Day 23 (18th November)

Okay, so we're just a tad behind on the blog and by now you will have received an email Christmas card from us tandem hang-gliding. We have to come clean and confess that although Kate looks like the competent instructor, she was in fact Chester's instructor with Kate's head stuck on. Almost had you all fooled! Anyway the 18th Nov was when we actually flew for real. Our flights were postponed from 11am to 3pm as the weather was chilly and they had to wait for enough thermals to form. In the mean time we mooched around Queenstown, had lunch in the sun in a waterfront cafe and discovered some fantastic art in the local shops. At 3pm we were bundled into a minibus headed for Coronet Peak just north of Queenstown. Chester was strapped in rather clumsily by a rooky trainee who had to be corrected on where he had the straps (not something you want someone to be 'trying out' on your husband) and before I was fully strung up he was off the edge and flying! Eeeeeeeeek! I hadn't time to wonder how he was doing before I too was instucted to take one step, two step, runnnnn and whoooosh! We soared along the ridge for a while then the instructor said, 'Can I scare you now?' to which I answered, 'Okay just a little'. He then nose-dived the wings, sent us wheeling in circles and I screamed a lot!
A few more of those brought us down to a safe landing in the field below and after laughing face down in the grass, got up and wanted to do it over again.
That evening we drove our van on a long dirt track to the top of Lake Wakitipu to a fabulous spot called Kinloch where we were alone in watching the sun set across the lake to the sound of frogs singing.

Day 22 (17th November)

Sunshine! Hooray! Let’s drive back up the Cardrona Valley to see the view we missed out on yesterday! It was worth the climb. Back in Queenstown we sat in Vudu Café to work out how much money to blow on adrenaline trips. We booked hang-gliding for tomorrow and took a speedy trip up the Shotover River on a jetboat that performed 360 degree spins and dodged the canyon walls. This very professional operation presented us with a short video, photos and postcards of us in action as soon as we climbed back on dry land. It was fun, but even more fun was to be had on the luge! You can take the Queenstown gondola ride for fabulous views of the town, Lake Wakitipu and The Remarkables mountain range beyond. Then at the top you can hop in a go-cart and race down various tracks wearing a very silly helmet and an even sillier grin! A chairlift takes you back up to the start and as their slogan says: ‘once is never enough’…

Day 21 (16th November)

We discovered the lovely, laid back town of Wanaka – cute boutiques and cafes to brighten up an otherwise soggy morning. We needed to get to Queenstown and our anti-clockwise route around the South Island was chosen because the drive through the Cardrona Valley that links these two towns is best done from Wanaka due to the fine views. We set off in low cloud which deteriorated to heavy rain and, halfway along the road, piled into the Cardona Hotel for a hearty lunch of venison and fish ‘n’ chips around their log fire. The hotel harks back to the gold mining era and the bar has an entrance to one of the old mining shafts. From there we descended on Arrowtown as the rain descended on us and the views were obliterated. We tried to dodge the downpour from shop to shop and spent a good long time in Craig Potton’s photographic gallery talking to an English lady who emigrated to NZ four years ago as well as admiring Craig’s amazing pictures.

Day 20 (15th November)

Today we fancied doing a ‘tramp’ as the sun was shining and we drove to Wanaka to check out weather report at the ever-helpful DOC Info Centre. It looked set to be fine so we headed east along the bumpiest 30km track following Matukituki River upstream, over nine fords to Raspberry Creek car park. The walk was so worth it though: ferocious winds whipped us up the valley and made crossing the river on the long swing bridge a bit scary. Ancient beech trees afforded protection from the worst of the gusts as we climbed above the tree line to spectacular views of Rob Roy Glacier. Here huge waterfalls were tumbling down over ledges but were swept away by the wind seemingly not to reach the bottom. We witnessed an avalanche and made friends with a kea – a clever alpine parrot that has adapted to its harsh environment by begging and often helping itself to food carried in rucksacks. Clouds gathered as we turned tail and were blown back through the forest, passed skipping lambs in the fields and kicked up more dust on our return drive to Glendhu Bay. As we set up camp at Lake Wanaka the rain started.

Day 19 (14th November)

Drove to Fox Glacier information centre to hear people being turned away from booking helicopter rides due to low cloud. Smugly we headed for Wanaka, stopping to take a walk through bush to Monro beach where we saw three penguins waddle from the rocks down to the sea before clouds of sandflies drove us back into the bush. The sun came out as we turned inland to follow the course of Haast River and we saw some lovely black and red butterflies as we paused by a waterfall. We travelled through countryside reminiscent of the English Lake District and arrived on the shores of Lake Hawea to watch the moon rise from behind the mountains across the lake. It was a beautiful, warm night.

Day 18 (13th November)

Low cloud postponed our trip from 9 to 11.30am. But when the sun came out we were up, up and awaaaay!! We had a fantastic flight: Chester and I were in the front seats near the pilot and there was another couple seated behind. We traversed along the side of the Southern Alps to ascend Fox Glacier, up to Mount Cook and over the divide to view the long and almost horizontal Tasman Glacier. We landed at on a wide snowfield, jumped out of the helicopter to throw snowballs at each other and make blue footprints all in hot sunshine, then zig-zagged over the crevices of Franz Josef Glacier on our descent. Just the most tummy leaping experience – it was 40 minutes of fabulousness, a real highlight of our trip! We felt even luckier after hearing that about one in three trips to Mount Cook are cancelled due to the poor weather the Tasman Sea conjures up and throws at it. On a high we drove out towards the coast to take in the reflections of the great mountains in Lake Matheson but the wind had crept up and we continued on to Gillespies Beach/ Here we free camped (with a few others) and watched the sun turn the Alps pink behind us as it set into the sea.

Day 17 (12th November)

Got up at 8am and fed the fat ginger camp cat (or the camp ginger fat cat – Ian?) the remains of our steak dinner. It was a grey day with low cloud as we set off down the west coast which proudly advertises itself as the ‘Grey Region’ (well that should pull in the crowds!). We took another quick peek at Pancake Rocks to see if the difference in tide height could impress Chester, but alas, there was not much more activity than on the previous evening. As we continued, the coastline got more and more bleak until we landed in Greymouth for supplies. I am not sure why anyone would choose to live here: it has the greyest weather, it is miles away from civilisation, the buildings are dull, the people are frighteningly ugly and the river inundates the town on occasions. However, not wishing to totally offend, the people here were also amongst some of the friendliest and most helpful we’ve met! Encouraged to move on we headed for glacier country and pitched up at Franz Josef Glacier as the sun came out. We booked a helicopter trip for the following morning and spent the evening feeling very excited!