Queenstown NZ - March 2009

Queenstown, New Zealand is a 'happening place'. It is my favourite place to visit in New Zealand and that is a big call when there are many other magnificent places on both the North & the South Islands. It is a tourist town & was full of young backpackers & grey nomads all looking for adventure.

One week in Queenstown is not nearly enough especially if you want to add golfing to the events list. There are so many options to choose from with Jet Boat rides, white water rafting, paragliding, light plane flights, gondolas, luge rides, bungy jumping, wineries, short day trips, Arrowtown, Milford Sound, Mount Cook and that is just a few........Oh! and did I mention golfing.

We played on three golf courses close to Queenstown, Kelvin Heights, Millbrook and Jack's Point. They were all stunning courses with backdrops that could have been painted on a canvas.

The photos cannot give justice to the true beauty that you experience. There are many other courses nearby such as Wanaka, The Hills Course and Arrowtown just to name a couple but we did not have time for those.

The downside of New Zealand is the weather. We were lucky enough to get nice weather while we were in Queenstown. A little chilly at early morning but otherwise much better than we experienced in Christchurch.

We ate out at some great restaurants and one evening decided to experience fish & chips at the waterfront of the lake just across the road from our hotel.

Some of us visited Milford Sound by bus which was a lovely trip. We were to have come home by light plane but even though the weather was clear there were very high winds which made it dangerous to travel. None of us wanted to be a statistic so we got over our dissapointment and bused it back to Queenstown. We had a fabulous bus driver named Karen who was not only a good driver but great company.

Others did some tandem jumps, some played golf at Arrowtown or Wanaka or just had an easy day.

We went up the gondola and had dinner at the restaurant & managed to fit in some luge rides as well.

We went to a winery and cheesery; rode the jetboat at the Shotover River. None of us did any bungy jumps but we did watch some others. We had a visit to Arrowtown on the way to golf & checked out the old Chinese settlement which had a very interesting history.

Peter who hates flying, had his first ride in a helicopter to the top of the "remarkables".

That was a fabulous experience & the views were breathtaking.

The golfing tour officially finished on Sunday 8th March in Queenstown when most of the tour group made their way back home. Christine & Ross hired a car and had an extra week to explore the South Island via Wanaka. We did the same thing but went via Invercargill.

More to follow on our extra days in New Zealand.

Christchurch NZ - February 2009

We flew into Christchurch on Wednesday 25th February with Emirates Airlines. It was a very comfortable flight and I would have no hesitation in flying with them again. The food and drink service was good & the seats very roomy for economy cost. Ron & Di Beechey travelled with us and we spent our first day (Thursday 26th February) discovering the city of Christchurch.

We had a look at the markets and then found our way to the Gondola that overlooks Christchurch and Lyttelton Bay. The views were great until the fog set in which is something that happens fairly regularly apparantly. We were lucky that we went early enough to enjoy the views. After that we searched out the good discount shops and did some bargain shopping before meeting up with the rest of the Gosford Group - 12 of us in total from the Gosford Golf Club. That night we had dinner at the Rydges Hotel in Christchurch & met up with the whole golfing tour group and our tour manager who was organising the next 10 days of our holidays.

The next day (Friday 26th February) we had a brief tour of the city which included the local museum and the rose garden (that impressed me) before playing golf at Clearwater Golf Course. It was a cold, damp sort of a day but we did get our golf in at Clearwater. The course was being prepared for the NZ PGA Championship (to be held the following week) while we were there. We could not resist a photo with the bill boards and score board.

Saturday 27th February we played golf at Terrace Downs Golf Resort. We were unlucky enough to get an uncomfortable wet and foggy day & there was also a wedding being held at the Clubhouse which restricted our use of the Clubhouse. We had a delayed start because of the fog

and it rained on and off while we were playing. Some people were lucky enough to see some of the stunning views this course offers but I was one of the early starters and missed out because the fog was still settled in for the most of our game. We were very wet and bedraggled when we finished & had to settle for the downstairs recreation area after our game as the clubhouse area was booked for the wedding.

Sunday 1st of March we were transferred to Queenstown airport for our flight to Queenstown for our next golfing adventure. The skies had cleared and showed promise of some fine weather.