New Zealand Part 2

After a great time in Queenstown it was time to pack up and move on to Franz Josef Glacier. There were many sights to see on the way - beautiful glacier pools... 

 Thunder Creek Falls...

 Unfortunately Sarah was unable to do the helicopter ride up higher onto the Glacier due to some extreme weather so they opted for a 4 hour hike on Fox Glacier...

Valley looking back from Fox Glacier

Town of Franz Josef

 Moving on to Hanmer Springs via Christchurch to drop off some of the tour members and pick up some new ones. Plenty of beautiful scenery to enjoy...

 This area was used to film the battle scene in the Narnia movie...

Pretty Hanmer Springs

More amazing scenery on the way to Kaikoura...

 Before arriving in Wellington...thunderstorms and gale force winds...

Night out in Wellington

 From Wellington they went to Lake Taupo...

They had a B & D party on a cruise of the lake - Sarah was a Dork...

From Lake Taupo to Rotorua and the boiling mud pools...

 Sarah's Contiki group were the first to be welcomed into a Maori tribe and they had to sing them a song - they sang Hey Arthur...

Rotorua is very smelly due to gases released from the thin earth crust. This is right next to their motel...

 Sarah got to do some amazing activities in Rotorua and one of them was Zorbing - rolling down a 350m hill and around corners while inside this big ball filled with water and another friend!

Straight after that she decided to jump out of a plane at nearly 16 000. Because of the height at which she was sky diving she needed to be on oxygen for 10 minutes beforehand. She reached 200 kmph during the 60 second freefall. The whole jump took about 5 minutes to get to the ground. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience!...

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day she then got to go to Hobbiton and check out where the recent movie "the Hobbit" was filmed and "the Lord of the Rings" series...

 And enjoy a drink at the new Green Dragon pub...

New Zealand Part 1

 In late November Sarah set off on her own for an adventure to New Zealand. She flew to Sydney first then had a connecting flight to Christchurch. She then met up with all her Contiki tour group and off she went for 3 weeks exploring New Zealand...

Christchurch is still under repair from the devastating earthquake earlier in the year and many areas are still not open to the public... 

The CBD is still closed off and they have made a "Pop-up shopping mall"...

After a brief stay in Christchurch they travelled to Lake Ohau and visited Lake Tekapo on the way...

 Sarah loved the spectacular scenery along the roads...

 The stayed at Lake Ohau Lodge...

View from the games room

From there they travelled to Dunedin and walked up the worlds steepest street - Baldwin Street...

Group photo at the top

 And toured Speights Brewery...

 Next stop was the adventure city Queenstown for 4 nights...

Group photo

First night in Queenstown was enjoyed at the Skyline restaurant...

Bungy jumping station

Enjoying a cocktail

Views over Queenstown

Cocktails served at the World Bar in teapots

They stayed at Aspen on Queenstown and enjoyed fantastic views for breakfast...

The group were given many choices to do optional activities whilst in Queenstown - Sarah chose the shotover jet, canyon swing and a trip to Milford Sound. This is Shotover Canyon where they zoomed around  in jet boats at 90kmh... 

On the way to Milford Sound they stopped at Mirror Lake...

 The weather on the way to Milford Sound was terrible but fortunately it cleared up for part of the cruise...

Milford Sound

 After a very long day travelling to and from Milford Sound (14 hours) a nice cold (freezing) drink was called for in the Minus Five Ice Bar...

Even drink out of an ice glass at an ice table

After a big night out next was the canyon swing... 

Track into canyon swing

The canyon swing is a 60 metre freefall which then extends into a 200 metre swing - which Sarah loved...

Ready, set...

GOOOOOOOOO!!!

And there was no shortage of clubs to attend in Queenstown...

Nicole's Photography

Nicole and Daniel and mates went down to Busselton to do some fishing off the Busselton Jetty. Here's a few great shots she took on her new camera using her new lenses...

She has also been capturing some fishies in Daniel's huge fish tank... 

I am encouraging her to enter some competitions!!

Day out

Today we took a drive down to Busselton to have a look at the house Janelle will be staying in next year and visit Mum and Dad J. After a nice chat with them we headed on down to Dunsborough to find Samundra. Samundra consists of 2 yoga studios, an eco clothing store and a vegetarian cafe. It is set in bushland and offers various retreats and workshops. Today we were just going for the food!

Love all the recycled seats... 

 Looking inside the cafe which opens out to outdoor eating area...

 Our lunches - raw pizza, chickpea burger and vegetable wrap -all very nice especially the pizza...

 For dessert we indulged in raw carrot cake and raw lemon cheesecake - yummo...

Followed by Chia and hot chocolate...

One of the huge yoga studios

 They have a very large vegetable garden as well...

We then did some shopping in Dunsborough before driving home. We had a lovely day out and Nicole crossed something off her bucket list - taking a sickie when not sick :)