One of the most amazing places we visited in Australia was Karijini National park which boasts a vast amount of scenery to be viewed by looking down into gorges. We are now in a land which is equally, if not more amazing but this time the trick is to look up.

After 7 months of touring Australia and living like the locals do (ie. working) we have flown to a new country, namely New Zealand. I found that I was not very excited for 2 reasons. The first is that we had such a great time in Oz I felt sad to leave, and the second was that every time we had mentioned that we were off to the land of the rings people would say "oooh it's goin' to be cold there" so that I could think of nothing else apart from my freezing touche.
Thanks guys.

To my suprise, Auckland was mild and almost warmer than Sydney (if alot rainier), and after spending a day or so scooping up all the ski wear bargains in the second hand shops, we have arrived in Queenstown for winterfest - the celebratory start of the ski season.

The plane journey was the best yet with a prolonged panorama of snowy mountains and aqua green lakes. Queenstown airport is very small and as such you are expected to walk yourself down steps off the plane and across the tarmac to the tiny terminal. The advantage of this is that when you emerge, you feel like a movie star with your entourage of airline staff to greet you on the ground and the temptation to wave is a little too strong. Fortunately I had handfuls of bags and a guitar and was unable to raise anything except my head which revealed a towering white mountain directly ahead of me. This brought on the first 'wow' and I haven't stopped 'wow'ing since.

The town is small and situated on the edge of a sprawling lake which nestles amongst some of the many local mountains, including the remarkably aptly named remarkables, and wherever you go there is a stunning view to be had just by raising your head. There is a gondola ski lift up the side of the closest promontary with a well lit building at the top and when darkness falls it erases all evidence of it's foundations and it eerily appears as a giant santa's grotto floating high up in the sky.

There is a plethora of adventure activities here, mostly involving long bits of elastic tied to your feet and huge drops, but being money conscious (and still feeling fond of life) we are probably only going to pursue the "stand on an ironing board and slide down the side of a mountain" fun - also known as snowboarding. This will be happening in the next few days so in the meantime I am going to be sitting in the outside spa at the hostel acclimatising myself to the winter weather and gazing up at the humbling backdrop to Queenstown.