Welcome to New Zealand, one of the most beautiful countries on the planet.
This summer holidays, I decided I wanted to go skiing in New Zealand, to get some more experience. Since I was going to be close to home, I figured I should probably cross the ditch and visit some friends & family back home. Also, I miss home, especially the food.
At the beginning of July, I flew to Sydney and spent the next two weeks with my friend Belinda and her family. It has been 3.5yrs since we last saw each other so it was really great to see them. After Sydney, I flew to Melbourne and stayed at my mums for the next 10 days. We took a trip to Albury to visit my nana, which was great, and I got to see my teacher friends, and family members.
I had a huge list of food I wanted to buy to bring back to the UK as well. I ended up going way overboard and buying a ton of junk food!
And now it is time to head to New Zealand!
Day 1 Melbourne to Queenstown
Despite being our closest neighbour, I have never actually visited New Zealand. Tragic for an Aussie, I know! Flights are often quite pricey and most Aussies go to NZ to ski, which I have never done until last year. So, for these school holidays, I decided to come to NZ and ski!
I enjoyed my time back home. It didn't feel like I had been away at all, and I got to have all the foods I was missing. But now, it is time to head to New Zealand, which I am excited for!
I spent my last night in Australia in a hostel in Melbourne because I booked the 9.15am flight to Queenstown, which meant I had to be at the airport at 6.15am. Gotta love an early start! Well, Little Miss Punctuality was at the airport well before that. I was through bag drop & security in no time so I went and found a nice coffee shop for a breakfast bun and a latte.
The flight went well. It’s 3.25hrs and then
there is a 2hr time difference, so we arrived at Queenstown at 2.30pm. When the
pilot made his announcement at the start of the flight, he advised that the
weather was great and he was expecting to give us some spectacular scenery over
NZ. Well….he was right! The mountains were huge and covered in snow. It was
absolutely beautiful. I took a ton of photos and videos of the views. I think
it might be the single most spectacular flight I have ever been on!
Upon arrival, I bought myself a sim card and a bee card (transport card) then went to catch the bus into town. It's about 20mins into central Queenstown, depending on traffic and number of stops made.
Queenstown is small and my hostel is right in the middle of town on the water. I dropped my bags in my room, then went out to explore. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and sunshine, so I decided to take advantage and take the gondola up to the observation platform 480m above the town.
It’s quite expensive in my opinion, $59NZD just for the gondola, so I decided to also do the luge while I was up there. That was $81NZD for the gondola and 3 luge rides. The view was wonderful, especially since it was nearing sunset.
After some pics, I went to the luge. You grab a helmet then board the chair lift to the top. At the top you divide into first timers and repeat riders. A quick lesson and off you go! It’s a 1.2km run to the bottom, with 2 choices of tracks. It was heaps of fun! At the bottom, you rinse and repeat! It was FREEZING though, and my hands froze very quickly as I didn’t have my gloves.
I headed back to town after my 3 rides and went to get some food. I decided to go to Ferg Burgers. This is a very popular burger place, with over 20,000 reviews and a 4.6 rating on Google. The queue is always present, it just varies in length. Fortunately, I only had to wait about 10mins in the queue and then 15mins for my burger. I got Little Lamby, a lamb & mint burger. It was really nice!
Then I headed back to my dorm room and got my camera. It was a crystal clear, super starry night so it was perfect for photography! I walked through the botanical gardens to an isolated south facing part and set up. I got some great photos of the milky way! Once I was frozen solid, I went back to my room and to bed.
Day 2 Milford Sound
I woke up very early and slept terribly as I had a big day trip today. I got dressed and walked down to a nearby hotel for my pickup. Well, the pickup time came and went, so I called the tour company for an update. I was told the driver shouldn’t be too far. Another 20mins later, still no pickup so I called again and was told there was vehicle trouble and they would call me back when they know when I would be collected. As I had been standing outside in a windy -3oC (real feel -7oC), I was frozen so I went into the hotel lobby. 1.5hrs after my scheduled pickup time, I was finally collected, along with a family from Cambodia. Everyone who was collected was cold and grumpy. Turns out this was the third minibus the driver tried.
