Winter is coming!

Here is the weather we have had, hot and sunny, and also cold and snowy. Both these pictures of Lucy were taken in summer in December! One in the Coromandel, and one in Tongariro National Park.

What can we look forward to now!!!

March 19th – March 25th – The Riders of Rohan!

Greg says.....
Mon 19th – The weather changed, and we got beautiful clear skies, and sunshine. However the wind was strong again with gusts up to 90 km's in a westerly direction (from the west). We were cycling West so felt the wind! Alistair and I took the first cycle today, and we let Ranfurly knowing that we had a distance of 25 km to over. The first bit was straight, but with the wind and a slight incline it was quite tough. We knew that we only had to cycle about 5 k’s until we reached the highest point. It took us about half an hour to get to the top at Ida Burn, which is 618 meters above sea level. We were both relived at this point because it was all downhill now. After posing for pictures by the monument stating this was the top, and the other one stating that we were positioned at 45 degrees south, we started our downhill section. Surprisingly this was very easy! Even with the wind against us we could cycle with no difficulty, as now the incline was going down.
The scenery here is lovely; there are mountains in the distance and farmland in between. It is a dry environment, and you can see the scorched grass in front of you creating the yellowy brown colour of the landscape. It really is a wilderness as there is nothing man made on the horizon except for the boundaries around the fields. I really fell in love with this part of central Otago, and look forward to returning.
Every now and then you pass small hills on each side of the trail, which have large rocks strewn across them. This was the Backdrop for Rohan and the Lord of the Rings, and many scenes were shot here.
Alistair’s stint finished at Oturehua, and Rowena and I then cycled on for another 9-10k’s until we got to the Ida Valley. Rowena is not the willing cyclist that Alistair is! She was glad to reach her destination! Although the scenery is more or less the same, you cannot get bored with it. The mountains appeared to be getting bigger as the track inclined downwards.
Alistair and Lucy took over at Ida Valley and rode to Lauder, where we met them briefly for a cup of tea and encouragement. Rowena and I went to Omakau to sort out the Campsite, and they joined us there later.
That evening Alistair, Rowena and I played some rugby on the pitch there, and witnessed the most amazing sunset. The clouds were the loveliest clouds you can imagine, and were coloured red, and then purple by the setting sun, however I didn’t have much time to admire, as I was in a middle of a Rugger game (as I was constantly reminded by my two Rugby stars!)
We took note of our achievements that day, and by far the star of the show was Alistair who not only had ridden about 48 ks, and then took part in a game of Rugby!! Well done Boy!
Tues 20th – After a short night sleep (well it seemed short) Rowena and I set off from Omakau to ride the short way to Chatto Creek. Now this really was easy, it was another cloudless sunny day, and the wind had dropped. The ride was downhill, and the scenery was just awesome! We rode across wooden bridges which cut across deep valley’s and on tracks which cut through the hills and turned at 90 degrees left or right.
We stopped at Poolburn, which is around the place where a scene of the LOTR was shot, the bit where Morwen sent her children off to safety before the Orcs attacked her village by the lake. Then we continued our quest to finish our stage with an invigorating ride down to Chatto Creek. It really was a lovely ride; the temperature and weather were perfect. When we got to Chatto Creek we realised that Rowena ad only ridden 46k’s in total, so we decided to ride another 4 around where the van was parked. This seemed to take forever especially with a child who was not keen on doing this! Still we managed it!
We swapped riders, and left Alistair and Lucy to ride onwards through Rohan and Middle Earth!
We met again in Alexandra, which is a lovely little village/town, which has a clock positioned on a mountain in a similar way to the Hollywood sign in LA. Rowena and I found a great Butchers shop, where we bought some homemade Pork Pies and some bread. The owner used to have a shop in Kensington, and moved back to NZ some 9 years ago. He was also Tom Willis’ uncle (Chiefs Hooker and potential All Black).
Meeting the riders in the car park near the river, we handed out the pies. These were the best pork pies I have ever had, yes even better than Melton Mowbray. They were made with fresh Organic pork, and still warm from the oven….my mouth is watering as I type!
Lucy and Alistair rode onto Clyde using the difficult rue by the river, and we met them at Clyde campsite, next to the rugby club.
After a beer and some wine we totted up the total distances ridden by each of us….
Alistair = 123k’s, Lucy = 85 k’s, Greg = 80 k’s, and Rowena 50 k’s.
