Edgewater Resort Wanaka

... 6 nights for various activities including skiing!!!

After booking into the hostel, we go out to a nice little coffee shop that did really good milkshakes, end up having two drinks each and write our postcards. We ventured off to find the post office, get them all posted, pop to the supermarket then head back to the hostel for dinner and an early night.

... into tramping condition again! Tomorrow we hit the road and start heading up the west coast. The plan is to stop at the glaciers for a night and then we'll see where the wind blows us. I don't know when I'll be back in touch but I'll try for another post before I leave NZ. I've posted pictures of my backpacking trip on my flickr site at: www.flickr.com/photos/amymillan/collect ions Ciao, Amy

... rush by banking hard often. The flight took us up the Whataroa Gorge to a number of Glaciers and an incredible Ice Lake. The seventeen minutes were about enough as air sickness was starting to take hold. Exhilarated we stopped at Lake Mapourika for lunch, just outside Franz Josef town. There a local fisherman offered us a trout he had caught, which would save him a trip into town! Delighted we were soon handed a cleaned 2kg headless fish! Onwards through ...

... a 4 hour hike on the glacier. I have never seen anything like it---the tour guide was very knowledgable and I am now able to tell anyone anything they may want to know about glaciers, just FYI:) We are staying with our friend Jules' ( Mer's friend from San Diego who we stayed with in Auckland) Unviersity friend at Dunedin. He has already signed us up to head to the bars and watch the big NZ vs ...

We drove all the way from Te Anau back to the village of Arrowtown right near Queenstown as theres only one way to go, all the way back. Arrowtown is an old goldminig town and looks like the Wild West, all the old buildings are now tourist boutiques though. We bought some sweets from the Remarkable Sweet Shop named after the mountains and left as it was raining hard and had been all night, the thunder was so loud it woke us several times ...

... is pretty low today too, obscuring much of the surrounding mountains. Views of the glacier itself are still spectacular though and the information platforms make for fascinating reading - especially the photographs showing how far it's receded in the last 80 years or so. On a clear day I imagine the views would be incredible, but even today it's a magnificent sight. You also get the impression clear days are at a premium here - a sign in reception at my diggs read ...

... torn apart by drinking, drugs, rape, crime and a drifting ethnic identity.

It wasn't exactly what we were hoping for (none of the amazing landscape) but it was a very gritty but enjoyable film which we ...

... te bellen en zij wisten mij te melden, dat ik zolang maar gewoon met de bagage achterin en met kranten in de achterbak (om al het vocht op te zuigen) rond moest rijden oftewel: "Denk maar niet dat wij iets gaan
betalen, het gaat vanzelf wel over". Laten we het hopen.

Terug in het hostel ontdekte ik de video-kamer. Een enorme breedbeeldtelevisie met een vrij uitgebreide video-collectie. En ze hadden "Once were Warriors". Een echte NZ-film, die ik toch ...