I have the feeling this may be a lengthy blog - currently uploading all the photos of the trip onto fb for you all to gawp at!
The weekend started with a lovely visit from Will and Zoe on Friday night, unfortunately I was working Friday so didn't get to spend much time with them but since they were heading off to the South Pacific Islands for the next few weeks it gave me some nice company for the journey up to Auckland.
So, on Saturday morning we made the journey to the airport for Will and Zoe to get some sunshine and for me to meet ESTHER BAKER!! She arrived at around midday (not the night before as I first thought - doh) and then I dragged the poor girl round to the domestic terminal to catch her next flight down to Nelson on the South Island, after arriving in Nelson, we seamlessly picked up our hire car from the car park outside (they just left the keys in the glove box and my name on the car!!) and headed 3hrs down the coast to the seaside town of Kaikoura. Unsurprisingly Esther wasn't quite with it for most of the journey, but I did manage to get her a good feed of fresh fish and chips from a fishing port in Nelson. After arriving in our lovely hostel in Kaikoura we flaked pretty much straight away to prepare for the next day. Sunday we awoke to horrendous weather, and the unfortunate realisation that our swimming with dolphins experience was not going to happen. After a nice walk down the beach we decided to make the decision to head down to Christchurch for the day so we didn't waste time anywhere. On arrival in Christchurch we headed to the arts centre where there was a lovely market on and some really tasty food, had a nice wander around and headed into Christchurch, on the way there we passed the Avon river and noted some punting - so we decided to take a little punt on the Avon (yes, we are in New Zealand!) After our punting we met up with my friend Katie who moved to Christchurch 3 months ago and she decided to show us a few nice places before we headed to the pub for a cheeky afternoon pint and then later and early dinner. That evening we decided to take a final attempt to swim with dolphins and headed back up to Kaikoura for the night to give it one last go in the morning. Unfortunately, our gamble did not pay off and it was again cancelled the next day - so, back down to Christchurch for us and this time to check out the Antarctic centre - which was pretty cool. That evening we had a lovely home cooked dinner with Katie and went out for a few drinks.
The next day we headed over on Arthur's Pass to the west coast. We knew this would be a long day of driving so decided to make the most of it, and stocked up on food before we headed out. We took every opportunity to stop, go for little walks and take photo's. We had lunch in Arthur's pass village and went for a lovely little walk. On our way we also stopped at Hokitika, a lovely old coastal gold mining town and some beautiful beaches before finally arriving in Franz Joseph. That evening in Franz we went to amazing glacial hot pools (?oxymoron?) before heading out for an enormous dinner.
Wednesday morning we got up ready to have our glacier experience, we were so lucky to have the most stunning weather, not a cloud in the sky - which just makes the glacier look even more stunning. Got to spend about 2 hours on the ice before heading back t o the town. After, we headed down the coast to Wanaka, stopping at lake Matherson to enjoy the views over Mt Cook and the glacier. On arriving in Wanaka we headed out to get some takeaway and have a relatively chilled evening in.
Thursday we started the day with a nice walk up Mt Iron, unfortunately the weather wasn't great so we didn't get to enjoy the views we were promised, but we were particularly surprised by the amount of women who run up and down it all morning!! (Crazy Kiwis) After our walk we headed down to Queenstown, where, after dumping our stuff at the hostel we went for a lovely hot chocolate followed by a spot of frisbee golf. Such a good idea and great way of spending a few hours - think Sefton should set up a course! After frisbee we popped back to have showers before treating ourselves to an AMAZING meal out followed by a few cheeky drinks.
The next morning we had our flight to the Milford Sound. Our 9am flight was initially cancelled for low lying fog that cleared completely in time for the 11am flight. Stunning views as we passed the snowcapped mountains of the southern alpes, flew over Isengard and as we came over the top the mountains just opened out into fiordland - STUNNING. We landed in the Milford Sound to pick up the river cruise through the sound. Such beautiful scenery - can't quite give it the right words. The flight back, we took a slightly different route with views out over the fiords and out to sea and down over the lakes....
Unfortunately, that evening I was really not well, so after grabbing a bite to eat we had a lazy one back at the hostel.
Saturday we headed over to Arrowetown to spend a bit of time in the beautiful little gold mining town, visiting the old chinese settlement, the very informative museum, the lord of the rings site where the black riders got washed down the river and going for a lovely walk. We even found a beautiful cute little cinema where we decided to come back to that evening after dinner.
Sunday morning we awoke to our 1st day of bad weather since we arrived and decided to have a nice lazy morning with a good big breaky and wandering around Queenstown looking at the shops. Our flight was due to leave at 2.15pm, however after arriving at the airport we were informed that all flights were cancelled. Luckily, there was a later flight from Dunedin to Auckland later that evening, so we were put on a 3.5hr coach down to Dunedin to connect with the flight (I only say luckily as other people had to wait overnight for their flight out!0
So, the end of a really good week. Tomorrow Esther is off to Napier and Taupo and I'll hopefully catch up with her in Rotorua later in the week.
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