Milford Sound is 4hrs from Queenstown so all tours make several stops on the way. Our first stop was Te Anau for a break. I got a coffee and a muffin, which was good, and then went to visit the alpacas in the field. They were adorable! We also collected another 4 people for the tour.
Next was a very quick side of the road stop to see a glacier from afar. We literally only stopped for about 2mins because it was cold.
Mirror Lakes was next, which was beautiful. There is a boardwalk that you walk along and the lakes are very calm so the snowy mountains are reflected in them.
A waterfall next to the bridge was the next view, but we didn’t get out of the car.
Our last stop was to see the kea. These are alpine parrots, endemic to NZ. They are actually quite big, about the size of a chicken. They are very naughty and destroy cars and possessions. If they land on cars, they attack rubber door seals, antennas etc. We took some photos then continued on our way.
To get to the other side of the mountain range, you have to go through the mountains. A tunnel called the Homer Tunnel was made, which is now controlled by traffic lights. When we arrived, it said we had a 5min wait so we could get out and take some photos.
We finally arrived at Milford and raced to the boat. We were given our picnic lunch to eat on board, and found ourselves a spot. Myself and 2 other Aussies stood on the top deck (all the seats) were taken. It was another incredible weather day, so Milford Sound looked gorgeous. The boat cruise is 2hrs to travels to the Tasman Sea and back. We saw several waterfalls, one of which is 3 times the height of Niagara Falls, but due to the perspective, it looks much less than the 150m that it is!
We were also extremely lucky to see 2 Fiordland penguins. There are only about 2,500 breeding pairs left in the wild so seeing them is quite rare. We were also lucky to see 2 New Zealand fur seals basking in the sun and another swimming. Very exciting!
When we got back to land, we boarded our minivan and began the drive back to Queenstown. It was a long 4hrs, especially as I was sat next to the driver up front, and he could talk the ear off a doorknob! When we got back to Queenstown, we could see the night ski fields of Coronet Peak. They were lit up so brightly that you could see them from such a long way away (about 30km).
I walked back to my hostel, stopping to get a pie from the Ferg Bakery. I got pork belly with caramelized apple & Dijon mustard. It was nice!
One of the girls in my room decided to come out and photograph the stars with me. We found a better spot on the beach in the darkness and got some more great shots. I discovered my phone could make star trails by taking a hyperlapse video. I let it go for about 30mins, and got a 5 second video.
Then we were cold so we headed back to our room and went to bed.
Day 3 Queenstown
I slept well and got ready to go out. My first activity was jet boating so I rugged up in plenty of warm layers and went in search of breakfast.
I went to a coffee place with excellent reviews. It was very nice! Then I went to a hole in the wall which serves porridge. Just porridge. I got a lemon curd one which was porridge, lemon curd, freeze dried raspberries, pistachios and toasted coconut. It was really good! Expensive but yum.
I signed in for the jetboating and waited for the shuttle. We were driven 7mins to the canyon and got ready to go. We had to wear life jackets, and I also wore my thermals, snow coat, neck warmer, beanie, ski gloves and sunnies. They said it was 10oC cooler on the river than the air temp, so that means it was -10oC. Yep, it was freezing!
I got a front seat which was awesome! The canyon is quite narrow in places and it was a lot of fun. He did a few 360’s and one of them drenched the whole boat. Wearing sunnies was a great choice, because you could always keep your eyes open. By the time we were done (25min ride) the water on my coat had turned to ice. I bought the photos & videos, then took the shuttle back to town.
I spent some time doing a bit of shopping,
getting a shot glass, some fudge and a gorgeous kiwi toy. I have assumed his
gender, he is a boy, and my students will get to name him. I kept walking
around and got some fried dumplings to eat for lunch. They were very good,
although very hot, so I burned my tongue for the second time in 2 days.
