Glenveagh B&B Christchurch

... we phoned the desk and asked for a different car. This time we were given the now infamous “little car.” A very old Toyota Carolla, with terrible breaks and no get up and go. We took little car back to the hostel to load every one up and were on the road headed towards the Milford Sound by 9:45.

Audrey's account and over reactions: The drive took us about 5 hours, but all-in-all I would say that it was one of the most action-packed drives of my life! To pass ...

... into Australia (even though I was only going for a week!) as I hadn't been told anything about it when I booked my tickets. What a stunninh airport! You can see the Southern Alps from the airport which looked stunning as being winter when I left, they were covered in snow, the whole journey up to ChCh was emotional, but, made it a bit easier to be stunned by all the snow the whole way up.

... their interview/induction. We on the other hand slept till 11 and then went for some breakfast/lunch before heading to the Franz Josef Glacier center to begin our half day hike!

Yes people, we were going hiking!
After about 45 minutes we were kitted out in over trousers, socks, boots, jacket, hat and gloves and were bundled into the bus where Jess announced she was now getting her hangover.
Driven maybe ten minutes out the village we got off the bus and started ...

... as the sun was getting low over the mountains. There was even a supply of fresh ice (for chilling the venom bottles) laying on the short grass under the ferns (a baited trap).Tables & deck chairs came out, followed by nibblies & drinks. Then it struck without warning. The final death cries of that lone midgie I slaughtered mercilessly earlier had fallen on their ears and they lay in wait for us to become comfortable & complacent.  In a scene which should have featured in ...

... made this country my first choice for a return visit once this round of world travels is over.

In the interest of time (yours and mine), instead of blogging on all of the great times I encountered in New Zealand, I kept bullet point notes of memorable moments during my stay there and will include them in several blog entries along with pictures, beginning with this one focusing on my time on the North Island from Christchurch to Mt. Cook National Park ...

... we find ourselves broken down at the side of the stewart's highway with no town or other cars to be seen, and images of the wolf creek killer jumping out of a bush, to kill us all, bouncing around in the back of my mind, at least! so it goes, we're driving along, stopping to check the camper ever so often to make sure it's coping with the distances, when the oil level light clicks on and suddenly sean's stopping the van! oh yes, there is something most definitely wrong! it ...

... checked in and had a quick shower, I had to rush off to the base hostel in the centre of town (15 min walk) where we got a free tui as part of our ticket (it was pretty good value; $25 for the ticket, bus there and back, two tui's and a free tui cap! And a ticket on its own was $23!) The game was pretty good, really quite fun with cheer leaders, men riding horses in body armour and even Harleys parading around with the girls on the back at half time...the rugby guys were half bad either! The ...

... we were standing on 150 meters of ice or roughly 450 ft. We made it back time for a quick dinner and then drove out through a national park to Gillespie's Beach. We caught the most incredible sunset because not only did you have the sun fading into the ocean you could see the orange glow on Mt. Cook (NZ tallest mountain) right behind you. We finished off the night at the local town pub ...

... lots of things to do i would love to go back and spend a few days there just chilling out. The last day of the tour and it was time to go back to Christchurch. Ive really enjoyed my time here, the country reminds me of the Lake District back in the uk, escept this is 10 times more beautiful, its a country you can really loose yourself in and just enjoying being here without the need to actually do anything! i would love to come back one day. Another thing that made this ...

... ander schuitje dan ik (zij had bijna geen geld meer en moest hier in Christchurch nog een tijdje wachten op haar vliegtuig terug naar Engeland), maar genoeg hetzelfde om samen een kartonnetje wijn te kopen.

De volgende dag heb ik eerst een tijd gelezen en daarna besloot ik eens te gaan winkelen. de zomeruitverkoop is begonnen en tja... Soms is het dan gewoon leuk om wat rond te hoppen.
Het "World Busker Festival" (straatartiesten)kwam eraan en dat maakte dat de ...