Christchurch - Lake Ohau

The weather in Melbourne yesterday morning was terrible. We had to pull in on the way to the airport, the rain was that bad. After an hours delay in Melbourne, we got a three hour flight to Christchurch. We are now 13 hours ahead of anyone in Ireland! We arrived late enough in the day, and went to the hotel. We had booked through Trailfinders, who told them we were on honeymoon, so we got upgraded to a fabulous suite. (First time I ever saw stairs in a hotel room!) They also gave us cake on arrival. 

This morning we were up bright and early to catch our bus. There are only 13 people in the group with us, which seems like a nice size. Mix of Aussie, English and Brazilian. New Zealand is very very beautiful. Our first stop was a sheep farm which I was quite impressed with. We had a few stop offs at various lakes along the way, and the whole scenery is fabulous. 
It is very like Ireland but with 25% extra free beautiful scenery. However, from the few encounters we have had so far, there appears to be a strong Aussie/ New Zealand rivalry with many Aussie versions of Kerry man jokes. And many, many, many sheep- baah.
Tonight we have stopped off in a ski lodge, beside lake Ohau. I got to spend some time in a hot tub over looking the lake. 


Sorry about the lack of pictures - they are taking ages to upload.