Queenstown & the South Island, NZ

We flew from Auckland directly down to Queenstown. As we had visited New Zealand on our honeymoon we decided that we would go back to all of our favourite places on this trip and go to the places that we had missed and Queenstown was one of our favourite places.
We arrived in to Queenstown and headed for the information centre to get ourselves booked in to some accommodation. She started quoting us for dorms and we could see this was going to be pricey! We really weren't too keen for a dorm and asked them to try again for a private room. We were lucky, they managed to get us in to a private room. The room was lovely it was right on the edge of the centre of town over looking the beautiful lake. The day was nearly over so we headed out for a wander around town and then out for dinner and drinks.
My Auntie Maureen & Uncle Brian were due in to Queenstown the same time as us, they had an apartment there, with a kitchen so on our first morning there they invited us over for breakfast which was yum. Brian was on the stove doing sausages, bacon and eggs, a real treat and just what we needed to start our fun filled day ahead! They were going to do the shotover jet which Brett and I had done before but couldn't resist not doing again so we decided to join Mau, Bri, Steven & Adam. On arrival at the shotover place we were pretty excited. We had a very nervous Auntie with us but we knew she would love it. We got to the front of the Que and planned our seating so that us "kids" had the best seats! We went for our ride on the jet boat that skims just inches above the water heading through shallow water and broken rocks, which were inches away from our heads. It was amazing and we all loved it. I think Maureen would have gone again!
We were taken back in to town where we headed up the Gondolas which is a bit of a scary ride in itself if you are scared of heights. We went up to see the amazing views and have a go on the luge and have a look at the bungee! We all headed to the luge which is basically a go cart that you go down the mountain on at some speed. On your first go you have to do the slower more scenic route then you are allowed on the advanced. We all got our instructions and raced down, it was fantastic! Maureen managed to drop the photos on the way down of the shotover jet so Adam, Steve & I had to go again...shame, to try and get the pics. It was a bit like being on fun house but at a much faster speed! Adam got the pics and we headed to the bungee. I was so tempted to do it but clearly watched for too long and chickened out. In hindsight I wish i had as i did one later on in Rotorua and it was fab!
It was so nice to spend the day with my cousins and Aunt & Uncle as we hadn't seen any one for 5months. Rumour must have got home that we were on one meal a day so we were being fed up by Maureen and Brian and they took us out for a pub lunch and for a curry that night!
I clearly made the mistake of saying "I'm not an ill person" before leaving home. As I seem to have fallen ill quite a lot since we've been gone and not just a sniffle...its been full blown flu, stomach bugs, water infections etc and it seemed my flu bug was back. I was losing my voice and felt awful and we were booked in to go to Milford Sounds the following day!
I spent half the night awake feeling like death with the whole hot and cold thing. I had an electric blanket on all the covers we had lots of jumpers etc and was till cold! By the morning I felt worse but dosed myself up on paracetamols and headed out for the 7am start! Our driver was super keen and was here to tell us about every thing even the clouds in the sky and as we were driving out of Queens town he pointed out the huge snow cloud on its way to us! We drove through a snow storm and through some beautiful scenery including the Mountain of Doom from Lord of the Rings. I pretty much slept the whole way and i was spotted by the driver who was disgusted that i would pay all this money to go on an excursion and sleep. I tried to explain I was ill but he thought I was hungover and gave me no sympathy! I tried my hardest to stay awake but I just couldn't and pretty much slept through the scenic route on the way to Milford Sounds! The parts I saw were truly amazing. Once we got to our destination we took a boat out and saw some more spectacular sights and I stayed awake the whole time!
Don't get me wrong I am glad we did the day trip to Milford but I think where we have been seeing so much on our journey we've been a little spoiled and seen so many amazing sights that we weren't as amazed as every one and may have been a little disappointed with what we saw. So, by the time we were due to go back on our four hour coach journey we were a little relived. I of course slept all the way back, well until we were about half an hour away then the coach broke down. We had to wait half hour for another bus to come and get us. It had been snowing hard in Queenstown and was so cold. We went out for dinner with Maureen, Brian, Steven & Adam before heading back to bed which I didn't move from for the next day and a half as i had a lovely cold and throat infection kicking in!