Alistair did particularly well, and did the most distance. However we were all winners, as we all enjoyed every minute of the experience.
Wed 21sth – We left Clyde and made our way back to our favourite place in NZ…..Wanaka. On the way we dropped in to a nice café in Tarras, and had nice cup of coffee (the standard of coffee here is good, but differs from place to place. Tarras was good). After a trip to the Airport and a meeting with Peter Hendriks we went off to Glendhu Bay.
Just so it’s noted, we have extended our visa here till August, and will be saying in Wanaka. I (Greg) am doing a Private Pilots Licence, and Lucy and the children (and me some of the time) will be doing some skiing. Peter, who is the instructor from Classic Flights, has a Tiger Moth and I hope to get a flight in this as well as the training plane.
Thurs 22nd–Not much to report today, we strolled around Wanaka, and booked into a new campsite in town, the Kiwi camp. We arranged to see a couple of houses for rental, all of which are nice but two couldn’t do the timeframe we wanted and were more expensive.
Fri 23rd – Another day of strolling around Wanaka, catching up on lessons, and visiting the library. Alistair and I watched the Blues against the Waratahs in the Speights pub I Town. Stayed at the Kiwi Camp.
Sat 24th– We made our decision today to stay at a house in Abertown. The address is 17 Bernard Road, Albertown, RD2, Wanaka.
We drove down towards central Otago, and on the way down to Clyde we stopped and had a cold swim in Lake Dunstan. Alistair did a little fishing, but didn’t catch anything. The Kiwi’s use this lake for all kinds of water sports; we saw divers, water-skiers, jet boaters etc etc… It is a man made lake which flooded valley including the train track which used to run along side the road, and any buildings. The Clutha River runs into one end of the lake, and at the other, just before you get to Clyde, there is a large Hydro Electric Dam. We continued through Alexandra, and found a Tavern at Chatto Creek which allowed free camping in the car park. Perfect for me, because I could have a pint, watch the rugby, and then stay for free in the car park only a few meters away!
Sun 25th – We left our parking spot at around 9 am, and made our way along State Highway 85. On the way we thought we would stop and do the children’s lessons at the ‘Blue Pool’ at St.Bathans. This is a lake which was formed from a quarry. It didn’t look that blue, but it was a nice spot all the same! The village of St, Bathans is a quaint old village dating back to the late 1800’s, and we had a nice cup of coffee in the ‘Vulcan Hotel’, which was similar to going into an old country pub. It seemed that this was the place to go on a Sunday, as there were lot’s of Kiwi’s with their Motor Biked, and Bicycles turning up for lunch and a drink, as we were leaving. It was a bit like going to Pamp Hill near Wimborne, for a Sunday lunchtime drink!
We went back to SH 85, and drove to Hyde for Lunch, where I had a great idea, why didn’t Alistair and I cycle from Hyde to Middlemarch (about 30k’s). I thought I would get a derisory response, but he was most enthusiastic! Oh well it was my idea I suppose!
Alistair and I departed on our bikes after lunch. Lucy and Rowena, relieved that they weren’t cycling departed in the van soon afterwards.
Our first stop was 8k down the track, where in 1943 there was a bad rail crash. One of the locals( his brother was killed in the crash at the age of 19!) told us that the drivers and guards had been drinking, and probably fell asleep, so they approached a bend at 120 km’s, when they should have been going 60km’s, therefore the train left the tracks at the bend and crashed. This chap who was telling us the story was tending the memorial garden, and as he told us about the crash and his brother, you could see that he was upset and annoyed that it happened, even though it was 63 years later.
Alistair and I arrived in Middlemarch after a ride of about 2 hours, and popped into the local pub for a well deserved pint (he had a coke!). It was Country and Western night, and it seemed that the whole village had turned out. The streets were empty, no traffic, no people, but when we went inside the pub it was full of people. There was lot’s of noise and drinking, Country and Western music blaring out, and lots of people dancing. It was like being in the centre of Bournemouth on a Friday night!
We got the campsite where we met the girls. A school from Glenorchy had turned up, who were due to ride the rail on Monday. There were 2 teachers (Mrs Grant, and Miss Reid), 2 parents, 4 girls, and 1 boy. The whole school only had 16 pupils! Anyway we played Softball with them, and then retired to our van for tea and Movie Night. We all look forward to Movie Night, and tonight we had ‘James Bond’ again! I never get bored with 007!
The nights are now beginning to draw in, and it’s getting dark at 6.30pm. It can still be hot in the day, but it gets cold at night. We are still managing to wear our shorts but are not sure for how much longer.

