Forget bungy jumping, zorbing, skying, rugby, cricket and other extreme sports New Zealand is famous for. We didn’t go to Queenstown as we were guests of the Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism office, but suffice to say that our fearless group of foreign correspondents proved brave among the braves. We tramped tirelessly around the rolling hills of the Banks Peninsula, bravely rode horses at Grasmere Lodge and in the Peel Forest, sailed with dolphins and kayaked like pros among icebergs, flew over (but very close to) Mount Cook, landed on top of the Tasman Glacier, spent two nights on our own in a haunted, isolated mansion listening to ghost stories and shamelessly wined and dined with the best.

In this first instalment, I’ll share the last few days of our action-packed and wonderful trip to New Zealand’s South Island.

Boasting 29 mountain peaks over 3000 metres tall, Mount Cook National Park has been a mountaineer’s Mecca for a long time, as the bronze statue of Sir Edmund Hillary watching over the Hermitage Hotel’s long black façade attests. The dangerous sport of mountain climbing requires special skills and a life time of practice but there are many other sporting activities for the less foolhardy and we practiced as many as we could cram during our three days in Aoraki. Among those, we enjoyed a boat tour of New Zealand’s largest glacier with Glacier Explorers where a spirited young Slovak woman named Evie prompted us to touch and even taste 500 year old ice from the icebergs, which we did with gusto. Beside an informative and witty commentary, Evie informed us that the best course of action to follow if you happen to fall off the inflatable boat was to swim very fast to shore as you would not survive more than 5 minutes in the icy waters.

Cecile near iceberg

The previous day, we tried our hands – or, rather, our arms – at sea kayaking with Charlie Hobbs, one of New Zealand’s most experienced and respected mountain guides and an old mate of Sir Edmund Hillary. Apart from his sky and mountain guide activities, Charlie also runs The Old Mountaineers’ Café Bar and Restaurant with his wife and the Southern Alps Guiding Glacier Sea Kayaking business. Kayaking in tune while dodging icebergs in the glacier’s terminal lake proved good fun and was easy to learn, even for beginners like us.

For me, the most spine chilling experience was our 90 minute flight in Aoraki Mount Cook Ski Plane as we shaved the flanks of mountains, looking as if we were going to crash straight into the snow covered peaks. My inane fear of flying in single propeller planes soon turned to exhilaration, however, when our flying ski machine landed softly on top of the Tasman glacier. This “retractable aircraft ski” was developed in 1955 by (Sir) Henry Wigley and Squib McWhirter and has become one of the “must do” activities if the Mount Cook village.

Let’s make one thing clear: New Zealand is the REAL home of the Brave!

Akaroa port from window	Dinner at Holme station
Evie with ice	Iceberg
Giovana working	Kayaking on glacier lake
Joelle on iceberg	Ladies slowly cooking
Lin with ice	Linton figures
Miles and Sonja Otahuna Lodge	New Zealand March 2008 053
Otahuna Lodge	Rudi on balcony at Otahuna
Sonja with ice cube	Stony Point cabins
The team on Mount Cook	Urs in plane
All Photographs Copyright: Joëlle Dietrich