Sybil can you please add this to one of the appropriate threads?

Okay so the majority of this review is about Methven, Mt Hutt, the Canterbury Club Fields, Queens town and a bit of Christchurch. I didn't get a chance to go to the North Island as I dislocated my shoulder and patella.

Any way here goes:

I flew in to Christchurch Airport from Melbourne. The bus from Christchurch airport to Methven ran me like $27. It's not really a bus, more like a van, but it was a comfortable and very scenic drive, so I didn't care. Now when you get to Methven you'll realize it's a tiny town (1,300 population). Very tiny. But it has a huge commercial district for a town of it's size.

If I could recommend a hostel I'd either go for the Pinedale Lodge. Very homey. Quite "mum and pop" with the owners Penny and Tim (A modern and funky couple, very cool people) who like to mingle with their guests. At night, they piss off and you can pretty much drink and party all you want. There's a sunken lounge built around a fireplace and this lodge is as cozy as they come. Also every day there will be a batch of freshly baked cookies that Penny has made for people just off the mountain. Always a treat! At $25 a night, 7th night free, it's not too bad. I'd recommend this place to older people and families/couples (it's quite romantic).

The other place I'd recommend is the Snowdenn (a.k.a Methven YHA), it's clean, modern, and saves you a lot of money because all you can eat breakfast, wireless internet, cable TV and spa pool are all included in the $25 price. This place is 30 seconds walk from the center of town and 2 minutes from all the pubs. You can party till 11pm here, and then the owner will ask you to tone it down or go to the pub, fair request. This place is convenient and cheap, but doesn't have the charm.

Methven is all about snow sports and downhill mountain biking. If you're driving up the mountain you should have chains, especially in peak season. If you're cheap, the best option is to hitchhike. It's easy to get picked up. Just try and help them out whit putting on their chains just to be nice. Or you can use one of the 4 bus companies in town, they're all the same at the end of the day.

If you need to hire gear head over to Big Al's shop, he also has mountain bikes for hire. Tell him you're staying at the Snowdenn (Even if you're not) and he'll give you a discount. Now head over to Supervalue or Top Notch and get your self some food for a packed lunch. Food on the mountain is your typical shitty cafeteria food.

Got your board/skis - check. Clothes - check. Way up the mountain - check. Packed lunch - check. Okay, Mt Hutt is about 15 minutes away, with another 20 minutes getting up the road. These are conditions you can expect:

http://tinyurl.com/66rs7y - two lane, gravel road, no barriers, 200m (650+ft) drops, fog, rain, snow on the road and four wheel drives hooning it past you trying to overtake. If you do see barriers, that means you're in a wind tunnel and the winds can get strong enough to push cars sideways off the mountain. Fatalities aren't common, but they happen enough that you hear about them. If it's windy, don't open your doors, they'll get blown clean off. I made it up in a rental Toyota Carolla thrashing the hell out of the poor thing.

Now hopefully you get up the mountain and it's a bluebird day. Head over to the ticket office get a day pass (better off getting an early bird Midweek Season pass if you intend to be there for any amount of time they run for about $550NZD, which once you convert is fuck all!) This is what the mountain looks like:

http://tinyurl.com/5cve49 - view from the carpark.

http://tinyurl.com/56cdng - near the top.

http://tinyurl.com/583scj - Those cluster of rocks are called "Towers" they're pretty fun when it's not icy.

http://tinyurl.com/5m37u8 - View from the top towards the Southern Alps. Amazing view, apparently you can see the tip of Mt Cook from the top, but I didn't know where to look.

Mt Hutt is awesome, nothing compared to the bigger resorts in the world, but it has varied terrain, super steeps, a small terrain park and a more advanced one, a halfpipe, and practically no lift lines (unless you went on a long weekend or during school holidays). There's a cafeteria there, and a smaller upmarket cafe upstairs called Hoobers Hut. The coffee there is great, as are the potato wedges with cream (actually, they're divine and the perfect thing right after a hard days skiing), now top that off with some Montieths Black beer and you'll be in heaven.

HELI SKIING
As you could see from the photo off the back of Mt Hutt there's a shitload of mountains. This is where Methven Heliskiing and Mt Potts heliskiing come into play. I never did Methven Heliskiing as they're not my style (guided tours of some pretty cool terrain, $875 for 5 runs). Mt Potts on the other hand will charge $200to fly you out there and give you one run, then it's $75 per run after that. It's untouched pow pow and they'll fly you to the top, and they'll fuck off and let you do what ever you want. Build a kicker, drink some beers, have a picnic, they don't care, take your time and do what ever you want. This was much more my style and it was amazing, I was half way up my thighs in powder when I went. So you can pretty much get 10 runs for the same price as Methven Heliskiing's 5.

