Greenhouse Ski Lodge Methven

... the horsed Crusader came on waving his flag to some atmospheric music, it was pretty cheesy!! In the end the home team won but not by much! We then headed down the Banks Peninsula to Akaroa, where we had booked to go swimming with the Hectors dolphins. Unfortunately for us they didn't want to play, so we saw them but didn't get a swim (secretly a little relieved about this how cold would the Pacific be in April?) and got some money back which was a bonus ...

... and very close - to the main areas where the glow-worms live. They are territorial so the lights were pretty evenly spaced. Even with so many lights it was still dark enough that we couldn't see anything in the chamber, other that the hundreds of points of light. On returning across the lake to Te Anau we made the drive back towards Queenstown - visiting lake Hayes and Arrowtown (and "olde" gold-mining town) for lunch. We then headed for Lake Wanaka where we found ...

... that was something! Included was punting on the River Avon, a trip up the Gondola, a visit to 1 of the oldest buildings in the city as well as tour round some of the residential areas and to the sea side and then a two day ticket to use the city trams - it was a marvellous experience. As Itype this I am looking out on to Cathedral Square - the heart of Christchurch - at a bustling market and the beautiful Cathedral. A wee bit for my ex-colleagues and friends at SQA - we met up ...

We had to start making it back for a flight and to be honest didnīt too much for the next couple of days, historical Oamaru had taken it out of us. I forgot to mention that we even went to see some historical theatre, which if it hadnīt been for the free drink would have been very disappointing indeed. Popped down the Banks ...

... have rolled back down - some hire cars were even struggling. A few American tourists from the cruise ship took a taxi to the top of the street. Never ones to shirk a challenge though, myself and Lisa walked to the top and back. Walking back was pretty much done by leaning backward and taking small steps!! So on this trip we have had both the Crookedyiest Street in San Francisco and now the ...

... we discovered that we were not travelling through fog but clouds, we were up at about 2000 feet, i nealry lost my life and then cried for a half hour because im scared of heights. Yes i know, what do you expect if you want to go sking its up a mountain, but not all places do you have to travel up the side of the mountain in snow and ice on a gravel road with no sides. Anyway when i arrived i have to say the crying was subsided by the absolutly fantastic view ...

... up by the car rental company and taken to their depot and got our "el cheapo" Jucy rental car. We were very glad when it turned out to be an automatic! We were then asked if we wanted snow chains. We were a little taken aback by this and said "do we need them?" Apparently, in some areas it is required that you use chains if you do not have 4WD. We told them where we were going and he said that we better have them just in case. We took them. Then we started ...

The drive from Kaikoura to Methven took us on the inland scenic route, through lots of greenery and plenty of hills all around. It was very pretty. We stopped once on the way at a river where several boats run tours up and down. We dipped our toes into the water to test the temperature and let's just say we didn't fancy a swim! We arrived in Methven at around 3pm and the place was almost deserted. Methven is a ski resort town and it is dead in the ...

... because of the noise of the wind - we could tell! Most of the LOTR locations are off the beaten track but it's rewarding when you finally reach a place you recognise. We're going to try and see more of them in the North Island. After leaving Edoras we headed on through Mount Hutt and reached Methven about 4pm. Methven is quite big for a small town and has lots of pubs, shops and ...

... end of a long dry spell. This meant that as well as a day worshipping at the altar of Aoraki (and taking tea at the Hermitage Hotel) we managed to get to some walks that are not normally too accessible. The rewards of repeated visits, we can tick some more obscure boxes.One of these was the North branch of the Temple River, a walk that starts with a river crossing - we'd tried this a couple of years back and been thwarted by a raging torrent, but this ...