Kia Ora from Queenstown!!

On our last night in Franz Josef we had a dip in the hostel spa and had an early night.

The next day we got our bus to Lake Matheson which is the place on all the postcards where the scenery is reflected in the lake. We drove down to Ship Creek where there is some wreckage from a boat that sunk off the cost of Australia and it ended up here. Next was a stop at a waterfall which was really not all that impressive to be honest, a lot of the places are quite similar to home and all the Japanese etc are in awe and take about 50 pictures and then there are the Brits who wonder why they even got off the us lol! After lunch we stopped off at Kawara Bridge which is where the first even bungee was invented, there were kids on it, they must have been about 8 years old, I was just so glad I had done one and didn't need to bother doing it again! We arrived in Queenstown and did our laundry, its amazing what levels you will stoop to when wearing clothes travelling, I think we have the same three outfits on constantly and to think we washing machine was on most days at home!

The next day we were up early and took the bus up a hugely scary mountain road to The Remarkables for our skiing. In the morning I attempted to show Craig how to ski which I was actually not too bad at, I thought I would have relapsed to knowing nothing and Craig picked it up really well, much better than I did when I first skied. We had a lesson in the morning and it was quite boring for me, even for Craig I think as it was kind of like putting one ski on and walking round in a circle. Craig even came up on a run with me but it was quite steep and he was still to master stopping and turning so it was a bit frustrating for him although he was not as bad as me who cried on the side of a run when I couldn't do it lol! The conditions were nowhere near as good as when I went before to Andorra with Andy, it was more like ice than snow and most of the runs were not full of snow they had rocks and rivers etc starting to come through but it is the end of the season. The weather was so bad in the afternoon they closed thee mountain so we went to the hostel bar with Jane and Andy who we have met up with again. I also saw the girls I did my skydive with and we ended up having a bit of a session. There is quite an après ski atmosphere here so its hard not to! Its really nice how everyone is kind of ding the same route more or les so you bump into people a lot and everyone just goes out all together, you meet more people than you probably would in a year at home in the space of a month travelling. There was thing German girl there though who kind of stalked me and was really odd so that made it even funnier!

The next day was spent mostly recovering and trying to work out all the pains in our muscles from the skiing, which is agony , you forget you have those muscles!

The next day we got u early to go back up the piste and we had a wee bit ski in the morning which was good and then had another lesson where we did some practice on turning and the teacher told me I should go up to group 3A but I wasn't sure as the runs seemed steeper here than where I first went and also I kind of liked being top of the class haha, no really! In with our pass we had some snow tubing included which just involves sitting in a huge rubber ring and getting pushed down in the snow, it is amazing fun! We went superman style but I banged all my knees and Craig banged his chin as its too icy even higher up. We went down together as well which was fun, you just kind of get pulled to the top my a conveyor belt which is good as you don't even have to walk. We never went to our afternoon lesson as we would have had to miss the tubing so Craig and I did a few runs from the top and we were both much better today so that was good. I think as I could teach him as a beginner it worked a bit better as I could tell him all the wee things I did to remember what to do. At night we just had some tea, packed up and did more washing, excitement all round lol!

Today we had a long lie as two Irish guys from our room came back last night at 2am and put all the lights on and started talking as it was the middle of the day and then did the same this morning about 7am, it's a bit frustrating but never mind. We just got up and took a long walk around Lake Wanaka today and had a play in the park which was fun lol! We are trying to save some money today as its one of the girls from our bus's birthday tonight so we are going to go out for a couple before we all head up to Dunedin tomorrow.

Hope everyone is fine and dandy at home!

Lots of Love

Eva and Craig xxx