After our days in Franz Josef on the south Island our next destination was the beautiful little ski town of Queenstown! On the way there we stopped at Lake Matheson which was just stunning. The reflection of the snow capped mountains and surrounding forestry on the still lake was a complete mirror image, so picturesque! Queenstown is one of our favourite places in New Zealand so far. Everywhere you look there are looming snowy mountains. The mountains known as The Remarkables which seem to dominate the scenery in Queenstown were used in Lord of The Rings as part of Mordor. While in Queenstown we took a gondola ride up to Bobs Peak where we had fantastic views over Queenstown and Lake Waktipu. Up there we reverted back to childhood and had 7 Luge rides, this is basically a sledge/toboggan with wheels and handle bars whizzing down a track - it was great fun!
We also decided to have a go at ski-ing on the Cardrona mountains. The first day we tried to go we ended up in the middle of a blizzard on the mountain, only for about 5 minutes then they closed the mountain due to the extreme weather conditions so we tried again the following day and had the best weather we could have hoped for, 30cm of fresh snow and bright blue sky! I had 2 ski lessons and spend a fair amount of time falling down until I eventually got the hang of it. Tracey had 1 lesson then remembered it all from when she was 12 and took to the proper slopes like a pro, until some crazy lady cut in front of her sending her tumbling half way down the mountain until she managed to regain her balance and stand up again! We had an excellent day there and even ended up with tanned faces!
We took a trip to Milford Sound which was a 10 hour return bus journey. That day it poured from the heavens non stop! Once we arrived there we took a boat cruise deep into the Fjord and out into the open sea. We passed through stunning river valleys where the rain was cascading in full force down the looming rock faces. It was very misty which gave Milford Sound a very mystical feel that day. We passed very close to one gushing waterfall and I ended up royally drenched by the spray while trying to tale photos.
We spent 4.5 days in Queenstown before leaving for the Scottish town of Dunedin for 1 day. There we meandered round large sandstone buildings which reminded us very much of Edinburgh, there was even a large Rabbie Burns statue in the centre of town. Very much home from home, plus it was raining!!
Next stop was Lake Tekapo where the Church of the Good Shepherd resides. It looked like something from a fairytale sitting on the edge of the lake with snowy mountains in the background. Here we took a walk up a hill overlooking the lake, lovely views.
On the way from Lake Tekapo back to Christchurch Tracey and I ventured off on a Lord of the Rings tour - fantastic trip as it is one of my favourite trilogies! Superb views of the Valley of Rohan, we climbed to the top of Mount Sunday where the Golden Hall and the city of Edoras were located. We even had a chance to play with replicas of Gimleys axe and Aragorns sword - that was fun!! Champaign lunch was also included and my favourite purchase of the day was a Lord of the Rings beer!! I even managed to talk Tracey into watching all 3 Lord of the Rings within 3 days, as she had never seen them before!
The following day we headed back up to Kaikoura where we did a boat trip out to sea where we swam with wild dusky dolphins! We cruised along for about half an hour before we caught up with around 150 dolphins leaping around in the water, we then jumped in to join them - it was freezing!! At first I couldn't catch my breath! As soon as we looked down into the water with our snorkels we could see so many dolphins below us and beside us. Once we made and kept eye contact with an individual dolphin it would swim alongside us or circle below, maintaining eye contact the whole time. We would circle round with it, until we got too tired from swimming in circles and had to take a breather! Pretty exhausting stuff but absolutely amazing! We couldn't believe how many dolphins there were! After the swimming we spent some time watching them play from the boat as they swam alongside the boat, it was highly entertaining!! A definite highlight of our whole trip!
Kaikoura was our last destination on the South Island before we headed from Picton over to Wellington which is on the North Island. The journey on the ferry was 4 hours, so Tracey and I decided to treat ourselves and upgrade to the executive lounge where we were faced with unlimited bottles of vino, food, beer etc - it was the best ferry journey we have ever been on!!
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