After Queenstown

Kia Ora All!

We have now moved on from Queenstown up the West Coast to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef and we were very sad to leave Queenstown as it was such a cool and beautiful place to stay. The day after we got back from our cruise in Milford Sound we went horse trekking in 'Glenorachy' in a place called 'Paradise'. We trekked on horse back around where the scenes from Lord of the Rings, Wolverine, Lovely Bones and Chronicles of Narnia were filmed. My horse was called Ronald and the snow capped mountains were a beautiful back drop for a great days ride.

The day after we went horse trekking we wanted to try something a bit more extreme, so what we decided we would do is The Canyon Bungy Swing which happens to be the biggest cliff jump and swing in the world. We arrived at the jump site around 2:30 but we were very nervous. We decided that we would share our nerves and the experience by doing a tandem jump. First they fitted us to our harness, briefed us on how to jump and then placed us with the tips of our toes flopped over a platform looking down a 109 meter cliff. All we had to do next is jump off . The person counted down: 1,2,3 and we both jumped off in sync. First we had a sheer 70m free fall followed by a 200m swing. It was such an adrenalin rush and was so much fun. so much fun that I had to have another go, but this time it was solo.

After Queenstown we got on the intercity to Fox Glacier. A seven and and half hour journey up the West Coast. On the way we saw some amazing sights of waterfalls and more beautiful sight of the snow capped mountains. The day after we arrived in Fox we went on a 8km walk to The Fox Glacier, we trekked through a rain forest, over streams, through the mountains and pass more waterfalls.The walk took two hours and at the end of it we ended up standing  200 meters away from the giant glacier known as Fox, the views were of it were spectacular. 

We are now in Franz Josef which is located up the West Coast 30 minutes from Fox. This place is almost identical from Fox Glacier and it also has it's own Glacier called 'Franz Josef'. This time though we didn't go to see it and we just relaxed at the hotel for the night. In about 1 hour we have a 10 hour bus journey north of here to Nelson and the day after we spend two days in Abel Tasmen National Park. 


All the best 

Jon