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3 January 2005

On the way here we flew over some snow covered mountains, the scenery from the air certainly looks magnificent.

We checked into our hotel, Chateau on the Park and then went out for a really nice Thai dinner.

4 January 2005

We spent almost the whole day travelling to Fox Glacier, and it was rainy the whole way. The forests that we travelled throuh were beautiful - sometimes we were driving through thick huge trees all around us. When we arrived at Fox Glacier it was really overcast and no one had been able to see the glacier. We checked into the Fox Glacier Hotel and then went out for dinner. As we came out it cleared up so we took a drive up the road to look at the glacier (it only gets dark after 21h30). We got a really good view of the glacier before the clouds came down again. The glacier was reasonably impressive but nothing compared to the Alaska glacier that we had seen.

The good news of the day was that Jade seems to be better adjusted to travelling, she hardly cried on the way here.

5 January 2005

It rained all night but by the morning it had cleared up. We travelled to Queenstown via Wanaka. The scenery along the way was really stunning, we travelled along the coast for some of the way, we travelled over a mountain pass, and we also spent a lot of time travelling through forests. Everywhere is very green.

On the way we stopped at Wanaka, a really beautiful town where we had lunch. We then went to the lake edge where we watched a paraglider towed behind a ski boat. A labrador dog joined us and we threw sticks in the lake for it to fetch - Jade thought this was great fun.

We checked into our bungalow, a very smart, double storey two bedroomed apartment called Hurley's of Queenstown. Queenstown is in a absolutey stunning setting, and it is all a buzz at the moment with lots of tourists (almost all the hotels are full). We quickly went shopping to get food for the three days we are here. We watched the paragliders from our kitchen and lounge windows .

6 January 2005

We spent the morning walking around Queenstown taking in all the sights - the lake (Lake Wakatipu) is very beautiful - we watched bungy jumpers jumping from the paragliders (being pulled behind a boat)!!  This is certainly the adventure capital, you can do tandem sky diving, hang gliding, paragliding, boat rides - steamers or jet boats, mountain cycling, rally car driving, go karting, helicopter & plane flights, etc, etc, etc. With the kids we decided to do something even more exciting, feeding the ducks J.

In the afternoon we went to the deer park where we fed the goats, saw llamas, yaks, thars, and Mom and Jade were butted by a bison wanting food. You get a magnificent view over the town from up here, and with the snow capped mountains in the background the views were stunning.

Jade did a bungee jump, and was officially certified as the youngest bungee jumper ever (see photos).

7 January 2005

We had planned to fly down to the Milford Sound today, and then to take a cruise but unfortunately the weather over the Milford Sounds was so bad that the flights were cancelled, so we took a drive down to ....... along the shore of Lake Wakatipu. The scenery was again stunning with high snow capped mountains in the background, but there was a lot of low cloud around. ..... was a really small town with not too much to do so after a quick coffee we headed back to Queenstown. In the afternoon we took a drive around and went up to Coronet Peak which is used for skiing in winter. They do a lot of paragliding and hang gliding from here (the peak is 3 000 ft above the valley floor). Dad says this would have been heaven had he known about this when we was hang gliding. There is a tar road to the top, the take off area is big and covered in grass, and there is a massive landing area below with even a hang gliding / paragliding club house. The views over Queenstown were stunning (see photos).

8 January 2005

The weather was overcast and so all the flights were cancelled again so we set off for Te Anau. We had low cloud and rain most of the way there. After checking into the hotel we went for a drive to Manapouri but there was not a lot to see.

9 January 2005

We took a drive down to the Milford Sounds, the scenery on the way there was simply stunning, lots of forests, tall mountains (all snow capped). At the Milford Sounds we booked a cruise and also a flight over the area. We saw dolphin on the cruise, they were swimming right below us on the bow of the boat, you could almost lean over and touch them, it was a really special moment, even Jade kept wanting to look over the side. The Milford Sound is actuall a fjord created by a glacier thousands of years ago, so there are really steep side with lots of waterfalls falling right into the sea.

When we got back from the cruise we got on board a light aircraft for a flight over the area. The views were breath taking (you have to see the photos).

After landing we took the drive back to Te Anau.

10 January 2005

Today we went off to Dunedin. The trip was uneventful. On entering into Dunedin we went past a Harley shop so Dad marked the spot on his GPS. The hotel that we had booked into was quite nice and they had a heated indoor pool, but it wasn't that warm and so we decided not to swim. We took a long walk into the city centre. On the way we came across two large satelitte dishes facing each other, and about 50m apart. You could whisper into one and hear the person on the other side, it was quite fun. We took a walk through the city centre which was quite pleasant, but nothing dramatic. We had dinner and were early to bed.

11 January 2005

We decided to take a drive for breakfast and went around the penninsula. We eventually found a nice coffee shop. We then went off to the beach but unfortunately it was quite a long walk through thick vegetation and so we went to a nearby playground. It was then off to Dad's Harley shop to buy some more t-shirts. We then tried to go to the Cadbury factory but the tours were fully booked so we took a walk around the botantical gardens instead. They had large avaries with lots of different birds. Mom says that this was the best botanical gardens that she has seen. We then took a drive to the steepest road in the world. It was quite steep, most people walk it because they don't want to drive up it, but Dad said that we have to drive so we did. It was scary at first but it was fun.

12 January 2005

This was effectively the last day of our holiday so we took a leisurely drive to Christchurch. We booked into our hotel, the Birches Motel which was quite pleasant. We then went off to the Antarica Centre. Apparently 70% of all trips to Antartica originate in New Zealnd. Whilst there we played in snow, went into a small igloo, got caught in a storm (it went to minus 40' - boy was it cold), and then saw lots of pictures of the Antartic. It was then back to the hotel for a final pack before catching the flight home tomorrow.

13 January 2005

Today was quite sad because we realised we our holiday was over, but it was also nice to realise that we were going home and would see all our friends and family.

On the plane we met another Colin Swait, he lives in the UK. Amazingly he sat in the row behind us, and the only reason that we knew was because his name got called over the intercom at the airport - what a coincidence.

After travelling 11 hours to Singapore, after waiting there for 7 hours, and then catching the flight back to South Africa we were home, and so our dream holiday finally came to an end.

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