I began to feel better and obviously didn't want to waste our time here. So we got up and headed for the mountains to try out skiing New Zealand style. We had all our clothing we just needed to hire our skis. It seems very strange skiing here as you have to walk out in your normal shoes, get the bus up the mountain and then change in to your ski boots to ski. It took us about half an hour to get up the mountain. When we arrived at the top, you walk in to a shopping mall type of building which has a few shops and restaurants, you then walk through there and go to the top where you put your ski's on and head to the lifts. It was so busy out there. Brett & I lost each other within seconds. We finally found each other and headed for the lifts, the lift Que was probably about 6 wide and 20 deep and a mission. The slopes were just as busy and there were lots of beginners out there taking over the slopes. We did our first run down and it was more like dodge the fallers than get any kind of momentum going. We did a few runs, it seemed so different skiing there. You looked in the distance to see half the mountains covered in snow then green grass and no snow. I clearly wasn't 100% and after only about 6 runs we headed back down for the day as i was shattered.
We skiied for a few more days, it was fun but just didn't feel the same as the whole Alpes experience.
We spent a good amount of time in Queenstown, our next stop was Franz Josef.
We booked ourselves on to the backpackers bus to Franz Josef, it was cheap and we did expect a coach but it was a small minibus. It was full and small on the inside with hardly any leg room, beggars can't be choosers I suppose. There had been loads of snow over night so the roads were super icey and we were going at a very slow pace. We had lots of stop offs along the way and it seemed to take forever to get there. When we finally arrived in FJ there was lots of rain and low cloud. We were staying here for once night maybe more depending on the weather. We had planned to go up the glacier but the weather was so bad there was no chance of that happening so stayed for the one night and booked ourselves back on tot he same bus for the next morning.
Our bus arrived bright and early the following day for our road trip to Nelson. The bus was a little bigger and not so full. We had about 8 hours driving on this day but that was with a lot of stops along the way.
We stopped at the Pancake rocks which is basically a formation of rocks that look like pancakes placed on top of each other and our lunch stop was at a Salmon farm where you could feed the salmon, that kept me and Brett entertained for a good hour!
We finally arrived in Nelson to cold and rain. Our hostel was nice, we were at a YHA hostel and they are generally of quite a high standard. We headed in to town but it was like a ghost town with no one around. We were so hungry and were looking for a place to eat but places seem to close really early here, we luckily found a restaurant still serving food for the night!
As the weather was so bad we were very limited to what we could do here so didn't do very much apart from some laundry and a bit of shopping. Next stop was Picton for the ferry ride back to the North Island.
The day we were due to get the ferry I was very hungover after one too many red wines, the weather was awful and I was very prepared not to get the ferry. Its quite a rocky crossing and the way I was feeling this was not going to be good. We finally boarding and headed straight to the comfy quiet lounge where I stayed the whole time in not a very good way. I attempted to sleep but with no such luck.
On arrival in to Wellington we had about a 4 hour car ride to Rotorua where we were going to meet the family. We picked up our car, the smallest I had ever seen and headed off. We had a lot of rain along the way which seemed to get worse and worse as we drove. The weather reports weren't looking good. There is a road in NZ called the dessert road which is basically like driving across the dessert. This road is often closed due to bad weather and this was the case here, the only road through had been closed. So, we were going to be diverted. Luckily, or so we thought at the time, the road was re opened just before we headed of on our diversion. This was the scariest drive of my life. With snow coming at you from every direction, the roads as icey as an ice skating rink and a power less car it was not nice. We couldn't turn round and go back we just had to keep going. After a good hour we finally made it through, a driving experience neither of us would like a repeat of. Our 4 hour journey had turned in to about an 8 hour journey and we finally arrived in to Rotorua at about midnight, with no accommodation!
We managed to get ourselves in to a motel and were relieved we had made it.
We met up with the family the following day and went for lunch before they all headed back to Auckland. Brett, Steven and I all stayed behind to do some of the adventure rides there. We headed over to where they do the zorb, the airmachine, the bungy and the swoop for some extreme rides! The Zorb is a great big see through ball, a bit like a bouncy ball, you go inside and are taking to the top of the hill and basically roll down the hill inside the ball, hours of fun! The Air Machine is a weight less machine where you basically fly mid air and are kept up by the airmachine and then the swoop bungy is where instead of just dropping you get thrown out and drop and swing. Brett and I did this and it was amazing, the video footage is on the blog. The worst thing about this was letting yourself go, this was Bretts job and the worst part for me was just waiting to drop to the ground. Well worth it though and I'd do it again!
The three of us had a great afternoon here doing all the extreme sports. Once we'd had our fill of fun we headed back to Auckland for dinner at Aunty Lindas and to be with our kiwi family once more!