The Glaciers - Queenstown.

From the glaciers we went inland a little to Lake Wanaka via the Haast pass, a lovely drive over the lowest part of the southern alps range, but still rather high. Wanaka is a small and pretty town. At this time of year it’s also a very cold town with ice cold winds.

We braved the winds and incessant rain and went walking up a mountain for 3 miles anyway. We must be suckers for punishment. We were soaked by the time we got back to the van, even with waterproof jackets. But as no other idiots had ventured out that day we were able to dry off and get changed in the van easily. There would’ve been no need for curtains – no cars were in the car park at the start or finish of our walk!

We travelled from Wanaka to Queenstown where we started to get some nice weather again. Queenstown is the adventure sports capital of NZ and before we had even arrived in town Colin had jumped off a 43m high bridge with just a big elastic band around his ankles. Of course I too could have done this but somebody had to take the photos! I did also persuade him to get the DVD so we can bore you all back home with something other than photos.

Yesterday we blew our budget a little and went on a jet boat (freeze your nose off and careful not to dribble speeds), followed by my first helicopter ride ever to higher up the Shotover river where we white-water rafted back down. Apparently in Queenstown it’s fine to do a grade 5 rapid when you’ve never rafted before. (Grade 1 is a tame float down a river, Grade 6 is classed as commercially unraftable!). Apart from some crazy rapids and a hairy moment where we accidently grounded our raft on a rock, everything went swimmingly, no, bad choice of words, we got very wet but the raft stayed upright and everyone apart from the experienced guy filming it managed to stay in the raft. We followed the active morning with one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Today we worked off the calories by doing another tough walk 500m up a mountain. It was a very strenuous walk but totally worth it when you got to the top. The weather has been fantastic for the last 2 days so the views were stunning. Partly because of the gorgeous weather and partly because of the lack of sand flies and other bitey insects we both rate Queenstown very highly.

Tomorrow we are going to Te Anau where we have booked a coach trip into the Milford Sound, which promises to be beautiful and the weather looks like it’s going to be good for the whole weekend. Yay!

Only a week left now in NZ with our van, Lucy. After a particularly bad night’s sleep last night I think even I will look forward to staying in a hotel in Auckland (yes, we have already booked the one with the heavenly bed) although I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole campervan experience. Colin still rates it right up there with the worst kinds of torture including watching Riverdance and waiting for me to get ready to go out!!!