Snowboarding pics...

Here's a few pics of what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks. There's also a picture of Rich, looking very cool in his work jacket! More pics of Clare to follow soon...







































































































-Si

Pics from Queenstown...

From top to bottom: our caravan and it's lakeside setting; me in one of the Chinese huts at the miner's camp in Arrowtown; Queenstown before the snow came; the snowy 'Remarkables' from our campsite.

-Si

Caravans, Snow and Horses

I have certainly embraced life as a Pikey, not only can you reach the beers in the fridge from the comfort of your bed, but when it come to hoovering it takes 4.6 seconds. Well they are the highlight. Midnight trudges through the snow to use the loo still takes some getting used to.

Well as Si has been updating you, he has been become a bit of a slave to boarding, however after considering my options, and taking into account my accident prone nature I decided to avoid the adrenaline junkie sport, and decided a much slower and safer horse trek.

My excitement wavered slightly when I got to the stables, and got reminded at how big the horses where, especially as I had to use a step ladder to get on mine. As we started our treck I was somewhere between apprehensive and sheer panic. My horse 'Chief', (who I called cheese as I misheard our Dutch guide), kept losing his footing on the ice and kept wandering into bushes. After a nerve racking start, I was starting to feel better, after we had done a little trot, and I Chief seemed to know what he was doing. Unfortunately I think Chief got a little too confident, and at the next patch of ice decided to jump over it. This plan may have worked well, if I had known of his ambition plan, and although Chief managed the jumped well, I was not so lucky and went sailing the opposite way, landing face first on the frozen ground. My face found some 'soft mud', I ended up with a crude face mask!

The good news is, that other than a very damaged toe, and more severely damaged pride, I got back on horse and continued our journey back to the stables. Vick was impressed that I even managed a Trot and a Canter home, what she didn't realise is, that i only did that to get back sooner!!

Clare
x

Life in Queenstown...

We've been living in Queenstown for nearly two weeks now, and very nice it is too. Technically speaking, we're actually living in Frankton, which is just a few kilometers from Queenstown, but it's pretty much all the same place. Me and Clare have been settling into our new home for the next few weeks, a caravan in a caravan park! Our caravan is a somewhat 'vintage' affair, with some interesting decor, but we've managed to make it homely enough, and it's not too cold thanks to our electric heater. Our friends Vick and Rich also have a caravan here, although theirs is a little more 'compact' (at least it's cheaper to heat guys!).

The main advantage of our new home is that it's a pretty cheap option compared to the hostels we've been so used to. Therefore, we've ploughed our surplus cash saved from not staying in a smarter place into other 'investments' instead; namely beers in the next-door Frankton Arms Tavern (FAT for short), snowboarding lessons for me and horseriding for Clare.

My snowboarding has come along well. After 3 days of lessons, practice, and a lot of falling over, I can now snowboard to a reasonable degree, which is nice. I even managed to do a few runs yesterday when the snow was coming down so fast that I could hardly see my hand in front of my face, let alone where I was going!

I was surprised to see that Kiwis seem as poorly prepared for snowfall as us Brits. When the first snowfall came the other day, the roads were littered with abandoned cars, businesses shut up shop early, and the pub was rammed!

Despite the snow, we did actually manage to get out to Arrowtown last week for a mooch about. It's a 'quaint' little town, full of 'bijoux' shops, cafes and a historic Chinese gold miner's settlement, or what's left of it. All rather picturesque.

Anyways, me and Rich will undoubtedly be out snowboarding again next week, weather and funds permitting, and Clare and Vick will continue to quietly work their way through the entire DVD catalogue of the local video store.

More photos soon!

-Si

NZ Pics (from Part 2)

-Si

NZ - Road trip of the South Island (Part 2)

The brewery tour of Monteith's brewery in Greymouth is very good if you ever go on it. So good, we all sampled a few too many of their beers that night....and had serious hangovers the next morning!

