Left Glenorchy Hello Queenstown

 

We say by to the cabin and no more use of sleeping bags!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Glenorchy Cafe (GYC) The best steak butty and pizza sold here!!

 

 

 

 

 

Harry's Bar (even peter Jackson came here)

below me and liz having our last jug of Glenorchy ale!!! will miss it :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Job Update

Mark has an interview at Wakatipu High School on Thursday afternoon. I have an interview at Nomad Safaris on Friday at 10am (LOTR shop) Cool!

Glenorchy Market Day

Today was Market Day in Glenorchy. We headed down at 10.30. We bought a jar of Rowan Jelly (Jam) with wild Rowan berries and Apples from the Rees Valley Station.

There were also some cute puppies for sale, I wanted to buy one!!

We had Whitebait and egg sandwiches for lunch, delicious!

We saw John and his kids arrive but managed to avoid them..YES!!

Routeburn Ramble

Yesterday we got early 7:30 and made our butties for overnight stay in the Fall hut.

We were told there was no transport so we hitched. We walked for 15min and 5 cars later a really nice ozzi guy gave us a lift all the way to the start of the track

(he wasn't going that way but he was a bus driver so used to giving people lifts a great guy)

liz crossing the first swing bring (there was another 3 after this one)

We had lunch at Routeburn Flats at the picnic table we met a guy from Walton Road, Sale (now lives London). A couple the lady from Sale, the man from Barnsley they now live in Warrington. What a small world!!

This is where we stayed the night and looking down onto Routeburn flats.

And on the way back we hitched with a guy from Invercargill.

Mt Judah Walkway

Today we went on the Mt Judah Walkway to a viewpoint on a slate mine.

We will come back and do a longer walk to a day hut have lunch then come back.

We bought hut passes for one night tomorrow we stock up on food and drink for the Routeburn Tramp on Wednesday!!

Paradise/LOTR Locations

Today we went on a lotr tour which took us into Paradise.

We saw Isengard, Amon Hen, Lothlorien and the tree that inspired Treebeard.

Glenorchy

Well we are now in our improved accommodation

 

we have our Internet solved and we have also done a nice walk around the Lagoon.

Leaving the Dark Side

We had another bonfire on the beach last night with Alan and Mel. It was so awesome, photos to follow!!

Today we are leaving Kinloch to head over the lake to Glenorchy for couple of weeks. LOTR Tour already booked for tomorrow afternoon 2.30pm:-) Good news no Sand flies there so no more bites YES!!!

mark has hanged up is Hoover

Fire,Beer lake side beach

Tonight we decided to have a beach fire.

Yeah mark started his first fire!! (used some old dried tree roots to light it!!) seen it done on TV it works

Liz enjoying the fire and a beer!

still going we kept it going for 4 and half hours (even the locals were impressed by my fire and came over for a chat)

Just got back to caravan at 23:45 raining now

More photos and some video will be on flickr tomoz

Update

We are moving over to Glenorchy on Friday for 13 nights and we can't wait to say bye to the dark side:-) We will update with pics and what we get up to as we progress in our travels!!

I applied for a job in LOTR shop in Queenstown f/t temp one. I hope to get it then we can stay in QTN on my earnings. It would be so cool working in LOTR shop too for me;-)

Mountain Biking

Today after work we went Mountain Biking for around 50 minutes!! It was cool but tiring and I couldn't relax. But I am proud I rode the bike on the road after 15 years!! Sorry no pics:-( unless we do it again..

Mel and Alan went Kayaking for a while just got back now relax till tea 6pm.

well we went biking again today and here I am on my bike!

Queenstown

Yesterday we went to Queenstown with Alan and Melanie. Used it as a chance to stock up on supplies!! Bought Sandfly cream to soothe the bites and Deet cream to prevent them 80% I need a lot they always seem to bite me. Plus some sweets!!

We went on the gondola and luge which isn't as good as the Christchurch one. Also the Botanical gardens again not as nice as Christchurch gardens.

This morning it is snowing!!! In spring! The dog Delilah is asleep in our caravan as she followed me back from the toilets:-) She has a habit of following us to our caravan.

It will only be me, Mark, Alan and Mel working today as Fiona has joined Toni, James, Lucy and Sam on the Doubtful Sound Cruise they back tomorrow, went yesterday.

work kayak music

Today me and liz had to do the Heritage rooms,Didn't have a clue on what we were doing but wasted a good 4 hours.

Then talked liz into kayaking but she got scared so didn't do it!!.

we then had a BBQ for tea (great homemade burger and sausage and BEER).

After some of our friends played in a band in the Kitchen!

Alan,Toni,Melanie,fiona

Tomorrow we are going to Queenstown with Alan and Melanie (Alan from Scotland Mel from Canada).they are Help exchanging too.

Kayaking

Today after work Mark wanted me to go kayaking with him but I was too scared. Once in the water I wanted to come back out so only Mark kayaked for a while. I was proud I sat in the water in it though:-)

This is the worst place for sand flies I have been bit around 14 times!! We are thinking of moving on before November but unsure where too yet.

Crossing the Ford

Today after our 4 hrs work and some lunch we decided to go for a local walk. To do this we had to cross a ford in the road by walking through bare foot. 

There was a nice view of the lake from halfway up

Yesterday Mark went fishing for the first time and broke the rod!!

Kinloch

Made it safe and sound.Really in the middle of no where this time!!! will post some pics soon

Mount Cook

Today we went to Mount Cook Village. On the way we stopped for photo opps this included one of the Pelannor Fields (lotr) near Twizel!!

Once at Mount Cook we first went to the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre. Watched planetarium and magic 3D shows then went on the Kea Point walk after some lunch.

Before lunch we spent half an hour trying to find the visitors centre which was signposted not too good. We eventually found out it was still being built!! There was a temporary one further down though.

With changeable weather it was still a good day with decent photos of Mount Cook on the way back to Tekapo:-)