was getting a cold :-(

Had a great 4 bed dorm room at the Base hostel with a view of the lake and the mountains, probably one of the better rooms - the only thing was a draft at night time entering through the glass door and windows of our small balcony. They didn't close tightly and therefore we had a constant draft in the room but it was not that bad during the day when the sun was out and none of us were in the room unless we had to change clothes or use the bathroom. It was a lot colder during the night, 4 degrees and a bit windy.

The weather in Queenstown in March is actually quite good. The only thing is that it changes a lot during the day. And the temperature difference is somewhat significant.

It's pretty chilly in the morning 4-8 degrees and then later on in the afternoon it will change to around 20-24 degrees in the sun and 15-17 degrees in the shade and in the evening it will turn pretty cold again. So my body was confused with the change in temperature throughout the day.

And the change from a warmer climate in Australia probably didn't help either. It's funny though cause like Australia New Zealand can be both warm and cold at the same time depending on where in the country you are located. In the Eastern part of the North in South Island - Christchurch - they had had 30-35 degrees whilst we were having 15-20 degrees in the South in Queenstown.

Mt Cook, Lodge and Motel (Backpackers)

We arrived at approx. 4pm and I was still feeling ill whilst having to check in to our backpacker place.

Had had a headache, fever and sore muscles for a few days and a runny nose so I didn't go hiking to the mountain as our Stray driver suggested after check in.

I had a lemon drink ("Lemsip Max" - is for fighting off cold & flu symptoms), ordered a pizza at the Lodge restaurant and then went to bed and almost slept through the night and woke up at 6am. Only sporadically woke up due to my room mates going in and out of the room and turning on the light. Glad we had a 4 bed dorm with an Ensuite bathroom so we didn't have to go into the hallway during the night and since it was a 4 bed dorm I only had 3 roommates and luckily they were nice and quiet ;-)

Think it was a good thing that I didn't go hiking or water rafting but just had a good night's sleep cause I was feeling a bit better the next day.

The Mt Cook Lodge and Motel was a nice place though. The restaurant had panoramic windows in the dining area with a really cool view of the mountains. It's an old but nice establishment, you'll notice if you stay overnight in their dorm rooms.

I can't really say much about their food other than their pizzas - stay away from the pizzas - they taste like carton with bad cheese. I might just have been very very unlucky and had a pizza when the chef was on vacation or maybe it was my flue getting to me but I have had plenty a pizza to notice a bad pizza ;-)