Hitting the slopes and exploring the south

Waterfalls on Milford Sound
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Alison:  The last week and a half has seen us cover a lot of ground with Stray bus as we headed south to Stewart Island - a journey that began and ended in Queenstown - party central of the South Island.

Our first taste of Queenstown was of a brash and busy place as the ski season is in full swing and Queenstown's three skiing grounds: Mount Hutt, Coronet Peak and The Remarkables have some of the best snow in the whole country.  Gem and I decided to not ski the first time we went to Queenstown and instead booked the most amazing ski deal for our return to the town at the beginning of August. This decision turned out to be a good one as we ended up being forced to stay in separate dorms in one of the worst hostels we have experienced in New Zealand.  We both ended up getting absolutely no sleep for the three nights we were here due to very drunk Kiwi Experience room-mates and Gem's personal favourite - a girl crying all night because she was so drunk she couldn't stop!

Stormy seas!
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So a very sleep deprived Gem and Alison boarded our 7am Stray Bus to head out to Milford Sound and continue our exploration of the very south of the South Island. Milford Sound is advertised as one of the most spectacular natural wonders of New Zealand and is basically a series of fjords which we explored via a rather touristy boat.  The weather wasn't great and meant that much of our boat journey was through mist and low cloud but Milford still proved to live up to its reputation as the mists parted to reveal waterfall upon waterfall flowing into the water.  The climax of the journey was the biggest waterfall on the Sound which I decided to get up and close too and consequently got very wet!

View from the top of the Remarkables
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The next day we headed out to the most southern part of our round the world trip - Stewart Island, known to the local Maoris as the anchor of New Zealand.  Our journey to the island was far from smooth with one of the roughest hour long crossings on a small boat that I have ever experienced. At first it was all fun and games as two meter tall waves flung the vessel about and we all got the stomach turning feeling of being on a rollercoaster. However after about half and hour of this my sea legs abandoned me and I spent the rest of the journey trying not to be sick (others were less successful in doing this and to be fair even one of our Stray Bus companions who had spent a year in the Norwegian navy went very green half way through the journey!) Gem however was absolutely fine throughout and couldn't wait to do it all again the next day!

Professional skiers on the mountain!
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Stewart Island is famous for having the only non-nocturnal kiwi birds and also many unusual and large bird species like the albatross. So with all good intentions we checked into our accommodation and got on our coats to tramp over the island to search out the kiwis. However mother nature had other plans for us and chose that moment to open the heavens - cue heavy rain for the rest of the day and night.  Kiwi hunting was quickly abandoned and instead we settled down for a night in with our Stray friends feasting on fish that another housemate had caught the previous day.  It has to have been one of the nicest meals we have had in New Zealand and also one of our favourite chilled out evenings.

Gemma takes her first steps on skis
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Dunedin - the Edinburgh of New Zealand was our next stop after thankfully a much calmer return journey to the mainland.  We spent to bus trip to Dunedin getting in touch with nature through stops to photograph a massive sea lion, unsuccessfully spot dolphins and, my favourite, watching two yellow eyed penguins come in from the sea and climb the cliffs to nest for the night.  There are only 3,000 yellow eyed penguins left in the world so it was a privilege to spot just two.

Dunedin itself certainly felt familiar to me with its Edinburgh place names, old buildings, replica of the monument in Princes Gardens and the obligatory greyness that shrouds both cities. Luckily we had a fantastic hostel so we were able to catch up on all our sleep and thoroughly relax in preparation for our return to Queenstown for Gemma's first experience of skiing.

So I am now writing this having spent the last three days getting up at 6am to hit the slopes and thankfully we have both survived the experience in one piece.  Gemma took to skiing like a duck to water and was merrily parallel skiing by the end of the third day (we even have the video to prove it). We both had great fun hurtling down the slopes and occasionally falling over (me more than her which was frustrating since technically I am meant to be the better skier!) and we even got the chance to mess around on a few pistes on our last afternoon.

So we are now spending our last few days in New Zealand trying to ease off our stiff muscles and reflecting on what has been a wonderful nine weeks of adrenaline filled activities and memorable scenery. Only four more days to go until we fly to Rarotonga, get out our bikinis and attempt to even up our skiing tans (panda eyes from wearing goggles/sunglasses is not a good look!)