The next day we headed down to Franz Josef Glacier, via the town of Hokitika. Hokitika is cool if you're into Jade carving, or eating animal's testes during the annual wild food festival, otherwise it's just a nice place to stop for a coffee.

We got to Franz Josef and everyone except me went to bed for a post-hangover snooze. I had to go and take a look at the glacier. The next day, me and Rich did a guided tour up the glacier, it was not as cold as you imagine due to all the posh kit they gave us to wear, but really spectacular. We had a really beautiful day for it too, which was a bonus. That afternoon, we headed off to Fox Glacier, which is a bit more accessible that FJ, but not quite as pretty. Still, you don't see a glacier every day of the week, do you?

While we were down there, we had a stroll round Lake Matheson, with it's incredible views of the southern Alps, including Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. The local Maori call it Aoraki, which means 'cloud piercer'. That day, there wasn't a cloud to pierce in the sky!

After Fox, we headed to Wanaka. Me and Rich indulged our inner child and visited the toy and transport museum, full of classic toys like Lego and Star Wars figures that we spent ages saying 'ooh, I had that, and my mate had that' over. On top of that were loads of big boys toys, including a MiG Jet Fighter!

Whilst we were in Wanaka, we also walked to steep but dramatic Rob Roy Valley Glacier walk. It was damn cold at the top, and out third glacier in 3 days - not bad going! Me and Rich took a couple of beers up there to celebrate, alkies that we are.

After Wanaka was a brief stop at 'Puzzling World', with its huge maze and mind-bending displays. Not really my cup of tea, but the others seemed to enjoy it.

We're now in Queenstown, staying in a caravan park for a couple of weeks! The caravans are 'vintage' with their own 'rustic charm', but we've managed to make them pretty homely while we wait for the snow to come...

-Si

NZ Pics (from Part 1)

-Si

NZ - Road trip of the South Island (Part 1)

Hello folks, and Kia Ora from NZ!

We arrived back in Christchurch last week to stay again with our friends Rich and Vick for a few days before they handed back the keys to their flat and we all set off for a road trip of the South Island in their big Subaru estate.

The night before leaving ChCh, we went out to an excellent local Mexican restaurant and a few bars for a bit of a 'leavers do' for Rich and Vick. It was great to meet some of their friends they had made whilst being here, they really are a great bunch of people.

The first stop on our road trip was Kaikoura, AKA 'whale watch central'. Unfortunately, our whale watch trip, booked for the next day, was cancelled due to poor conditions at sea, but the next day we were in luck. After a very early start, we set out in search of the local sperm whales that kick about around there. We were in luck. We managed to see 4 of the blighters, and impressively big they are too! Clare was delighted, this is something I think she's always wanted to do. We also saw a pod of maybe 100-odd dusky dolphins larking about in the water on the way back to port, an awesome sight.

Our next cool place to visit, via a few stops in Blenheim (only interesting if you're into wine) and Nelson (very funny looking cathedral!) was Abel Tasman National Park. We did a day walking along the coastal track there, and what a bobby dazzler it is too!

Whilst we were in the 'hood, we went for a trip to Pupu Springs, the largest natural springs in the world, churning out 14,000 litres/minute of the clearest water you've ever seen. Randomly though, you can't drink the water for fear of contaminating it with Didymo, some kind of very nasty bacteria that seems to get about a lot round here.

Our next stop was Nelson Lakes National Park, another beauty of a place, very reminiscent of the Lake District back home but with a lot bigger mountains. We got a log cabin to ourselves on the shores of Lake Rotoiti, and very nice it was too.

We're now in Greymouth, planning the next phase of our trip, including visits to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, and, more importantly, the local brewery here. Eventually we're heading towards Queenstown, where we have a couple of caravans booked down by the lake there for a week or two. Plenty of opportunity for me to learn to snowboard hopefully...

I'll hopefully be posting some pictures up very soon!

-Si