A visit to the Kiwi Bird Sanctuary was next on my agenda. I really wanted to see a kiwi so this was the only way I would be able to. Its not a big park, but the grounds are nice. I saw lots of native birds, then went to the kiwi house. They are nocturnal so it is dark inside so the birds are active. The first house has 2 kiwi and the second one has 4. There was a little talk and it turns out the government has a kiwi conservation program and there are 14 facilities who raise young kiwis and release them into the wild. A baby kiwi only has a 5% chance of reaching adulthood in the wild, which is crazy low! The program has resulted in the survival chances increasing to 68%.
You cannot take photos in the kiwi house as they are super sensitive to light so I can’t show you a kiwi. They are quite big, chicken sized, very fast and cute.
I went to the ski centre to get organised for tomorrow, stocked up on snacks for the next few days and did some more window shopping. I ended up going to a pizza restaurant for an early dinner, which was nice.
I went back to my room and got my gear organised for skiing tomorrow.
Day 4 Skiing at The Remarkables
I woke early this morning and got ready for my first day of skiing! I had booked the 7.30am bus to The Remarkables and I had to collect my skis from the shop before boarding the bus. Turns out, I was a bit too early! Whoops! At 7am I got my skis and was first in line for the bus. All ski buses are full in the early morning because everyone wants fresh snow. It takes about 45mins to get to the ski area and we got to see a lovely sunrise on the way.
At the base, I rented a locker ($15NZD) for 12hrs) and went up to find where I needed to go for my lesson. I left my skies on the rack and went for coffee. So did everyone else! Took 15mins after ordering just to get my latte.
I chose the blue/red level lesson, because I have been skiing blue runs in Switzerland. The instructor told us that the blue runs on this mountain are more like red runs in Europe. Uh oh! I get scared on the blue Swiss runs! He also said that the black runs in Japan are like a green/blue run here. Clearly, Remarks is a tough mountain! We had 11 in our group with 2 instructors, but after 1 run, they were going to split us up. I ended up with Luca the instructor and 4 other people.
Of course, I am going to compare this to Switzerland because it is the only other place I have skied. Firstly, the ski lifts don’t go to the very top of the mountain. If you want to go to the top, you have to walk up the steep slope then ski/snowboard back down. Fortunately, these are black/red runs so nothing I will be doing. Second, the runs are really poorly marked! I literally have no clue if we did blue or green, and no idea which way to turn at intersections to continue on an easy run. I would have ended up on black if I was on my own!
The lesson was a “full day” lesson, but it is really only 4.5hrs. We did 10am-12.30pm then 1.30pm-3.30pm. Luca took us on green and blue runs, stopping frequently to allow us to catch up and give us feedback. I was always last, as I went slower, particularly on the steeper bits. In some parts (flatter parts) I did well and was able to do the proper technique. A couple of times I got scared & overwhelmed when there were super speedy snowboarders (and some skiers) zooming past me. I now know why my students told me they hate snowboarders!
For lunch I had a meat pie and sat outside to see the view. My face was stinging quite a lot, which I realized much later that it was probably due to the antibiotics I am on making my ski sensitive to the sun. I sat in the shade and waited for the second session.
When the lesson ended, I handed my gear to the overnight storage, grabbed my bag and got the first bus back. My face was hurting a lot and I was knackered!
I grabbed a peach cider from the bottle-o and sat in the hostel kitchen eating my popcorn and have a bevvy. Then I headed out to a pub for tea. I chose the fried chicken stack, which was fried chicken, bacon, mushroom sauce, chips and coleslaw. It was quite good. Very expensive though at $25NZD.
I decided I needed to get some proper sunscreen for my face and went in search for some on the way back to my hostel. It is EXPENSIVE here! All options were minimum $20NZD for a small tube of sunscreen, with most being at least $30-40. I ended up buying a stick of zinc instead as it is tiny & I have a luggage weight limit to deal with. Cost me $23 though so it better be good!
Then I went back to my room, showered and got ready for bed. Tomorrow I am going back to Remarks for my second lesson so hopefully I get better. It is also meant to snow a tiny bit tonight.
