Areotoa
Our ten days in New Zealand before Christmas was just as I hoped it would be: lots of exercise, fresh air, silence, clean water, beautiful landscape. VERY beautiful landscape. Why have I never thought of going there before?
Often our family holidays are spent in a social whirl with old friends in Victoria or with housefulls of visitors on the Sunshine Coast. So it was a lovely change to go to a country where we didn’t know a single person. Lovely to spend time just the three of us. We were pretty harmonious. Although it was a little boring for F at times, being stuck with his parents. Hopefully in twenty or thirty years it will be a beautiful memory for him too...
Bike track along the old Central Otago railway line
Heading out from Queenstown along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy and the start of the Routeburn Track
Route Burn: the most amazing water
Routeburn. I had a dip in this freezing water after a sweaty walk up the mountain.
Big treat - the helicopter ride - incredibly fabulous endless vistas of wild beauty
We touched down at this lake perched in the mountains, got out of the chopper and ran around like excited children in the snow
We were dropped at this hut - on the Kepler Track - and walked back down the hill to catch a boat across the lake back to Te Anu
