Aussie's in New Zealand: Celebrating in Aotearoa - The land of the long white cloud

Today marks the last full day we will spend in Queenstown, New Zealand - We're heading out tomorrow for the drive to Te Anau in the Fiordland area for a cruise on Milford Sound, a glow worm tunnel tour and hopefully some exploration hikes in the Fiordland National Park - Weather permitting anyway.

It has been an excellent trip so far, a look back at my blog will give you an idea of some of the things we've done, and we are looking forward to the rest of course.

Wakatipu Lake - 80km long, 380m deep, (average 230m) and 291sq/km in size

This trip is not a simple holiday for us - We are celebrating the fact that my mother in-law, Faith's mum, survived cancer this year. She was very close to death in late 2018 to early 2019 and she vowed to us that should she survive she wanted to come here. She has previously never been overseas and considering the severity of her condition New Zealand seemed a legitimate option. I am pleased to say that she is having an absolute blast!

She gets a little tired each day, however at this stage has not failed to do anything we have done! A look back to my last few blogs will show you what that was. We are really pleased to see her enjoying herself and getting involved with all the cool stuff we are doing. (Here Faith and her mum are pictured exiting the helicopter at Mt Earnslaw Burn)

Tonight Faith and I celebrate our wedding anniversary...Twenty six years of marriage and thirty two years as a couple. As it turns out it also happens to be the day Faith's mum would have celebrated her own wedding anniversary too although her husband, Faith's dad, died of cancer many years ago and so it'll just be the three of us - I never got to meet him as he died when Faith was only eleven.

We are heading up the Queenstown gondola to the restaurant for a dinner-with-a-view which should be good, although those long white clouds I mentioned in the title might play a hand...It's been quite overcast and there's some rain forecast. We'll see though, and to be honest it won't matter - Life isn't perfect after all; It'll be perfect enough for us weather or no weather.

So, we're not even half way through our trip and everything is going to plan. This is my mother in-laws first overseas trip as I said and we think we may have created a travel-monster though as over the last several weeks the pile of travel brochures at her house has grown and grown. Alaska, Hawaii, Scotland, Canada, Russia...You name it.

Image above shows the thhee of us and on the right Faith and her mum. The centre is one of the Shotover Jet boats we rode on a couple times. You can see the post I wrote about it from a couple posts ago if you like. The buffs are for the cold and wind when on the jet boat and are provided to all who ride as a functional souvenir.

Aotearoa has been good to us, two experienced and one fledgling traveller, and we are looking forward to the rest of it - Just a word on the name Aotearoa. It is what New Zealand was called by the native Maori people - More the North island and since the late nineteenth century New Zealand as a whole. It is said to translate to long white cloud. I don't know what creates those cloud formations but they certainly are there and so it seems a legit name. Thanks Maori's.

Anyway, some of you have followed along with our trip and I hope you're enjoying it. I'd really love to furnish you with some better photographs but my skills as a photographer are basic at best. Thanks for sticking around and reading though, and for those who have commented I really appreciate it. Sorry it may take me some time to reply, but I always do.

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