Day 5 Skiing at The Remarkables
Another early start this morning. I got ready, went and got coffee then went to the ski bus. The 2 girls I talked to yesterday were at the front of the queue and they let me join them. Turns out they are 2 sisters from Mission Beach in QLD. They have family in NZ so they have been coming to the snow here for most of their lives. They alternate between skiing and snowboarding. We talked the whole bus trip, and after we separated on arrival to get ready, we ended up sitting together while we waited for the lifts to open. They invited me to ski with them before my lesson. We were lucky enough to be one of the first on the mountain which was great because that means freshly groomed & empty runs!
We took the sugar bowl lift up then went down the green run. It felt pretty good! I love the quiet runs! One of the girls was struggling with the snowboard as it had been a year since she last boarded (she mostly skis), so I went back up on my own for a second run.
My lesson today started off in a big group of 14 with 2 instructors, but they decided to split us into 3 groups after a trial run. I ended up in a small group with 3 others. I really struggled with the blue runs here so I was put in the bottom group (which I expected). My instructor today was good. He ended up challenging us, but mostly for me, he gave me tips to get more confident on the steeper sections. I still can’t parallel ski properly so that’s something I need to master. He also taught us how to do a 180o turn and a 360o turn. Nope, I couldn’t do them very well!
In the afternoon, the clouds rolled in and the snow became really solid and compacted. It made things much more difficult. At 3.30pm when the lesson finished, I packed up and joined the bus queue back to Queenstown. It took a bit longer today as the traffic was quite bad. I had pre-arranged to meet the girls for dinner so I quickly stashed my gear, showered and went out to meet them.
We walked around for a bit then ended up at
the restaurant I went to the other day for pizza. We each ordered a pizza (don’t
worry, they are single serve sizes) and drinks and chatted. It was nice to hang
out with some people, and these girls were lovely. After dinner, we walked
around to check out the cookie place, but the queue was long so we said
goodnight and went our separate ways. They are going to Coronet Peak tomorrow,
same as me, so I will see them there.
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I walked around a bit, grabbed a hot chocolate and took some photos, then went to my room to chill.
Day 6 Skiing at Coronet Peak
I slept better last night and woke just before my alarm. Getting a bit sick of the 6.30am starts but I couldn’t change my bus time online. I grabbed my gear from the hostel store room and headed to the bus. I was off to my second mountain today: Coronet Peak. I was nervous because my instructor yesterday told me it is steeper than Remarks, and I don’t like steep slopes (yet).
Today’s bus was a normal bus. The Remarks buses are actually a truck bed with a bus cabin, due to the road conditions. The road to Coronet Peak (CP) is not so steep and easy to drive. Plus, no snow or ice. It is a much lower mountain than Remarks. The top of CP is the same height as the base station of Remarks. I had nearly 2hrs to kill when I got there, so I got a coffee and ham & cheese croissant, then sat and played on my phone for a while.
When I met the instructors, the guy decided to put me down into the green group with a really young guy named Alex. There was only 1 other person in the group, an Aussie girl from Perth. It was great! Eventually we did gain another person, a UK/Kiwi guy so it was just 3 of us. We got so much more personalised attention which I really preferred. Also, Alex took us on 1 green run only for a while, which allowed us to get lots of practise. My goal was to try and turn by making a smaller pizza, and eventually by parallel. I really struggle with parallel skiing. Eventually Alex took us on a short blue run, and then a section of the M1, which is a very long run that goes from the top to bottom. We only did the bottom section. I did lots of pizza on that one!
Eventually, I was getting better, especially on the flatter sections. We just did the runs over and over and over. It was great, because he didn’t introduce much in the way of new skills, but focused on improving our technique to become better skiers. You can’t do advanced stuff until you master the basics!