NIGHTLIFE & FOOD

Now when you're done with all of that you should have a hot shower at your hostel and go out for dinner. An amazing meal, but kind of costly is the Beefchop in Ski Time (Methven again). It's a giant succulent cut of meet (rib eye) cooked to perfection, with the smallest starting at 600grams and the largest being 1kg. A hearty meal. For entertainment you'll probably want to check out The Blue pub. It's got jazz, blues, country, rock and dub. Live acts most of the time or the resident band. Across the road is The Brown, which is more country and old fashioned (it's the local's pub, you'll meet some real farmers here). Darts, pool, karaoke and gambling all go on here. In NZ you'll get a 1lt jug of beer for $8NZ.

On a Tuesday night you should head over to Steelworks for Jug and Curry night. $10 for a jug and a big ass bowl of Japanese curry. Great value plus a great turn out of babes in peak season. If you're good at sussing things out with out seeming like a Narc go to the outside beer garden/smokers area and look for an old crabby looking guy with dreadlocks sitting by one of the tables. He's where the weed's at, and it's good stuff too! Every second Thursday come here for Steelflicks. Basically an amateur filmmaker comes out and makes a movie every fortnight screening it here for free. This is mountain staff pay day so expect a huge turn out and great people about.

There are two more places to go to, The Lodge (this is where all the Skydiving students from the local skydiving school hang out) and The Last Post, this place has happy hour every day from 5-6, two for one drinks.

Got a big hangover in the morning? Head over to Primos Cafe. It's a really cozy place cluttered with junk (it doubles as a nicknacks/thrift store) strewn everywhere. Anything in the place, other than the coffee machine, is for sale. The coffee is fucking fantastic as well, try the Vanilla Late with an Apricot Danish. Amazing.

DAYTIME ENTERTAINMENT (other than skiing)

There are heaps of hikes around. Try the Bushpen Falls walk. It's a short walk, only 2 hours (including breaks and photo stops), that walks through the lush and green mountains, through rain forests and around a dead volcano. A truly beautiful walk.

There's a golf course, it's really well looked after and very cheap. 18 holes + club hire is $37. ($25 & $12 respectively).

Downhill mountain biking. Mt Hutt has a really good track set up that runs for a very long distance. Mammoth Mountain has actually been expressing interest in buying out Mt Hutt and developing it into the best mountain bike course in the southern hemisphere. Lots of potential and constantly improving. Speak to Andy at DHNZ about getting lifts and bike hire.

Great fishing around. Head over to Rakaia River and go Trout/Salmon fishing. While there, spend the $60 and take a jetboating tour upriver. Pretty cool shit, the guy drives over shallow banks, passes with in 1ft of jagged rocks and often will drive straight at a cliff only to turn last second.

Day trip into Christchurch (I didn't go often as I'd fallen in love with the ski town/country lifestyle). Head over to the Belgian Beer Garden. Go out back and view the beautiful park it overlooks. If you walk into the park, down to the river and follow it upstream for about 100m you'll reach a place where a guy will take you on tours around the park, Venice style (you know those boats where they use a stick to push you along), if you've got a girl with you she'll love that type of shit. Go to Costa's in the city center and get one of the best, although extremely garlicy, souvlakis I've ever had. Sit down in Hagley park, eat some food, have a beer and enjoy the views (drinking in public is illegal, but it isn't enforced unless you're being a dick).

OTHER SKI FIELDS

There are a SHIT LOAD of little ski fields around with great back country, fresh pow pow and no lift lines. A few notable ones are:

Porter Heights: Great little ski field, nice terrain park and some great runs. One worthy of mention is Big Mamma - The highest black run in NZ (I was told Southern Hemisphere, but I'm not too sure about it. All I know is it's WIDE, steep and LONG, a great run)

Craigieburn: Steepest runs in NZ. Most noted for having the only triple diamond run in the country.

My Olympus: Great mountain, good snow, but annoying because you have to use rope tows and nut crackers.

QUEENSTOWN

Queenstown is about 5 hours drive from Methven and A LOT more of a party town. Has over 100 bars, 4 good mountains near by (by 'good' I mean potentially good, when I went they had an average of 110cm of snow compared to Mt Hutts 2.6m), lots of things to do by day and a never ending supply of drunk, slutty tourists. This place was good, but I couldn't stand it for more than 4 days (...or maybe it had to do with the fact that I spent $1500 in 4 days and would have kept spending), I had to hitch a ride out. Near by is Snowpark (terrain park only, and massive), Cardrona, Coronet Peak (Concrete Peak, it's a shit hole) and The Remarkables. Anything touristy you can do, you can do it here. It's the birthplace of bungee jumping so there's no shortage of that.

I did the Nevis Highwire (134m, 440ft) where you jump from a platform suspended by cables over a canyon. Actually a huge adrenaline rush compared to the canyon swing/skydiving, so make sure to do it AFTER the canyon swing.

Something good to try is the Canyon swing. Bungee 50m, then arc out and swing 200m. Very very fun because you're attached by your waist and you can do anything you want. Flips, run ups, superman dives, pin drops, you name it you can do it. I did a handstand on the ledge and flipped over. Great fun. Make sure to jump twice or more because the first jump is $140 and any one after that is $35. Expensive, but when else can you see how many backflips you can do before swinging out and flying 200m at over 120km/h?

Canyon swing - http://tinyurl.com/6nepv8 - being helped into a hand stand (too many dumb fuckers hit their chin on the ledge so they didn't trust me, haha)

Canyon swing - http://tinyurl.com/5auwak - view down, just before a backflip.

Looking for the best adrenaline rush for your money? Try the electric chair. They'll strap you into a normal chair, put you on the edge, shock you with a cattle prod/taser type thing then smash you over the edge. Takes balls, I'll do it next time.

Another thing I'd suggest is the JAG Air. Basically if you've ever seen redbull pilots flying, well you fly with these guys. There is two companies: JAG Air and Redbull. Redbull does exactly the same as JAG, but for less time and more money because they have the name to back them. JAG air was THE coolest thing I've ever done, the physical sensations were insane, +7g, -3g. Give it a shot. Also kind of pricey at $290 for 30 minutes. But he will fuck you up!

http://tinyurl.com/5lw89x - Thumbs up = "go harder". Thumbs down = "I'm about to puke all over your plane" or "I have sand in my vagina".

Everything in Queenstown comes with a complimentary shuttle. So you meet in the center of town and they'll drive you to where you're going.

Other things to try that I didn't/couldn't are:

Mountain luge
Zorbing (They put you in a giant inflatable ball and push you down a big ass hill)
The ski fields
Whitewater rafting
The original bungee (only 40m, but they dunk you into the river)

Now when you're done, head over to Fergburger to eat (not kidding) the best burger you'll ever eat. Get the basic ones which are half the size of your head, or the good ones that are twice the size. Or save this for after clubbing because this place is open till all hours of the night, so even at 4am there will be a heap of young, and keen to pick up tourists out front filling their stomachs with some well needed grease to absorb the alcohol and stop from puking. There's over a 100 bars so I got NO WHERE near seeing them all. But some good ones are Winnies and World Bar.

One bad thing is, girl to guy ratio is whack. Usually 2 guys for every girl, but I guess this is to be expected. Head over to the bottle shop on the mainstreet and get your self a case of Tui or Steinlager. Get tanked in your hostel then head out to the bars/clubs/pubs. Look on the back of your hostel key chain for drink offers (example: I stayed at Bumbles Hostel and got 2 for 1 pints at World Bar, great value), all hostels have them in QT. Oh and when you're at the bottle shop pick up a bag of salvia 25x, it's legal and sold over the counter to 18+. Trip balls, freak out, then party out the night meeting a myriad of cool and interesting people, with out a doubt some loud mouthed Irish sluts, some angry fight-starting Aussies and some trendy sophisticatedly snobby French people.

If some old guy comes up to you asking for marijuana or a marijuana cigarette, he's a cop. Send him on a wild goose hunt. Now there's heaps of work in this town, and heaps of under the table cash in hand work(same as Methven). This place is good, but it will get to you: Any one cool you meet will most likely be gone in a few days. You'll spend hundreds every day. The snow is good but not epic. And there are heaps of people out for fights/trashy people. But I guess it's part of the charm.

Now if you're heading back to Methven, stop off at Lake Tekapo. It's all glacial melt off. The lake is ACTUALLY aqua/blue, it's that clear. Near by there's a natural hot springs (not that cool because they've been made to be flashy, there's no mud, it's like a swimming pool with really hot water) and a thermal powered ice rink.

The best thing to do, in my opinion, would be to travel between Queenstown and Methven for 2-3 week intervals. When one gets boring, go to the other. They both have their pluses and negatives.

Very nice! I'll add it right up :)
It's in the stickied thread now, where I'll add all the reviews.

Queentown

Yeah its a party town alright.

It took me about 7 hours to drive there from christchurch - i stopped at some hot springs at lake tekapo (not real volcanic hotsprings - but a nice place to relax) which was fucking beautiful. The lake and everything was great.

Driving is a great way to get to queenstown - you get to see some real lord of the rings landscapes, just make sure you bring a few CDs because its a long trip.
Also theres not too many places to stop for food/water/fuel along the way so keep an eye on that one.

Once you get to Q-town theres alot of places to stay, the place really caters to tourists so theres alot of the places you need.
The town itself isnt huge - you can walk from one side to the other in less than 30 minutes, but you can walk around for 2 hours and still have stuff to see.

One big welcome change from NSW was that pubs dont have poker machines in them, they spend up on ambience and huge fires with couches around the place are common.

The fact the bars are so warm while its so fucking cold outside can fuck with your fashion choices.
I was staying at a place called the oaks - a 4 star place about 10 minutes out of the town so i decided to wear clothes that are comfortable indoors - the logic being that im going to be in the elements for all of 2 minutes while i walk from the taxi to the bar.

LATER THAT NIGHT GETTING A TAXI WAS NO SO EASY AND I FROZE MY STUPID BALLS OFF. I was smart enough to be packing some gloves in my pocket, but it was nasty cold.

Even though pretty much any bar offers interesting, reasonably priced and tasty options - Fergburger is the fucking place to get fed fast. For about $15NZ you get a burger roughly the size of your head, wedges with ailoi (mayonaise) and a drank.