Queenstown

Brrrrr, it’s freezing! We’re not ready for this; icy cold winds blow right through us and chill us to the bone. Lucky then, that we have a lovely apartment that we can spend our first day in, warming up and chilling out (is that a contradiction in terms?). We have a double-whammy of good luck as old faithful wotif.com has turned up a gorgeous 2-bed apartment at The Glebe ( www.theglebe.co.nz ) , just 2 minutes walk from town, normally $450 for $240 per night. And even nicer when I check in and the lovely Anne decides to check us in to a huge and luxurious 3-bed apartment for the same price.

Our original plan was to hire a camper van but we’d changed our plans when we realised it was going to be too cold to make it a fun experience. It was one of our wiser decisions. The snow is no longer just on the mountain tops but covers the trees almost down to the edge of the river.

There’s so much to do here that we can’t quite decide which adrenaline junkie activity to participate in so we all plump for the Shotover Jet Boat and then Ruby and I decide on the hang gliding.

Overnight snow leaves plenty of snow on the mountains and a freezing cold wind, a fact we didn’t quite appreciate until we were in full throttle on the Shotover Jet Boat (http://www.shotoverjet.com). A $250,000 boat flies you through the water, doing 360 degree turns whilst heading straight for the rocks. As if that’s not already enough to take your breath away, with the morning wind factor of –5, the water that flies into your face turns straight to ice on contact with your skin. Lovely. We weren’t sure how the kids, especially Harley, were going to cope with the hairy ride but, after initial wariness, they were both soon laughing whilst hanging on with white-knuckles. And, of course, the minute we get off, Harley’s begging to go again.

A 10 minute drive takes us up to Coronet Peak, a ski resort from 1 June each year. We’re a couple of weeks too early for skiing but there’s enough snow around for a snowball fight.

Lovely as the snow looks, it’s caused the cancellation of our hang gliding due to low cloud, which is a real shame as I was really looking forward to it. Oh well, retail therapy will fill the hole. I know Ugg boots are slippers here, but they can’t be beaten for warmth. So what if I’m wearing slippers in the street, no one here knows me.