New Zealand

We flew out from Christchurch and so got a rental car to drive from Queenstown, staying the night at Tekapo. Lake Pukaki was as awesome as I remembered it, and we stopped and got out to skip some stones. Lake Tekapo itself seemed less appealing for some reason, it seemed like the water level was lower maybe. The snow tubing was still there though, so that was fun. Last time I went to New Zealand we didn’t see much of Christchurch besides the airport, so I was keen to see the city.

We did a day bust tour from Queenstown to Milford Sound, which is part of Fiordland National Park and world heritage listed for a reason, as it was incredible. Milford Sound is pretty close to Queenstown, but because of the mountains, it’s big roundabout 4 hour drive. The drive to Te Anau was okay, lots of mountains and sheep but nothing too out of the ordinary to the rest of NZ.

So we finally were able to go on our 2nd ski holiday now that Rachael got the bug in Japan, this time to New Zealand. We flew into Queenstown for a night, and then mum and dad met us later in Wanaka the next day. Rachael was impressed from the get go but the first day was a bit of a miserable rainy day and not as good as last time I was there.

We stayed in Wanaka rather then Queenstown while we were skiing so that we could try Cadrona and Treble Cone which I hadn’t been to before. Wanaka was a lovely town, much quieter then Queenstown but still reasonably touristy with lots of restaurants. Our hotel was okay but it didn’t have a drying room, which was weird, and 2/3 of the reception staff were snobby and unfriendly. All the food places we went to were good, and there was even a burger place trying to steal Fergburgers glory.