17th - 21st March

Life has been fairly hectic since last posting, hence the delay. 17th and 18th March were spent at Terry's house sorting out and packing for our departure to the South Island on the 19th.
We departed Wellington Airport for Christchurch at 5pm. It was just a 40 minute flight and, after collecting our luggage from the carousel and picking up our hire car we were on the way to a small town called Geraldine where were were booked into a motel for the night. It was about a 2 hour drive. Our original plan to stay 3 nights in Christchurch were thwarted by the earthquake. We have a very nice automatic Toyota Corolla hatchback which suits us very well.
20th March (Happy Birthday Clare) was spent on the road. Our first stop was at Lake Tekapo from where we had booked a helicopter flight to fly around Mount Cook and the glaciers, with a snow landing somewhere. But, disappointingly, this was cancelled due to low cloud. We plan to try for another flight from the West Coast somewhere the week after next. Lake Tekapo is a beautiful place, so peaceful and with the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd on the shore of the lake.

We met up with Clare, Dave and their friend Georgie in the evening for a birthday meal. They had been recommended a restaurant in Queenstown on the shore of the lake called 'Prime', and it was excellent. We all had a really good evening.


We are staying 3 nights in The Settlers Cottage Motel in Arrowtown about 20 minutes from Queenstown. It is very quiet and comfortable.
Yesterday we met up with Clare et al and had a wander around Arrowtown and the Chinese Village, where the Chinese settled on their quest for gold in the 1860's. We then drove about 30K out of town to visit the historic Goldfields Mining Centre. On the way we stopped at the original bungy jump bridge, A.J. Hackett. People were queueing up to pay the NZ$180 for the privilege of scaring themselves to death! I have to admit to being a little bit tempted but in the end was not stupid enough to risk life and limb. I'm probably too old anyway.
We drove past the goldfields on our way into Queenstown and decided we wanted to pay a visit. It was very interesting and we panned for gold but, unfortunately, hopes of finding enough gold to fund this holiday were dashed, I found none! Clare, Dave and I also had a jet boat ride. That was terrifying but terrific. I got absolutely soaked right through but luckily the sun was hot enough to pretty well dry me out afterwards.

We went to Clare's lovely lakeside apartment near Queenstown in the evening for a BBQ. There is one in the grounds for all to use.


A lovely evening, and they put on a great spread. Clare etc leave the area today and are heading back up to Chrisrchurch and tomorrow we head south to Bluff and Stewart Island.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad