I had no luck to experience the rafting adventure in Queenstown during my first visit on late autumn. The rafting company claimed that there’s road inaccessibility caused by snow issue. As a result, all the regular road trips for rafting activities were cancelled remaining the helicopter option. To save cost, I gave up for the time being.
Hot air ballooning was the other adventure that I wished to experience all along. In fact, balloon flights are available and popular in Christchurch and Methven. Unfortunately, I was unable to try it in both places although they're closed to Asburton where I stayed. The bookings of the activity were cancelled by the authorities owing to the bad weathers :(
Due to the happenings, I decided to revisit Queenstown for both adventures when winter was finally over. My housemate Gavin joined me for my second trip to Queenstown leaving from Ashburton. We drove on the State Highway 1 and turned into State Highway 79 (Geraldine-Fairlie Hwy) instead of following the East Coast. Then we drove forward into State Highway 8 and 6 passed through Cromwell and Frankton. We took about 6 hour drive with some breaks in between.
In the middle of the journey, we experienced an unfamiliar scenario. It was spring, but it’s snowing deeply like in winter. Outside the car, we saw everything is covered with thick snows; the sky was cloudy but sometimes it was sunny.