At the end of the day, Alex told us we were going on a steep section next to the green run. We got to the top of the section, and all three of us immediately became terrified. It was VERY steep! I don’t know the vertical drop, or the angle of the slope, but my guess is maybe 100m and an angle of at least 45o. I was extremely frightened. I thought I would fall and slide all the way down to the bottom. I saw one of the sisters from yesterday at the top and she flew down the slope! I went last in our group, and slowly, but I managed to get to the bottom without falling! Woohoo! Alex made us do it again and on the second time, I went a bit faster, especially in the lower half, and got a huge adrenalin rush! I asked to do it a third time with Alex filming me. I look terrible in the video, but I am very proud of myself!
After the lesson, I left my gear at the overnight storage and joined the bus queue. It took quite a while as there were lots of people wanting to get the bus. It wasn’t until 4.20pm that I got on a bus, nearly an hour after my lesson ended, but the drive is only 25mins back to Queenstown.
The sisters messaged me and invited me to join them for dinner again, which was really kind of them, so I showered and went to meet them. We decided to get a burger at Devil Burger (recommendation from Alex). I got one with beef, bacon, pineapple, BBQ, aioli, lettuce and tomato. It was an excellent burger. Afterwards, we went to the Patagonia Chocolate & Ice-creamery. It’s always busy here, with all these weird people eating ice cream in 4oC weather. We joined them and got a cup with 2 scoops. It is a huge serve, which is good because its $10NZD. I got white chocolate with hazelnuts and banana split flavours. Then we went and sat on a bench by the water. It was really nice ice cream. We had some very friendly ducks come and visit, until a horrible child came running through them and chased them. We talked for ages then needed to walk as we were frozen.
We got some snacks from the supermarket, then said goodbye. They are heading home tomorrow. I went back to my room, packed my bag and went to bed. I have to do a bit of work as I got an email so best get that done!
Day 7 Skiing at Coronet Peak
Today was my second lesson at Coronet Peak. After the progress I made yesterday, I was looking forward to hopefully mastering blue runs today. I was put with a Japanese instructor and just one other Aussie girl. We went down the green run first and I was quite shaky! It seemed like I had forgotten all the work I did yesterday! It took a couple of runs to get comfortable again. Our instructor Tommy gave us lots of drills to help us with our balance to make sure we put our weight on the outside ski. If we can master this, we should be able to handle blue slopes. By lunch time, we had gone down the end of the M1 blue run and were doing great. The guy who was moved into my group yesterday, was also put into my group today, so by 11am, we had 3 in our group.
After lunch, we went to the top of the Coronet Express chair lift, which leads to the start of the M1 blue run. This is the biggest run open for night skiing, so I really wanted to try this one. Once at the top, I was quite nervous. It was steep! I had to take it really slow because there were so many speedy people zooming past at a million miles an hour. The noise that snowboards make, especially when you can’t see them, is frightening! I now understand why my students at school told me they hate snowboarders because they are a menace on the slopes. I also now dislike being around them! They are so fast, noisy and unpredictable. I had to concentrate so hard, and I did a fair amount of pizza to slow down, so by the time we were halfway, I was exhausted! By the time we got to the bottom of the M1 run, my nerves were shot! We finished by doing the green run one last time.
I took a break since I was doing the night skiing later. I decided to treat myself to an apple cider and eat some Pringles. The M1 was closed for an hour while they groomed the slopes for night skiing.
At 5.30pm I went back to skiing as it was dusk. For night skiing, it is a special lift pass, 2 of the lifts and about half the mountain are open. They are lit up by flood lights and there is a DJ pumping out tunes at the base station. Again, it took me a few runs to get my groove back, but then it was all good. It’s a whole different ball game when it gets dark. Visibility decreases, you can’t wear your ski mask unless it has a clear lens (mine is pink) and it’s cold. Fortunately, the slopes are a tiny bit quieter. I took plenty of pictures and videos of course.
Buses only leave hourly, so I made sure I got the 7.30pm bus back to town. I dropped my gear in the storage room and went to get a burger from Ferg Burger. It was busy so it was a long wait, both to order and to get the food. I chose the Chief Wiggum burger. It had roasted pork belly, lettuce, tomato, onion, hash brown, aioli and apricot seeded mustard. I took it to my hostel to eat since there was nowhere to sit at the shop. It was delicious, and huge!
