Franz to Wanaka to Queenie

Hello everyone!!

Sounds like the weather is getting nicer back home (it's a bit chilly here today) - I'm in Queenstown which is most definately the largest drain on funding in the world - everything is more expensive from dorms to food... but on the other hand it is renowned as Party Capital' of NZ and lives up to its reputation very well!! I've been here for 4 days although yesterday was a road trip but i'll come back to that in a sec. First things first (no really). I left Franz Josef and went to Wanaka which is a lovely little town further south than Franz which doesn't have a huge amount to do but is very pictoresque.... we stayed in a really cool hotel which had 4 bed dorms (a novelty form the usual 8 or 12) with en suites..... and get this..... the en suites had baths - hurrah!! - after a month of showers it was amazing how much more revitalising an hour in the bath was.... Anyway moving away from my washing regime - we then headed even further south to Queenstown stopping at 'puzzle world' on the way - http://www.puzzlingworld.co.nz/ - one of the coolest places we've stopped at (second to Bushman Pete's Centre).... after finishing the maze in... yes... 20 minutes (thanks to Mo on that one for training me up at hampshire mega maze and Chris for turning it into a race).... we carried on to Queenie and had a lovely dip in the lake (now I know the meaning of freezing). That night and every night has run as follows (occasionally there have been variations on the theme): Red Rock Bar - Altitude bar - Buffalo's - World Bar.... and due to this I woke up today at around 2ish... More Exciting News!!! - sorry this is a long entry (and probably not very coherent). Yesterday - after a few days in Queenie my friend Neen and I decided to hire a car and have ourselves a road trip to Milford Sound. Milford Sound is recognised as having the most spectacular sights in New Zealand and I would agree (even to sceptical Ashley who was starting to lose interest in yet another mountain) the drive was great fun an early start with long winding routes accompanied by my mp3 player running through the radio (a minor detail you may think, but there's something to be said for listening to rock music whilst cruising down a seemingly endless road!!) When we arrived we hopped (almost literally) on to a cruise boat for a 2 hour cruise through the fjord... we saw waterfalls and snow and seals and more waterfalls - I loved it.

Anyway I'll tear myself away from this journal for now.

Take care