A little late, but I did end up going to the South Island of New Zealand and it was magnificent. I'm still getting together all of the photos and will put them up on my website soon.
Our itinerary was:
Flew from Brisbane to Christchurch and stayed one night there. We had dinner down the road from the motel at the Monteith's Hotel. It was fantastic, the beer was superb and my first taste of NZ seafood was a terrific blue cod fish and chips. Sarah had the pork belly which was massive.
The next morning we flew to Queenstown and checked into our hotel at the Mercure Queenstown Resort, which was nestled on one of Queenstown's massive mountains. The view was spectacular. Since we arrived a little early to check in, the concierge booked us lunch at a restaurant that is only assessable via gondolier. We travelled up into the sky and had a huge all you can eat buffet. We got some great photos, checked out the town and went to bed early after some tasty room service.
Early the next morning we were picked up from our hotel by Real Adventures who took us on an all day tour to Milford Sound. The trip was long, but enjoyable. Once we arrived there, we were put onto a boat that took us on a nature tour around the sound. We got some more photos and got close enough to see some lazy seals. After the long day, we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was nice.
The next day we had two things booked in. Number one was an exciting ride on the Queenstown Shotover Jet. A high powered jet boat that goes through the Shotover river and through some canyons. Pretty cool. After that we went into town for lunch and then got picked up for our afternoon event, which was a tour out to the Onsen Hot Pools. We had the indulgence package which included champagne, grapes and an hour in our own private hot tub that had its own retractable front wall and roof that gave us a view over the mountains. After that we went into Queenstown for dinner, Sombreros Mexican Restaurant. Definitely recommended.
After another early morning pick up, we headed out to do some skiing at the Cardrona Ski Fields. Sarah went skiing, I did the snowboarding. Sarah was probably the better of the two of us. We spent most of the day in lessons, so in hindsight we should probably have done two days there. Dinner was room service again...gotta love those room delivered pizzas.
The last day in Queenstown was unplanned, so we just hung around the town. Breakfast was very nice, we killed some time at the Wharf Casino, then some Chinese for lunch and then hit the local wine tasting place. After some very tasty beverages we tried the local Italian place. The service was wonderful and the wine was prefect. The pasta itself was a little bit of a let down, but still an enjoyable day.
The next day we flew back to Christchurch where we once again hit up the Monteiths Hotel (massive chicken wings with sweet chili sauce and sour cream for entree...so awesome). Steaks and Lamb for dinner with some more of their great beer capped off our trip nicely. The next day we flew back to Brisbane.
A terrific holiday that I would thoroughly recommend. We did have perfect weather the whole time, so I guess we were a little lucky. Also with all our early morning starts, we didn't get a chance to check out the Queenstown nightlife, so a return trip with a group of mates will have to be done.
choice trip bro
