Novotel Gardens Queenstown

... men ...including Steve of course. We had a great time joking around as well as passing through awesone canyon scenery..of course we were the ones powering the boat and there were times we needed to work really hard to get round some of the rapids. Other times we had to all leap into the center and hold on for grin death as we encountered the pinball, jaws , the washing machine and "oh ****" rapids....the names said it all !!!!! great ...

... flying to Australia on October 2 and not spending any time in Auckland at the end of the trip. The logic behind this is that I have less days therefore more money to spend per day. And it's just as well because there is so much to do here and it all comes at a hefty price. <br><br>It was also a good thing I decided to stay longer because after signing up for a skydive the weather yet again turned, meaning I had to wait three long days to throw myself 12 ...

... steam boat across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Farmstead. Again the scenery was just stunning and the kids had fun petting the Highland Cows and sheep. That night Tony (the star) babysat while Sar and I checked out some Queenstown nightlife. We had some well earned beers (NZ beer is much better than Oz beer!) and a yummy pizza at Winnies. There was speed dating on at Winnies but we managed to hold back and not join in! The next day was Sar and Tony's last day before ...

... we were greeted by three feet of snow! We didn't make it all the way to the lake we were headed to but some of us had a nice lunch in a hut along the route before heading back. It was lots of fun with beautiful snow! Getting used to having snow on the ground, and at times, LOTS of snow, has taken some getting used to! <br><br>Wednesday morning we headed out with loaded packs for Mt. Aspiring. Again, there was supposed to be no snow in the valley we were headed up and yet again ...

... above the rest :-)<br><br>As a dutiful wife I made sure I filmed the whole thing and laughed from start to finish ha ha!! And then would you Adam and Eve it but the compare said there were prizes and guess who won the "best and worst" Cook Island dancing competition???!!!! Little dancing rocking CD Phil. Well I don't think I've had a prouder moment in my life when he received his two bottles of Lynx deordorant for his prize!!!!!! Then of course he had to do a finale with ...

As we had already booked ourselves in for a Canyon Swing the first challenge in Queenstown was to find out the attitude towards freedom camping. We looked it up on the internet and found a lot of anti-campervan sentiment. We had a good spot near public toilets but as we couldn't find a definitive answer so we looked up the i-site (tourist info) and called them. They said that freedom camping was not allowed but told us about a DOC site a bit out of town ...

... and more since, and this guy at the rockhampton park, i definitely think the women who run the caravan parks are not nice people! a major generalisation, you might think, but i'm sticking to it! we really have had some nasty run-ins with the women who run the caravan parks, of late, with their bad attitudes and meanness oozing from every pore! anyway...! bundaberg... after leaving rockhampton, hangovers in check, we head south for bundaberg. home of ginger beer and a rum ...

... for various extreme sports and stuff. The campsite is appalling - really expensive, because its in the middle of town, but they don't tell you that you then have to pay extra for a shower, and you only get half the normal space you get at a site - they are generally standard across NZ. Not very happy so we are going to use as much electricity as possible tonight with our heater - not too difficult as is cold here!

... Hannah's visit and skiing with her in Queenstown was great. Her, Daniel and Alije and Nathan were the only friends from Europe to make it down here. Respect!<br><br>We've had some good pre-season fun discovering an old gold mining village with Sarit and Sumeshni's 4x4, fording the Arrow River over 30 times and climbing Ben Lomond (1950 m) which is twice as high as the "original" in Scotland as well as going on a (sadly ******) Lord of the Rings Safari to the sights of ...