Need to stretch your legs? Try...Biking?

Should have been skydiving...

While we were at Queenstown, Heather and I decided that we would rather skydive over Fox Glacier than bungy jump. So the rest of the day was spent on the ground, minus our gondola ride up over the town for some spectacular views.

Para glider over Queenstown

On the 10th, we left Queenstown at 810 and arrived at our destination at 330. It was a long day on the bus and I was now prepared to jump from 12 000 ft over the magnificent mountains and glaciers. I had a pit in my stomach, but nothing was going to change my mind. Except the weather... At 430, our scheduled time of the dive was postponed to the strong winds. We waited until 530, and it was still too windy. The divers convinced us to stay until 7pm as sometimes the winds will drop suddenly late in the day. No luck, they wouldn't take us, and as we were already booked elsewhere for the next few days, we decided it wasn't meant to happen. But we may try again up in Abel Tasman, which will be over beaches, which is no mountains or glaciers, but I'm sure it will be equally as thrilling. After waiting for so long, we decided the best way to get to the Fox Glacier before sun down would be to bike. We left our hostel around 745 and biked mostly uphill and made it back just before dark.

On the way to Fox Glacier, getting out to stretch our legs from the bus ride

Fox Glacier

Yesterday, we left Fox Glacier and headed for the small town of Punakaiki, home of the pancake rocks. When we arrived we didn’t have our accommodation booked, so we headed to the iSite, only to discover that the hostels were completely booked out because of a couple of events going on this weekend. We found a place to stay at a little bach about 5 minutes from the beach. It has been kind of a nice change, staying at a place where each of get our own room and don’t have to share the space with many others. But this will probably be the only time, as it has been about double to what we have been spending every other night. However, we did get free internet again, another bonus. Yesterday we spent some time at the pancake rocks around high tide and then watched the sunset on the beach.
This afternoon we are catching a bus up to Nelson, and then spending the next few days in that area and up in Abel Tasman National Park. If we have time, we may catch a bus up to the North Island for a day or two until we head back down to Karen and Johns.

Heather at the Pancake rocks

Pancake rocks

That’s all for now!