16 August, 2008

First glimpses of New Zealand


We're here - and loving it!

The plane ride over was pretty uneventful, with the only real stand-out moment being the first glimpse of New Zealand peeking through the clouds. Just beautiful! Once we sort out all the photos, I'll put them up on Flickr - I'm sure I'll have many many shots of breath-taking scenery to show you.

We landed in Christchurch mid afternoon on Friday and had a quick look around. We didn't get to see very much of the area unfortunately (it was getting dark) but after a quick couple of pics we went and had something to eat. Christchurch actually seems a lot like home - but with a slight accent. Apparently Christchurch was designed by the same person that did Adelaide, so I guess that's why it felt so familiar.

Next up was another early night and early morning, and we caught a bus to Queenstown - arriving at about 2.30 this afternoon. The group we're travelling with has 3 serviced apartments and J and I lucked out and ended up with the only 1 bedroom apartment in the group. It's nice to have a bit of privacy!

Most of our group (there's 15 of us altogether) went to get fitted for boots and snow boards today, but J and I, along with 3 others have decided to do some sight-seeing first and get our boots and skis fitted tomorrow. We're not completely sure what we want to do tomorrow but J and the others may go have a jet boat ride (boats aren't my thing though) and most likely we'll take a drive around the area to see what's about.

The photo here was taken along the way to Queenstown. We could see the alps for most of the trip and the views were just spectactular. I've barely seen snow before so the scenery is just gorgeous. The view from our apartment is spectacular too. It looks out towards one of the mountains (I'm not sure which one) and it looks like it has a restaurant at the top. We're thinking of eating there on our last night here if possible. I'll have to take a pic of the view from our window, so you can see what I mean - it's amazing.

Apparently there's been quite a bit of snow here lately and there's quite a bit of slush around the town. I can't wait to get out into the snow a bit more and build a snowman (not to mention toss a snowball at someone!).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope we see some photos of you bungy jumping too!

Steve said...

If you get back to Christchurch, you have to visit the Antarctic centre near the airport and go on the Haaglund ride.

Stomper Girl said...

Looks gorgeous. Sounds like you should stay off the mountains though, after those Australians got stranded.