Adventures of Ali: onwards to Queenstown

Back on the magic bus with Scotty this time (has to be one of my favourite drivers of the whole trip) was dubbed "china" for the whole day, having been overseas for over a year with people coninually asking me where i'm from hundresd of times a day i've started spouting random countries... aka without thinking i just replied china, hence i was no longer known as ali!
he was funny, we were sitting towards the front of the bus today, and as with most of the roads in nz there was lots of possums dead on the roads... scotty had a great game going of trying to run over every one he saw... which had the bus lurching from side to side the entire day, as he tried to flatten them out further... disgusting, but i guess with the long hours on the road you have to entertain yourself somehow!

set off from Franz Josef bright and early, with a quick stop at the base of the Fox Glacier to pick up 2 others we were off.

our first stop of the morning was the stunning Matherson Lake, which is also known as mirror Lake, and it definitely put on a great performance.

our first glances as we wandered along the path

Lake Matherson

I could have stayed by the lake all day it was totally spectacular, the pictures totally don't do it justice.. all you could hear were sighs of "wow" when people got to the viewing platform, before a hush decended on everyone as we stood drinking it all in.

Had just 30mins to drink it in, before heading back to the bus for the next installment, there were a few people stuck in the line at the little shop buying drinks (including my cousin), and scotty decided to move the bus out of the way for one of the other tour buses that had just arrived...

anyway next thing we see is them all flying towards the bus, drinks forgotten.. thinking we were leaving without them...

it was a funny sight!

As we traveled along Lake Hawea the scenery just got more and more stunning ... I'm a huge fan of pretty water and mountains, and put them together, and you get a drooling mess i tell you! (you might have alreay sensed that!)

Lake Hawea

a lovely coastal view

The water here was so crystal clean you just wanted to jump in and swim (though it was only 6 degrees...)

From there we headed into Wanaka, which was this gorgeous little town that i would have loved to stay in for a few nights...

sat by the lakeside eating our lunch, while scotty went around picking those up who had been lucky enough to stop there overnight... (if you're thinking of going to nz, i reccomend staying here for a few nights...)

me and my ouchie from the train... the bruise was spectacular!

(excuse the dicky hat!)

Last stop of the day was at the Kawarau Bridge, home of the bungy, where we got to watch a short blink and you miss it documentary about the start of bungy, totally not worth the $20 people were paying to see it, but interesting.
before heading out to watch all those brave souls jumping of the bridge..

we were meant to be there just 30mins because no one off the bus was jumping that day, however 2hrs later we were still there, the video had obviously inspired on brave lad to jump....
Scotty was not impressed i think he was looking forward to a cold alcoholic drink, and waiting around wasn't making that happen any faster...

won a free drink on the bus... yay go me!

what stays in the same corner and travels the world?

Arrived into Queenstown around 6pm

Stayed in the YHA central and had some fantastic views over the lake from our room...

we ended up spending just 3 nights in Queenstown, i could have spent weeks there i just loved it so much...

again mountains meet water, Drool! everywhere you looked it was postcard perfect...

i loved this spot, it was just so beautiful and peaceful