New Zealand~week #1

We flew to Christchurch, New Zealand on Monday morning.
Monday-Thursday - Spent in Christchurch. It rained pretty much the whole time we were there. A little different from the sunny days we have been getting used to in Aus. Our plan was to take off from Christchurch on Wednesday to head south to Dunedin however got half way on the bus and were redirected back to Christchurch because of major flooding happening on the south-east coast. We couldn't go inland either to Queenstown b/c the road was closed due to a major (early) snow storm in the mountains. So we spent the day of Wed. driving out of and then back into Christchurch (all of 6 hours on the bus to get nowhere). But we were refunded our money and changed our plans to go inland to Lake Tekapo for one day and then out to Queenstown.

FACTS-
Avg. temp- between 7-15 degrees C
Fuel cost - 170 cents per L (SHOCKING!)

The church in Cathedral Square, Christchurch.

Thursday night - spent in Lake Tekapo (3 hours south-west) and much colder...maybe got to 2 degrees C or so overnight. The hostel was heated by 2 wood stoves....yup, we are now getting our winter for this year!

Lake Tekapo.

At the top of Mt. John overlooking Lake Tekapo
and the mountains (covered by cloud..but still nice.)

Friday night-Sunday night (although it is only Sat. night now) - we are in Queenstown. Nice town in the mountains....very much a ski resort-backpacker-tourist town.
Went out to Milford Sound today and it was the most beautiful place I have seen in a long time.....amazing day, amazing pictures but we have a date at the bar across the road and so have run out of time to write about Milford. Will post pics soon! CHEERS!

Fraser Island, Australia

We're a bit behind on the blog and so much has happened so we'll do our best to keep you all up to date.
From April 18 to the 21st we went with Michelle and Charles to Fraser Island which is in Great Sandy National Park and is off the coast from Noosa. Basically It's a huge sand island that is a very popular tourist destination. We were very happy to be with Michelle and Charles and Jill (their 4x4), instead of a huge backpacker bus. The main way to travel on the island is to drive on the beach which I really enjoyed. It was a bit wierd though driving 80km/h on the beach with the waves crashing right next to you. On the island there are also quite a few large fresh water lakes that are so clear and the water so blue. The water was also very cool and refreshing to swim in.

Here's me driving Jill down the beach.

This is a creek that runs through the centre of the island.

This is one of the dunes on the island. (We also hiked down to the water you see for a swim)

Here we are swimming in lake Birrabeen.