Then I went to my room, showered and went to bed. I have 2 more ski days, although I think I will only ski in the morning tomorrow.
Day 8 Skiing at The Remarkables
Today was my first day solo skiing and I was headed back to Remarks. When I stepped outside, however, it was raining. If it was raining on the mountain it means bad news for the snow. I got a coffee and a muffin from my favourite coffee shop, drank the coffee and went to the bus. One of the guys from my room was in the queue behind me so we talked and took the bus together. He and his girlfriend are both teachers from Ireland.
When we got to the base station, it was lightly snowing. I got a locker, dropped my boots and skis then went to sit in the restaurant and eat. At 10am I went out on the slopes to try the Casterway green run. I had my normal goggles on, not the sunny lens, and I found it very difficult to see the snow. I thought I was being a wimp, but I really struggled and decided to wait and see if visibility improved. Back to the restaurant I went.
At 12.20pm I went back out. It was now snowing heavily, but there was a bit less cloud hanging around. The snow was amazing, but visibility was terrible. I was beginning to regret my choice! I took some pictures and videos then headed down the run. I stopped several times to clear my goggles (this time with the sunny lens on). As I went down, there were multiple people zooming past saying “I can’t see shit” to their friends. This made me feel so much better because, inexperienced as I am, it was not just me having issues! It took me a while to get to the bottom of the run. I was very slow and was in pizza most of the time. Then I quit. I was done and dusted for the day. I grabbed my gear and joined the bus queue to head back to town.
I took my stuff back to hostel, changed into normal clothes, then went to get food. I was starving! I chose the venison burger at Ferg Burger. Then I walked around the shops for a bit. I bought some more snacks, some new lip balm (made with NZ manuka honey but the non-tourist stuff) and a souvenir t-shirt. Then I went back to my room to chill for a bit.
Day 9 Skiing at Coronet Peak
Today, I was able to have a sleep in because I changed my bus to the 3pm bus for night skiing so I didn’t have to stay there all day. I had a lazy morning, mostly chilling in my room. I went to the café next door for breakfast (pulled pork benedict) which was nice, then a bit of shopping.
I took the bus the Coronet Peak at 3pm, got a locker and went straight out onto the slopes. I went on the green run, Big Easy, for a few laps, then went onto the bottom of the blue M1. I was ok, still nervous, especially the steeper parts and when the speeders zoomed past.
At 5pm, I decided to have a snack break and wait for the sun to go down a bit. I had a giant yoyo biscuit that I bought from in town, and an L&P drink.
At 5.30pm, I decided to bite the bullet and go to the top of the M1. Partly, I also wanted to go up to the viewpoint. Once you get off the chair lift, you can drop your skis in the snow and walk up the steps/slope to the lookout. It was very busy as it was sunset, and it was very tough climbing in ski boots. The view was completely worth it, though! It was absolutely beautiful!
I eventually headed back down to the chair lift, slipping and almost falling down the side at one point and ending up hanging from the railings. Scary stuff!
I turned on my GoPro then started making my way down the slope. Last time I went down was with the instructor, and it took me a while as it was quite busy. Today, there were so many people as well! It took me 30mins to get down! It’s 2.4km long with an elevation difference of 462m apparently. There were so many people going extremely fast, particularly snowboarders, and it was steep, so I was going very slow. There were also some rough patches. I even got to a point where I considered taking my skis off and walking! By the time I got to the bottom, I was shaky and my nerves were gone!
I decided to get straight on the green run to recover a bit of confidence, and I did 2 runs as it was extremely busy. Then I went, returned my ski equipment and got ready for the bus. I wanted to be on the 7.30pm bus back to town and I made it with 5mins to spare.
Back in town, I got some nuggets from KFC, some hot cookies from the Cookie Bar and a can of strawberry cider from the supermarket. I sat in the hostel kitchen and had my calm down snack. Then I went to bed.
And this is the end of my skiing time in Queenstown. Head over to part 2 for the rest of my New Zealand adventure and my quick stop in China!