Gold Ridge Queenstown

... as it is vast lakes and mountains. It is such an experience sailing through it on the boat trip. Truly memorable and we took some fabulous photos (coming soon, honest). This is somewhere where everyone should go once in their life if at all possible. <br><br>It's not always easy to get to a net cafe but watch out for the next part - a bit more NZ then Sydney. Bye for now.<br><br>Tracey and Phill<br>

... paid for as a birthday present from my fantastic friends Nikki &amp; Stephen - thanks again guys xx). This is a high speed jet boat that takes you up and down the Shotover river, getting incredibly close to the cliff sides and doing loads of 360 degree turns! It was an excellent experience and i could have stayed on all day long! <br><br>After a couple of days enjoying Queenstown i took a day trip to Milford Sound which is one of the top tourist ...

... producerr (with a find of 25 pounds of gold on the river banks for an example). It isn't mined anymore but used for river boat runs. <br><br>The runs are in a metal speed boat that goes up to 85km per hour through the river which is incredibly low. We could feel the rocks hitting the bottom of the boat often. Crazy 360 degree turns and rapids. It was fantastic!

... and the surrounding areas. We were then able to take a chair lift from the bottom of the luge course to the top. Luging involved piloting little platic sled-like things down the side of a mountain around steep curves. We bought the pass that let us do five runs and set off. It was great fun, and I won two of our unofficial races down, Dom won two and Sebastian, only one (and barely at that). I also crashed off the course into a fence, but wasn't hurt (although that was ...

... grit and the descent but as this is my second day here, I get an extra life and full bonus points. The next sign of life is at Haast &#8211; a small town where the Haast river hits the coast and the start of the canyon drive inland. This was a staggering piece of engineering and only completed in 1964. It was closed again a couple of years ago for five days after a landslide. This is still visible, well let's say you couldn&#8217;t ...

... Wanaka...just a bit more chilled and quaint there.<br><br>Im only here for 2 nights, one full day. Main objective again was skiing, check! I went to Remarkables resort today, named after the mountain range. I have to say i was really disappointed. The skiing there just didn't do anything for me. The slopes were quite boring for my liking, too straightforward, and ...

... valley, showing us beautiful views of the scenery. We stopped off to poke the frozen river and I admired the view while David tried to break the ice with a stick. Every turn gave us more beautiful views. After our walk we headed back to Queenstown, stopping on the way to admire the lake and have a pebble-skimming competition. In town we had dinner at the infamous Fergburger, which gave us the most enormous burgers we have ever seen. Yummy!

... these tours (and the ones I did in Cairns) I meet some interesting people from all parts of the world. Well that was yesterday and well worth the 13 hours it took; my journey is still full of surprises in this wonderful world we live in. Today 12th May I drove to Glenorchy along the lake from Queenstown really a very scenic drive but as it was raining I didn't see very much of the mountains, they are so magnificent with snow capped peaks its a ...

... there is just so much packing and cleaning and tidying up that we know we're going to have to ask for a late checkout the next day! luckily, upon first asking the lady behind reception, she seems quite amicable and understands and allows us an extra hour or so to get ourselves together. great! unfortunately, an hour later and we're still not finished and i go back up to see her to ask for another 15 minutes or so and she tells me off infront of a whole quece of grey nomads ...

... hike, some of the hikes take five to seven days! To get to the national park we were brought by bus and then catamaran. It was a lovely sunny day with a nice blue sky. I didn't really know what to expect. We were told to bring our own food for lunch as there are no shops in the park. We docked in Anchorage and spent a few minutes just admiring the view. Then the tough part, walking up the steep hill! Each step gave us a gorgeous view so I worked through the pain ...