March 12th to18th – Dunedin and Otago Rail Trail here we come!

Lucy and Rowena Say:....
My go again, this is getting a bit of a habit…
The following morning the children did a bit of work about the dolphins in Curio Bay. They are quite special as they don’t get fed here but are always around and come in really close to the shore and will even swim between you.
I am not one for getting in the sea at the best of times, unless it is really warm, like in Fiji or have a thick wet suit on, however the thought of having a dolphin swim next to me tempted me!
It was freezing, but after a while once your feet and legs had frozen and you had no feeling left it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately I got knocked off my feet and lost my prescription sun glasses , so if David Attenborough makes a series about the blind dolphins of Curio Bay …….
I know we are not far (relatively speaking) from the Antarctic, but I didn’t expect to wake up the next morning to find the temperature had dropped from 28 degrees to 4 degrees! The weather had changed during the night with torrential rain and Southerly winds, I woke in the night and all I could think about was that the children’s body boards had been left propped up next to the van. I couldn’t go back to sleep, Greg seemed unwilling to go and check on them so….I found them the other side of the campsite! It was much warmer inside than out!!
We wandered along the beach the other side from Curio Bay and found a couple of Yellow eyed penguins huddled behind rocks to keep out of the wind and a petrified forest, where you could clearly see the tree trunks that had fossilised where they had fallen and hundreds of tree stumps. I am sorry but it was much more spectacular than the one at Lulworth Cove.
That night we stayed at an amazing cap site, even more amazing as we were the only ones there. It had a fully equipped kitchen, brand new, so I indulged in a cooking frenzy making crumble, a cake, some bread and Rowena cooked tea for us, grated courgette, onion and cheese, fried like an omelette, Yummy.
Still very cold.
.
Arrived in Dunedin and treated ourselves to a night in a cabin as we were so cold. It had a heater.. we kept it on all night, lovely.

Wandered around Dunedin, and got persuaded by A&R to do the tour around the Cadbury factory, Greg was convinced when he found out that they gave you samples, not quite a brewery tour but next best thing.
It was quite interesting they explained how you got different types of chocolate ie dark, milk and white. And we all got our chocolate samples....
Went to see a very nice man in the Immigration office, who as it wasn’t very busy and extended our visas for a further 3 months, so we can now stay here until end on August, but we do need to enter Australia by the 23.8.07, so we won’t stay that long. But we are thinking of trying to find a house to rent for a couple of months and stay in one place for a while.
Headed out of Dunedin to Middlemarch to start the Otago rail trail the next day. Stayed at a campsite called Blind Billy’s no prizes for guessing how it got its name!!

The Otago Rail Trail follows the old Railway line between Middlemarch and Clyde, which was part of the line between Dunedin & Queenstown and is 151 km long! Rowena and I were doing the first leg which is 27 km! The reason for this is because Alistair has decided that he wants to cycle the furthest so he has chosen to do the longest sections.
It was cold and then it started raining, then hailing, fortunately we happened across a railway workers hut and took shelter from the elements. Once it eased off we continued on to meet Greg & Alistair at the first station. I felt sorry for any other bikers as they didn’t have their own moving refreshment station like us (didn’t feel sorry enough to invite them in for a coffee!!)
The Rail trail is a great track as it’s basically in the middle of nowhere. It runs through a valley along side the Rock and Pillar Mountains. The landscape is very bleak with grass covered mountains around you. The colours though, were beautiful…when the sun was out they appeared different shades of green, but when the sun when in the vegetation changed to a deep dark green, but the grass was a yellowy brown colour.
We changed over riders at Hyde, after 27km and then Rowena and I drove to Ranfurly where we were staying the night and waited for a very windblown Greg & Alistair to turn up!!

By Rowena
Mummy and I started at the campsite in Middlemarch and went to the first station , that was Ngapuna then we went to Rock and Pillar and met Daddy and Alistair, we had a cup of soup while we waited for the rain to stop.
After that we went on to Hyde and met them again, It was very windy and we stopped in a shelter to get out of the wind and rain and hail.
We drove down to Ranfurly and found a campsite and I did my Maths and we went to meet Alistair and Daddy.

March 5th – March 11th – Swimming with Dolphins!

