As always in New Zealand the last 24 hours has been full on and today has been all based around Queenstown, so no down time on the coach.
We arrived in the party capital of NZ last night and enjoyed an amazing pizza at Winnie's followed by dancing at the Buffalo Club, not somewhere I'd suggest to most of you, but great if you fancy dancing amongst 20 year old back packers.
This morning we then did another trip out, this time with Nomad Safaris. This is normally a 4 hour Queenstown and Lord of the Rings 4x4 experience but our trip was condensed to 1.5 hours and included a tour around the surrounding areas including Arrowtown, a gold rush town and a drive up to the ski fields which are due to open next week.
The trip was great with a really informative guide and some proper off roading, although the rivers were too flooded following snow earlier in the week to do all of the planned route.
After an afternoon of shopping and hotel visits we headed up the Skyline Gondola to the Skyline restaurant for dinner. The views from up here over Queenstown were amazing. There is also a luge run back to the town and a bungy jump for the adrenaline seekers but both of these closed late afternoon. The food at the restaurant was amazing too, often these tourist buffets are not the best but this one definitely got my thumbs up.
Finally we rounded the night off with a drink in Bardeaux, a gorgeous traditional bar with a roaring log fire. It's funny that it's summer back home but just a couple of degrees here.
Tomorrow is my last day here and we are still cramming it in with a jet boat along the Shotover river in the morning which I'm really excited about although slightly nervous. Keep your fingers crossed for dry weather and sunshine for me and I'll let you know how it goes.
