South Island : Christchurch, Fox Glacier and Queenstown

Amy : We arrived in ChCh to be greeted by the start of the England qualifying match. So in true Annan fashion Stu made us sit in the airport until the match had finished. I think he’d been having withdrawal symptoms since we were traveling and without Sky!
Once we’d seen the final score we hopped on the bus to the city to the holiday flat we were renting. We were both surprised at how frequent and cheap the public transport services are in ChCh compare to other cities in NZ.
I must admit once we got off the bus it was a long hard struggle getting to the holiday flat. Carrying a 16kg backpack in 25 degrees for 15 minutes isn’t my idea of fun I can tell you! Another big surprise was that the lady we were renting the flat from was Scottish and her mother-in-law was from Annan of all places…what a small world. You Annan lot get about don’t you!?!
We really enjoyed our time around ChCh as it was great enjoying the weather and mulling around the city. There were so many places to visit and I think we took about most of them in including, Cathedral Square, River Avon, Art Museum, Botanic Gardens and many markets. It isn’t one of my favourite cities as it just reminded me of Manchester but there was so much to do in and around the area which made it memorable.
On the Sunday we picked up Jon and Lucy from the airport and enjoyed a walk along the river with them and a few cheeky shandies in the local before we headed off to watch Muse play. This was an awesome gig especially as I don’t like Muse that much. They were awesome live and the light show was out of this world.
Monday saw an early start for us all as Jon and Lucy were booked onto the Trans Alpine train and we were meeting them in Greymouth with the Campervan. The drive there was spectacular as we took Arthur’s Pass. Quite hairy in a Campervan but the views were spectacular.
We arrived late that evening in Fox and spent a night there and had another early start as we were all booked in for a half day helihike up Fox Glacier. This was an amazing experience. Walking on a glacier isn’t the easiest thing to do especially as you are contanstanly in awe with the sights but it was well worth it. Although I think my calf muscles may disagree. I still can’t believe that we walked on the glacier and slid through glacier caves. Anyone hitting the South Island should definitely try this out. It’s such a shame that our photo’s just wont do it justice.
The following few days we chilled out around Wanaka and Queenstown. Again we were lucky as the sun kept shining all through the trip.
We actually had one of our best nights out in Queenstown when we went to a lovely Seafood Restaurant. We supped a few Kiwi vinos, ate mussels, battered oysters (yes you heard that right) apparently it’s a very South Island thing to do and then ate some of the best fish I’ve had in a long time.
Stu will fill you in with the second half of our ‘Team Tui’ trip but I did thoroughly enjoy campervaning around the South Island. It was quite sad to leave NZ and come to Oz as we’d had such a great time but I am sure we’ll have an equally great time in Oz. Well providing those damn mossies and spiders leave me alone!
We’re now spending a few days in Sydney and the weather has been so changeable. It’s 27 degrees but quite humid and every day has seen storms! I just hope the weather improves for the rest of our trip. We’ve also so far managed to see some great wildlife whilst we’ve been here like seeing a wee Wallaby, Goana Lizard, Fruit Bats and of course some not so nice bugs. All a lot bigger and more evil looking than other bugs LOL. As most of you know I’m not a big bug fan and it’s taking some getting used to having cockroaches and the likes about in the evening!!
Anyways’ hope you are all doing well and set for Xmas. We’ll try to keep the blog up to date as much as possible.