Greg Says……
Mon 5th – We got up early and moved out of the Doc site. We made for the Skyline Gondala and Luge in Queenstown. We went in the Gondala to the top, and were looking forward to the Luge ride. To get there we had to go on a chair lift up again to the start area. We were not disappointed, the Luge ride is great, and as we were there when it opened, there was hardly anyone around. Alistair and Rowena talked us into to having two more goes each!! It was great! Apart from the Luge there are great views over Queenstown, and the lake. There are also other things that people can do like Paragliding, helicopter rides, Mountain Bikes and some tramping.
After two-three hours we came down on the Gondala, and spent the afternoon doing food shopping, and a few more necessary things.
We left Queenstown, and travelled down the side of the lake to the Kingston Motor camp.
Tues 6th – Got up late and had a nice cooked breakfast, just what the Doctor ordered. However we later found that out toaster was left there!! I guess that’s how they get all the things that are in the kitchen like cups, plates, knives and forks etc etc.
On the way south we passed the Kingston Flyer, a steam train from the beginning of the 20th Century. It reminded me of the trains they had in the wild west, with a big kind of skirt on the front of it. We caught it just as it was leaving Fairlea station.
We continued down the road to Manipouri and booked in at the Motor amp there. It’s a really nice site with a good kitchen, and facilities. They collect Morris Minors here, and they were strewn around the campsite. They also had a tree house and an underground tunnel. However on arrival the children couldn't make use of the play areas as it was pouring with rain. It was the first rain that they had had in 36 days, and it lasted for the next 2 days!
Wed 7th – Today it rained all day, but we managed a trip to Te Anau, where I bought some nice warm sheepskin slippers…..Oh what a difference slippers make!! We also booked onto a boat trip on the Milford Sound for Friday. That night we stayed again, in the rain, at the Manapouri campsite.
Thurs 8th – We awoke to a day where it was not raining! It was a nice day today, so we travelled on towards Milford Sound. It’s a beautiful scenic drive through the Earl Mountains on one side and the Livingston Mountains on the other, passing some lovely lakes on the way. One of which, Lake Gunn, was where we stayed for the night in the DOC campsite. This was a very small site, but you could , if you were early enough, park right beside the water. We were not early, so we parked in the car park, but we did have a view of the lake. The campsite was full very quickly, but a number of other cars and vans camp down to check for space, and all had to turn around and manoeuver back out again! Still, once it settled down, we had a nice quiet nights sleep.
Fri 9th – We got up at 6 am today, so that we could leave at 7.30 am to drive to Milford. We were due to get on our boat at 8.55 am , and had to check in at 8.35 am
After parking, we got there dead on time, and the boat left. Within about 10 minutes there was a shout that there were some dolphins in front of us! We all rushed to the bow(the front) and sure enough there was a pod of Bottle Nose Dolphins. They played around next to our boar, and you look down under the bow, and see them swimming under it. They were so close that it felt like you could reach out and touch them! We moved to the stern (the back), and they were surfing on the wave forged by the boat. They also were jumping out of the water, it really was the highlight of the trip! We continued along the Sound, seeing mountains rising straight up out of the water to around 1000/1500 meters, waterfalls falling 160 meters, New Zealand Fur seals, and just beautiful scenery!! It was well worth the trip! Afterwards we drove back to Te Anau, and stayed at the Kiwi Camp.
Sat 10th– Drove down through the mountainous countryside to be suddenly confronted with the Ocean in front of us. The landscape changed from the scorched dry land to luscious green lands. Was this an omen for things (rain!) to come? We drove on to a lovely free overnight sight at Colac bay, where we parked about 10 feet away from the beach. The children played on the beach all afternoon, at last using the body boards that they had. However the most fun they had was throwing stones into the sea, or trying to land them on a big rock without the bouncing off. We had a peaceful night, apart from the waves crashing in on the shingle beach!
Sun 11th – My Birthday today. I don’t generally celebrate these anymore, but for some reason I awoke at dawn, and saw the most amazing sunrise. The sub was red, and as it rose up the red reflection shone off of the shimmering sea! Perhaps this was a special day after all! After breakfast, presents and cards we drove to Invercargill where we found a great restaurant for Lunch. Fed and Watered Lucy took the wheel, and we departed for Curio Bay, a place where you could see Dolphins. We got to the campsite on the hill above the sandy beach, and decided to go in search of the famous Dolphins, the man in the campsite office said we would see them without fail The children brought their body boards, and promptly went in to play with them, and then we waited for the arrival of the sea mammals. We must of waited about 20 minutes, and then they arrived. We were all in the sea, and they swam within 10 feet of us, it was awesome. I can now say that the Dolphins came to see me on my birthday!

19th-25th February,

Sorry this is out of order and should have appeared before the post below!!! Still it's a tiring job this travelling lark, you know!

