NEW ZEALAND

We're home from our holiday and madly trying to get unpacked, organised etc. before returning to "real life" of work, school etc.

So whilst i have time and all is still fresh in my brain, i'll share lots (and i mean LOTS) of pics ....

This holiday was originally booked for our family for DH's 40th Birthday ... he changed jobs last year and therefore wasn't able to arrange leave, so, my sister Karen (with my niece & nephew) made arrangements to join us for what was to become our little New Zealand adventure!

So we were up very early on Tues morning and travelled to Sydney to catch the plane. Our flight was brought forward so going through all the airport criteria was rush, rush, rush and then straight onto the plane ...

The flight was good and before we knew it we had landed in Christchurch. Went through all the airport stuff once again then off to pick up our hire car.

Within an hour or so we were on the road .... first stop Lake Tekapo.

Lake Tekapo is just stunning .... picture perfect like a postcard!





The next day we travelled to Mount Cook. Along the way was Lake Phukaki .... once again, just stunning.





We stopped at the little airport on the way out to Mt Cook as this is where we did our scenic helicopter flight from.

Our flight took us up onto Mt Cook where we landed in snow ...






On the way back we had the most gorgeous aerial view of Lake Phukaki ...




At the base of Mount Cook we visited the Edmund Hillary Centre which had lots of museum articles and a 3d theatre, plus a great opportunity for some photos and fun with the kids ...






From Mt Cook we had planned to travel to Wanaka and stay the night; however, our road trip bordered on disaster when we found ourselves stranded in almost the middle of nowhere with the fuel light on and the gauge reading "E" at a little town with one shop that was the local store, post office and everything else including a petrol bowser at the front ..... but they didn't actually have petrol .... [SCREEECH] ... We opted for the shortest distance to the next town which was 32km and rang Roadside Assistance to inform them of our dilemna and arranged that we would continue to drive as far as the car would take us and phone them when we came to a stop. We literally rolled down the hills and watched every km tick over .... and much to our amazement .... i don't know how but yes, we made it .... what a relief. We filled the petrol tank to the brim and worked out that there was possibly 1 litre of fuel left in the tank!! Needless to say, the tank was never below half for the rest of the holiday LOL !

Anyways .... after our little adventure we decided to push on to Queenstown and were all very weary and ready for some R&R upon arrival. Our accommodation (at Rydges) was beautiful and knowing we were staying in one place for a few days was a nice feeling.

We had a lovely outlook from our room ...



Queenstown is a really pretty & happening place .... we checked out lots of the local attractions and activities, and done our fair share of shopping.

We went up on the gondola ...



where you had panoramic views over Queenstown ...



Blake's favourite part was The Luge (he said this was like a cross between riding a bike & taboggan) ...



We all visited the 'Minus 5' bar ....



i had seen this on Getaway a few years ago .... everything is made of ice, the bar, the seats, all ice sculptures around the bar and even the glasses you drink out of (which you smash in a bucket on the way out). The kids thought it was such a treat drinking mocktails (only cocktails for the adults) in an ice bar .... it really was COOL in every sense of the word LOL!

OK .... i'm running out of typing stamina (and you're probably on overload by now) .... so i'll be back in the next day or so to continue with more pics and holiday adventures!

Thanks for stopping by ...

Julie :O)