Holiday

Hello Everyone,

We are home in Dunedin from our 9 day trip to Queenstown and Wanaka.

The drive from Dunedin to Queenstown was about 3 and half hours through rolling hills and fruit orchards. We stopped for some local cherries and then off to Queenstown. Once we arrived we explored the town of about 85oo people and had some Mexican food for the first time in New Zealand (We really miss our mexican food!). It was different than home, but still good. We ate so much we felt sick, but we walked it off and found his great little church that was having a Christmas Eve carol and service that night. We missed that nights service, but went back in the morning.

On Christmas Day almost everything was closed, but we hiked around the town and explored the gardens in Queenstown. We also got to go to an underwater viewing center of the lake, which was really neat. We saw diving ducks, fresh water eels and trout. We ate Thai food on Christmas night, because all of the other resturants were set menus of 85- 100 dollars a plate. (no thank you) Then on the 26th, Boxing Day here, we had our adventure day, which is what Queenstown is known as. We went jet boating (click on the word jet boating, if you want to see what it is like) where we went way to close to rocks and did 360 degree turns. From there we took a helicopter ride, went luging (which is like alpline sliding) and then took a gondola ride back down the mountain. It was amazing and the helicopter ride was the highlight of our trip. We have pictures below of it and I will post some videos from it later.

After Queenstown we drove off to Wanaka, which was about an hour drive. We went the scenic route up and over the Cardrona mountain range, which was beautiful. In Wanaka it was about 80-85 degrees so we laid out by the lake and explored the town. We fell in love with Wanaka. It is a town of about 3500 people, surround by a beautiful lake and Mountains. We stayed in a cabin, (which they call "Wee Batches" as in tiny batchelor pads). The next day we went on a great 14 mile bike ride. The day after that we hiked 6 miles into the Mt. Aspiring National Park and stayed at a hut in the back country. Overall it was one of the best vacations we've had. We are so thankful that we got to enjoy New Zealand and borrow a car from our friend Desiree. It made our first Christmas and New Years away from home enjoyable. We hope all of our readers had a great Holiday and enjoy the pictures below.


Pictures of Queenstown below.

New Zealand - Queenstown

Pictures from Wanaka and Mt. Aspiring National Park below.

From new zealand queenstownwanaka