Lucy says....

Oh goodie it’s my turn to do the blog again…! I am so glad that Greg does this most of the time as it is very time consuming and with all the washing and cleaning and cooking I have to do as well as supervising the children when they are doing their school work I just don’t get the time…..!!

Travelling south from Greymouth we passed through remains of the Gold rush, there are lots of small towns or settlements that would have been much larger when gold was around.
We stopped at place called Mitchell’s Gully which was a mine that had been in the same family for 100 years or so and was now a museum. A rather “alternative” chap runs it now. We had a wander around, they used to use mercury to “absorb” the gold and then somehow evaporate the mercury to leave gold- beyond me. I think it was called alluvial gold mining.
We also visited an old shanty town museum and had a ride on a steam engine and had a go at gold panning, we all got some! It’s now in a little bottle.

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are about 25km apart; they come down the mountainside to about 200m above sea level. Because of the glaciers, there are 2 small townships which are there mainly for tours and helicopters trips. So…well you have to have a go- I knew Greg wouldn’t be able to resist it!!
It says in our guide book- “Julie Andrews sung- The hills were alive with the sound of helicopters…!”

The weather was fine, so we walked from the car park to the bottom of the Franz Josef glacier kitted out with 3 layers, as advised, and carrying our crampons!
At the terminal moraine we all stopped and donned said crampons and stated up the steps that had been cut in the ice for us by the guide. Because we were the first group of the day she had to recut the steps. It wasn’t difficult, as I thought it would be, as there was a lot of hanging around while the steps were cut. It was cold though, the wind whistled down the glacier. If you have been to the ice cave at the Mer de Glace in Chamonix then there isn’t a comparison, however the ice formations were really different and the fact that you were walking across the glacier and up & down the crevasses was special. And I have never worn Crampons before!!
We spent about 2 hours on the ice in total and then walked back.
Greg was seduced into booking on to a helicopter flight for the next morning, it was going to be weather dependent.
Next morning it was too misty to go and after waiting for the next flight which was also too misty we moved on to Fox Glacier in the hope that it might be better down there. It wasn’t but might get better next day…
Next morning we had all systems go, climbed into the helicopter, Greg & Rowena managed to get the front seat! The flight went up the path of the glacier and we landed on the neve at the top for a short walk around then back again twirling from side to side- Yuk! The ice was a lovely blue colour and there were huge crevasses.
That night we all went for a run around L. Mattheson which has a lovely refection of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. Primarily the run was and attempt to get away from the sandflies!!
We stayed in a café car park and awoke the next day to find a Japanese tourist bus parked about 6inches from us.

Travelled on down the coast and turned in land to Haast Pass, not very exciting, no view, but down to Lake Wanaka.
What a difference between the east & west side of the Southern Alps. The west being very green and the east, extremely dry and brown.

Finished my bit, it has taken me ages!!! (it’s now the 6.3.07)

Feb 26th – March 4th – Wanaka – What a great place!

