Horseback Riding and Wine Tastings

My time in Queenstown has come to an end. My last week has been spent horseback riding, wine tasting and hanging with my flatmates. I am sad to leave the friends and fun here but very excited to hike the famous New Zealand tracks that I have heard so much about. I am starting on the Hollyford which is a track along a river out to the sea where there are seals and penguins. After that I am meeting a friend to do the Kepler and then the Routeburn/Caples circuit. I know these names mean nothing to you but I will post pictures when I complete them and maybe they will take on some sort of identity. After the tramps I will spend one last weekend in Queenstown before heading up the west coast and over to visit friends in Christchurch. From there the plan is to fly to northland where I will explore beaches and the Bay of Islands (and hopefully get some sun before heading to the northern hemisphere for the shortest day of the year). I will try to keep this updated between walks, I hope you are all doing well and I hope to see you when I am home for Christmas.

Is it summer yet?

So, the wonderful residents of Queenstown keep promising me that summer is coming soon and telling me that the snow in the mountains every other day is unusual for this time of year; I'm not sure I believe them anymore. Even though my plan for two summers in a row hasn't quite panned out, I have found enough to do around the area and work has been keeping me busy. Last week 8 of us got together and arranged a free jetboating trip with a trainee driver. While I was a bit apprehensive about his skills, it ended up being an amazing trip and was so much fun to do with all of my friends. On Halloween I attended a pool tournament that a neighbor was playing in; it was a good night and I even won a game of pool (totally luck and not skill) but it made me sad that nobody here dresses up. I also got a bonus holiday and spent New Zealand's Labour Day at Lake Hayes with my flatmates; although with this missing summer it was a bit cold for swimming. Yesterday I decided I should do some tramping to prepare myself for next month and hiked Ben Lomond which is the largest mountain in the Queenstown area. It was a really good work out but the views at the top made it all worthwhile; I felt like I was at the top of the world! The pictures above are of views from Ben Lomond and I had to put one of the redheads (we are always in the majority in our group of friends, very strange).