Queenstown

While in Queenstown we had heard about the ice bar and decided it was something we couldnt miss! It was actually below 7 degrees in there but called "Minus 5", we were only allowed to stay in there for half an hour and there werent many of us there but it was a great experience. The gave us big warm coats and gloves and even our cockatil glasses were made from ice..very cool!

Our first roast dinner for as long as i can remember...definately miss these and will be making an effort to make more!

Stunning scenery

Tea pot cocktails!!!! We absolutely loved this..especially having it in shot glasses. Wish i'd taken some pictures of the bar as it was a bit random, pictures that went around corners, some the wrong way round, giant moose heads, old style telephones in a row...a very strange place!

West Coast, NZ

We are now in Dunedin but here are some photos from the last week or so, i will upload more recent ones when I have more time and better software!
Our day out on Skippers Canyon Jet boat, the ride up there was beautiful but scary as we were right on the edge of a cliff the whole time!

I think this mountain range was The Remarkables

Lake Wakitipu (not spelt correctly i'm sure!) underwater observatory..pretty cool, huge rainbow trout, long fin eels and ducks

The beautiful autumn scenery :)

Our trip to Puzzling World in Wanaka...Liz on the left and me on the right..hehe looking so small in the corner!

These faces follow you around the room..creepy

The toilets!! (just for fun, not for actual use!)

Me and Liz at Lake Wanaka..wrapped up very warm!

Lake Wanaka

Our hostel in Wanaka, complete with open fire and house cat :) there was a sign saying the cat was grumpy but he was quite happy to let me stroke him!

Franz Josef Glacier Hot Pools...definately needed after a cold day in NZ!

Franz Josef Glacier

Here we are in Franz Josef, we arrived yesterday midday and decided to do the glacier hike that afternoon..it was raining but didnt matter too much (although today is absolutely perfect..oh well!). I wont say much about it as the pictures pretty much say it all :) there isnt much else to do here so we will be leaving tomorrow, probably heading to Wanika and then to Queenstown. Liz and I are both well and having a great time, New Zealand is so beautiful and there is so much to do here..the problem is trying not to spend too much money! We are trying to space out our activities so that we dont get to the end of our trip having no money and not being able to do anything. Hope you are all well and our postcards are making it back home! xxx

Pancake Rocks, North of Greymouth

We were told that we had to go to Pancake Rocks..we didnt have much else to do as we had to spend 2 nights in Greymouth (most people spend 1) so we thought we would try to make it up there. There was only one bus and it left at 1.30pm and didnt come back..we couldve hired a car but it was very expensive so the manager at our hostel suggested we hitch-hike. Everyone in NZ is very friendly and we decided this would be fun..we had a great day and met some lovely people, a man working at the mines, a couple travelling around like us and an older couple on holiday from the north island. Unfortunately it did rain though!

The "blow-holes"where the water spurts out from the rocks...the sea was very wild and it looked amazing, it was very loud!

The hostel we stayed at was amazing too..it was called Neptunes (if you're ever round that way!), they had free breakfasts, free bakery food (pies, sandwiches, cakes etc...yum yum!!), free bubble baths and a lovely manager who gave us lots of great advice. Definately the best hostel of our whole trip!

Tranz Alpine to Greymouth

We have all of our transpot around NZ pre-booked with magicbus and caught the train to Greymouth, we didnt realise it was a TranzAlpine train..one of the most amazing train journeys in the world :) it drove us right through the mountains and even had a viewing platform on it!
The scenary varied so much, from snow topped mountains to barren areas and lakes

Can''t really say much about this trip other than "wow" and that it was really really cold on the platform, very different to being inside the heated carriages very insulated!

Christchurch

We spent about 4 nights in Christchurch, mostly spent shopping for warmer clothes and just having a snoop around the city, not really that much to do here but the people at the hostel were friendly and we enjoyed being able to cook our own meals in a fully equipped kitchen again :)

Christchurch Art gallery...we were only allowed to take pictures in the foyer but the steps were art anyway!

Christchurch Tram

"Punting"..we didnt do this as it rained the day we were going to!

Christchurch Cathedral

broken camera

Unfortunately there will be a severe lack of photos as i've broken my camera :-( typically it was the same day liz lost hers!!! talk about bad luck! I'm going to try and find a camera shop this afternoon to see if i can get it fixed.

We went on a sailing tour to the Great Barrier Reef yesterday, it was a lovely day and hopefully one of the other people on the boat will send us some pictures! We signed up to do a dive, liz had forgotten her certification though so the guy took us both out together so he could guide me but so that we could do a bit more than the other group. I was pretty scared as the guy was a bit slow, he gave me a talk about roughly what would happen but when it came to it i was pretty much shoved in and rushed through the skills and then off we went! I couldnt breathe well to begin with as i was quite stressed but once i'd relaxed and had no choice it was okay. The current was really strong and i kept getting pushed (intentionally maybe, im not sure!!!!!!!!) into the coral and was paranoid about getting cut or damaging it..it takes years to recover..but while he was guiding me i was so close that i was often kicking it! Liz said he had broken most of the rules that had been embedded into her from her course and i didnt feel very at ease with him but other than that it was nice just go see what its like and be able to see the fish/coral so close!

The rest of the day was amazing, snorkeling and seeing blue starfish, a sea turtle, nemo, giant clams, sea cucumbers and so much more! We also went to a tiny "island" which was just a patch of sand about 20x10m in the middle of the sea...it was like a scene from a deserted island movie! One the way home i had a go at steering and chatted to the owner about the boat (it used to be used for hard hat diving to collect pearl shells along the sea bed and had so much character). Other than the questionable competence of the dive instructor it was great fun and the food was lovely :)

Today Liz has gone to do a skydive...i wasnt convinced this was my idea of a great day out, i did say yes at one point but i just couldnt bring myself to go ahead with it! I felt a bit silly when 2 of the guys in our dorm came back and casually announced they'd just done a bungee jump!!! Still...i have another chance to talk myself into it for NZ..we shall see!

Ok, well sorry for the essay rather than some nice pictures..its much more interesting to look than to read i'm sure..hope you're all okay and hopefully i shall have a new camera on the go soon xxx