Te Anau

We are now in Te Anau and having a bit of down-time on our New Zealand trip. We have just spent 7 days in Queenstown, skiing mostly. We found Queenstown really busy. It's almost like a winter version of Surfer's Paradise. Very few people were under 30. But, it was a really viubrant and pretty town.

We found a fantastic burger restaurant called "Fergburger". It made the best burgers we have ever tasted. Dave had the 'Big Al', which was the biggest burger I have ever seen. It had 2 eggs, bacon, a whole lot of cheese, 2 prime beef patties, aoili, tomato sauce, beetroot, lettuce and tomato. I took a photo of it, but I can't post it yet.

Anyway, we really enjoyed skiing in Coronet Peak. It was a very hairy drive to Coronet Peak. On our first day, we both did a beginner lesson with Moon, our instructor (we thinnk from Japan). I already knew how to ski, but Dave hadn't skied before, so I did the lessons with him for moral support (and to brush-up on some skills). Dave picked up skiing really quickly, no surprises there. The next day, we got another lesson with Tony. Dave decided we should go up on a bigger slope (we had only done the learner slopes), the Big Easy, before our lesson. Needless to say, Dave quickly decided that he was a bit hasty going down the slope before more lessons. I think he only stacked it a couple of times coming down. The lessons were really helpful, though, and we found our confidence growing.

Unfortunately, on Saturday, it snowed all the way down in Queenstown and it was snowing so much that they had to close all the ski fields. So, we had to spend the day in Queenstown. It was pretty cool, though, as there was snow everywhere. We had to put the chains on the car.

The next day, we managed to get up to Coronet Peak again, but we had to put the chains on the car again to get there. It was very busy, since it was the first Sunday of the school holidays. We spent the day skiing around, trying out different slopes. It was a lot of fun. We went to some parts that were probably beyond our ability, but we had fun. I injured my knee slightly, so that held me back a bit. On Monday we decided to get a private lesson with Ants. This was really great. We learnt so much and our skills improved greatly. We could confidently get down the intermediate slopes, feeling in control and having fun (some times more than others). But, my knee was getting too sore, so I decided to stop and rest up. On Tuesday, Dave had a quick ski around in the monring while I took some photos.

Now, we are in Te Anua, resting up before we head out to Milford Sound tomorrow.