Christchurch, Twizel, Queenstown so far.....

Hi Guys

We thoroughly enjoyed Christchurch from 24th - 27th April; staying in our own spacious apartment, just walking distance into town.

Whilst there we visited the Botanical Gardens, Art Centre, Street Market and generally chilled and slowed the pace down a bit.

Andrew bought his Indiana Jones that he's been hankering after for a long time and Shivani now calls him Andiana Halford!

Drove to Twizel on 27th April and stayed in an amazing farm, with floor to ceiling windows and views across open farmland to Mount Cook. Went for a "World Famous" roast with 7 veg and we both decided it should had read "infamous", it was really poor!!

Whilst in the beautiful communal lounge with roaring log fire, we met a lovely Kiwi couple, Emma & Simon, on their honeymoon - Hi if you've managed to log on.

They gave us lots of tips on place to see and not see on our travels, which funnily enough consisted of lots of vineyards to see!

On 28th April we drove up the majestic road leading to Mount Cook, met Emma & Simon again and we all went for a bush walk at the base of the mountain. We then headed further south again to Queenstown, staying for one night in a place called Glenorchy. Rented a DVD, curled up on the sofa with a cup of PG Tips and relaxed.

On 29th we woke up and everywhere was surrounded by fog and it was raining heavily. We made the drive to a place called Paradise, which involved driving through streams, forests, across farmland and cows in the road (don't worry we didn't drive through the cows, they kindly moved out of the way). Unfortunately, due to the rain and fog the view along the road was obscured, but still looked eerily stunning.

Continuing south we arrived in Queenstown for about midday, did our usual visits to potential place to stay and negotiation, finally settling happily for another nice place with great view. We had lunch by a roaring fire, whilst it rained. After lunch, by miracle the sun came out so we took full advantage and went for a gondola ride up into the mountain. We had fun at the top in a luge race, which Shivani drove the same as the car over here - very slow!

The views at the top of the mountain were amazing!

We came back down, had pizza in an open-air restaurant - delicious! Then went back to our accomodation and chatted to our fascinating, well travelled host, before retiring to our room with a glass of chilled New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.