Akaroa - Chez la Mer Backpackers
From Akaroa we made out way down to Lake Tekapo (via a brief stop in Ashburton to pick up some thermals, lol). Nothing really prepares you for your first glimpse of the lake. You drive around a corner and then suddenly, wham... there is is. The most amazing body of water I think I've ever seen, the colour is kind of difficult to describe, it's just awesome! We spent about a hour or so at the lake taking pictures of the church and beautiful surrounding landscape, skimming stones and being goofballs before continuing on to Twizel.
We originally planned on staying in Twizel for the night, but upon our arrive we saw that there isn't a hell of a lot to do there and since we still had so many hours of daylight left, we decided to push on to Queenstown (a decision we are very pleased we made).
We both instantly fell in love with Queenstown. It is a beautiful wee town nestled in between some awesome mountains which reflect off the splendid lake which the town is built around. Yes, Queenstown is touristy, but it is still charming nonetheless. It is has great shopping and lots of wonderful restaurants and bars (which we frequented regularly, of course).
We filled our days in Queenstown with touristy stuff, like going up the skyline gondola and zooming back down the hill on the luge. We went for nature walks (up very very steep hills) and were rewarded with splendid views and we enjoyed leisurely lunches which included a few bevvies (think Montheiths, Speights & Macs and you get the idea of the type of lunches these were). We did a day trip out to Arrowtown and enjoyed wandering around the beautifully manicured town, and we even stopped in a a winery on the return trip to pick up some wine.
We also booked ourselves onto one of the many bus tours which take you down to Milford Sound. Luckily for us, we chose a really good company and we had an excellent tour. Our leader Bruce was a classic Kiwi bloke, full of great information and a few tall tales to boot. I'm glad we didn't drive ourselves down like we originally planned, as we (or should I say Alain) would have missed so much of the beautiful scenery. It's breathtaking and well worth the long journey.
We didn't do a hell of a lot in Christchurch, truth be told. We went to the Saturday market at the racecourse, and we also spend a day at the beach in Sumner and that's about the extent of the excitement... We did however find a lovely little French restaurant called Le Croix Blanc down one of the alleyways, and we enjoyed a rather boozy and very expensive lunch there (is it still called lunch if you arrive a 1.00pm and don't leave until 5.00pm?).
We had an awesome 10 days down south, and I highly recommend a road trip down there to everyone. It was fab and it made me remember why I love my country so much. New Zealand... You rock!
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