Happy New Year.

First things first; before I launch into this week's entry- I want to wish all those who take the time to read my blog fill of my ranting and ravings and those that you and I know a Happy New Year fill of wonder, joy and all things nice. While I'm wishing good fortune, I also have to beg a bit of pardon. As you will notice the date for this entry is Friday 8 January 2010- i was so intending on doing this blog yesterday- but you tend to lose what day your on- when your holidaying.

Right, to the topic of the week- as you may of noticed from my last blog I was on hiatus- due to me going on holiday to Queenstown, Blenheim and Wellington. This blog entry may have a future-looking tilt to it- this was due to me writing the bare bones of this blog entry in Christchurch airport waiting for my plane to unload. For my regular reader(s), this blog entry is not my usual blog entry. Don't worry, normalcy will revert soon.

This hoilday entailed Queenstown for Christmas, Blenheim for that period between Christmas and New Year and Wellington for New Years.

You know something is going to be good, when your sister says ' before (completely) you step off the plane, take a deep breath and breath the cleanest air in the world'. This seemingly tourist byline did not do the experience of getting off a plane in Queenstown. It sounds clique- but when you refer to a place like Queenstown words don't really seem to do it justice- if you don't believe me check out my sister and brother in laws blog: http://gregandandreajarvis.blogspot.com/
Let's just say there's a reason why they call Queenstown and its surrounding areas 'heaven'.
I was only in Queenstown from the 23rd-26th, but the exprience has me putting that in my 'good stuff to replay' file. I went up and down the gondola, did the luge- the scenic and i think it was called the experienced track- i just call it the fast track. I got criticsed for taking my sweet time on the scenic track- its scenic- you look at the scenery! Did some target shooting which i was surprisingly good at. You would think a person with a tendency to have uncoordinated moments and guns shouldn't mix- but the bullets we're hitting their mark. Oh also went up the Remarkables- which interestingly enough- sit on a true North-South plane, which is a hairy ride, in summer.

My next stop on my journey was Blenheim. However in order to get to Blenheim- i had to go via Christchurch and Wellington. I would just like add something quick about Christchurch-my first expriences of Christchurch- which aren't that much, because i didn't venture beyond the airport doors. Firstly, Christchurch is flat...like a size zero super model. I did seem some hills..kinda in the distance though.. As for the airport it is the most depressing airport- it has no features- the food court is stuck upstairs in a corner out of the way and just a tiny small bookstore. Maybe I was infected with airports-are-boringitis. Wellington's domestic airport at least looks like a shopping mall.

Once I had finally got to Blenheim and had to chance to exprience, I was pleastantly surprised- i was expecting your average New Zealand town with a church, a square, a row of shops- Blenheim was still your still your average town- but dressed well and bigger than just a church, a square and a row of shops- think a small university campus mixed with a typical urban centre you get in the city suburbs of Wellington, Auckland and probably Christchurch. From what gathered with Blenheim is that you use it as good base for all the stuff to do in the north south island, which invariably involve the Marlborough Sounds.

I got two expriences of the Marlborough Sounds- one by car and one by boat. You just keep going 'ooh, pretty', just at differing speeds- by boat the 'ooh pretty lasted a bit' but that's the point your supposed to immense yourself in good old natural New Zealand pretty. By car, you simply turn a corner or go over a hill and you get your classic wow moment.

The exprience of seeing the Marlborough Sounds had another less important purpose- it got me to Wellington. I got two experiences of Wellington- your typical airport transit exprience-refer to airportitis above. My Wellington exprience was one of exploration-exploring downtown Wellington, the houses of parliament and Te Papa. Now parliament on tv looks big- however in real life it's surprisingly small. You could easily start to run across the main debating chamber and have to stop before you hit the wall or a chair. But its impressive, no doubt. Anyway power or decision making is made has that aura of importance. Te Papa is one of the those places where its very different, depending what you see and how your with- i saw a Goldie- my god the guy could draw-you could see the wrinkles in the Maori grandmother's face.

After all that, I came Home.

I hope this satisfies the 'how was your hoilday' questions.

Look after yourselves and have fun,

Stephen.