Greg Says……
Mon 26th – We stayed at the Glendhu Motor Camp last night, and left it at 10am hoping to go for a walk to the Rob Roy Glacier. However the road on the way was less than average with big ruts and bumps. We made it about 20 km along it, before we met a Ford, which looked a little precarious to cross! Typical Ford! So we turned around and went back towards the campsite, when we came across another walking opportunity going up the track to the Rocky Mountain, another hour 20 minutes. It was up hill! Still it was worth it as the views were amazing from the top over Lake Wanaka, and into the mountains, well worth it. Even the children agreed. Alistair got his watercolours out, and created his interpretation of one of the mountains, so we can put this on the wall when we get home! We stayed there for about 30 minutes before going downwards, it was quite a trek going down….we didn’t realise how far we had climbed!
We got back to the campsite exhausted, well Lucy and I did anyway! The children found the energy to go the play park again!
Hopefully it will be a quiet day tomorrow.
Tues 27th – This was a quiet day in Wanaka, you know a bit of shopping, and a bit of sorting out. We booked a car to take us out the mountains, as I was not going to go along that road again in the Campervan! After we had chosen our 4wd Nissan Terano, we made a trip out to the airport to find out about a trial Helicopter lesson. Unfortunately they could not fit me in till Saturday, still that as ok. The biggest problem was trying to get Lucy to agree to me taking the lesson, so basically the hard work was already done! So only 3 full days to wait until Saturday/
Wed 28th – Today was the start of our big walk to Aspiring Hut in the National Park. Our packs were ready, and very heavy! We drove up the 30km bumpy, and stony road to the DOC car park. The drive was actually quite enjoyable in a 4wd, I felt like a rally driver sliding around on the gravel!
We parked the car and started our walk at about 11am ish. The sun was shining, and it was hot. On the way we passed the swing bridge to the Rob Roy Glacier walk, then joined the 4wd track along the side of the river. Nothing much happened until we spotted a couple of helicopters. They came zooming in over our heads, and landed nearly in front of us. We walked on, but they appeared to follow us, and then hover above us. Scary as we felt that they were after us! They were, in fact, only getting their bearings to start spraying the sides of the mountains around us, to try and stop the growth of weeds etc. Still it was quite exiting! We continued on the walk, and after 2 ½ hours we got there feeling extremely hot and bothered. We settled into our overnight room, or dorm which slept around 16 (it ended up that us four and two other blokes stayed in the dorm that night), and then got to know some of the other trampers. The first three people we met came from England originally, but had moved to NZ a number of years ago. There was a lady from Kent, and another from Portsmouth. Then there was Don Douglas from Portsmouth too, who actually knew someone who I know from Bournemouth Rugby Club - Dennis Eveleigh. They used to be in the Navy together, and played in the second row together. That night was spent going to bed at 9pm, and waking up at 5.30am!
Thurs 1st – Next morning we had breakfast, and Rowena and I left to go back to the campsite. We left Lucy and Alistair to continue their walk on further up to French Ridge, which was a tough challenge. It was kind of strange leaving without them, but we got on with it all the same! Rowena and I went back to the campsite, where we cleaned up,and then went to Wanaka for a look around However we found that we had been to most of the shops already, so we didn’t do much. Although I did have my first haircut since last summer!
Fri 2nd – Today was the day we pulled the explorers out of the bush! We drove up to the Aspiring car park, and got ready to go for a walk before they got back. However before we could go, we spotted two bedraggled figures coming towards us. It was Alistair and Lucy! They had not gone for the walk up to French Ridge, as it was too windy, so they went to Scott’s Bivvy, and then back to Aspiring hut for the night. Only a walk of 6 hours! Anyway, we decided to walk up to the Rob Roy Glacier which was only a walk of 1 ½ hours! It was tough! All up hill, and it was difficult for Lucy to keep going. Anyway, we did it, and Lucy and Alistair accomplished a total walking day, today, of 5 hours plus. Their total walk was about 25 miles, so they did well!
Sat 3rd– Saturday was here at last! Helicopter lesson only an hour or two away! I called at 9am to check if it was ok for the weather, and it was. It was a beautiful sunny day, with no wind. We dropped off the rental car, and went to the airport, where I met Simon Spencer-Bowyer, who was the owner and pilot for my flight. After telling me what the controls were all about, he let me lift the helicopter off of the ground. It is a very difficult machine to master, as you have your feet on pedals which turn you left or right, your left hand is on the throttle, and lever which lifts you off of the ground, and then your right hand is on the control which lifts or drops the nose! Phew I remembered! My first exercise was to try and get it to hover…..well it’s not as easy as it looks! I didn’t o too badly though, and kept it fairly central. We then flew out away from the airport to the Clutha river, and it was my job to steer us down the course of the river keeping us at the same height as the top of the trees! Again easier said than done, but managed to do it of a fashion! Then it was back to the airport to land, I mean I had to land it! With a bump we landed. The lesson took 40 minutes in the air, but it seemed like 30 seconds! I would really like to do some more……please Lucy!! After this we had lunch in nice restaurant in Wanaka, then went to the cinema. However this was no ordinary cinema, this one had settees instead of the normal cinema seats, there was a VW Beetle converted into seating, and there was the old cinematic cameras which flickered the film onto the screen. At the intermission freshly cooked chocolate cookies and coffee was served. It was a great experience, and very enjoyable, oh yeah and the film was ’Charlottes Web’.
We left Wanaka having had a really nice week in a lovely town.
Sun 4th – We stayed at the Frankton Motor Camp, which was really not very nice! After getting up we moved quickly out of the camp, and drove into Queenstown. This was another day where we went round the shops really. There’s not much here in the shops to get exited about except for all the adventure activities that you can do like Quadbiking, Mountain Biking, Paragliding, Bungy Jumping, White Water Rafting, Jet Boating, and a number of other things.
Tonight we stayed at a Doc site next to the lake. It was a nice spot, but didn’t have any facilities. Still we enjoyed a quiet night.