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Queenstown through to Christchurch
9th April - 27th April 09
On our way to Queenstown, this is supposed to be the place to be for adrenaline, yippee!!!!We stop of at puzzle world, what a crazy place this is, rooms that are tilted so looks like your lying down (almost) and finally found out how Willy Wonka walks through that room to the factory and it gets smaller or he gets bigger, well the same thing happened with me and Ellen was crazy!!!
We stopped of at this bridge where people were doing one of the Bungy Jumps I think this was only 43m though and it was off a bridge that I cant remember…saw a couple of people jump, I think this was starting to psyche me up for the Nevis! Eeek!
Eventually done the Nevis Bungy Jump the following day - it was mental…what a styupid carzy thing to do but was awesome at the same time - not gonna lie to ya I WAS scared! Well its kinda understandable really jumping of a ledge in the middle of a gorge attached by a massive elastic band! YEAH thinking about it what a stupid thing to do - but OH MY GOD the ground rush was out of this world, Jumping 134m with a 3 second freefall, the whole jump down lasted about 8 seconds before they bring you back up!We got back to Queenstown later that day and we treated ourselves to the well known 'FERGBURGER' mmmmmmm what a perfect end to a day - I had southern swine - beefburger with bacon, avocado, lettuce , salad, blue cheese and sauce, this is the biggest burger I've ever seen…but was so good!!!!
We hired a car and drove down to Invercargill to watch the Super 14 Match between the Highlanders and the Reds. The road trip was a right giggle there was me and Ellen driving and then in the back we had Kate Dale and Shane, long drive but so worth it to see the match… As we still had the car for a few more days we decided to go back to Franz Josef to try and do the Glacier hike - WAHOO it went ahead - and luckily it did, it was still raining but not as bad! The climb was tough but saw some pretty amazing views of the crevasses' etc, and it was almost better with some rain coz it made the glacier bluer! We stopped at Lake Matheson also as the 1st time we passed it, it was a cloudy day and you wouldn't have been able to see the mirror views of the mountains. We drove back to Queenstown straight after our hike - what a long day that was!
We caught the Kiwi bus to Milford Sound, there were some more Mirror lakes on the side of the road, these were far better than Lake Matheson, and saw some amazing mountains…We got to Milford but the weather wasn't that great it was raining - but its great in rain and sunshine - when it rains there are thousands of waterfalls, we saw some that were being blown upwards from the wind that was a bit strange but great to see. We got on to the cruise ship and sailed out to the Tasman Sea, it wasn't too bad but then got really choppy…we went up onto the top deck and tried walking, but we were just double over in fits of laughter, we couldn't walk - it looked like we had a few too many! Lol We got dropped off at this little lodge in Milford it was cozy, but the view in the morning (coz it had been raining all night) was fantastic - there must have easily been thousands of waterfalls coming down these mountains which were surrounding us.
Back to Queenstown for a few more nights, we went up the gondola and went lugeing again, hired a three seated bike and a chopper and tore the streets of Queenstown up lol! This was so funny only Ellen could steer the bus, me Dale and Kate were useless but what a funny hour that was…
The four of us left Queenstown and headed towards Mt Cook, we were dropped off in Twizel and had to get a connecting bus to Mt Cook…We arrive there and did our 1st walk, wasn't too great as it was cloudy so we couldn't actually see anything, We got up the following day and the weather was supposed to be better, and YAY!!! It was, we were walking down the Hooker valley track and then all of a sudden the clouds disappeared and this amazing view of Mt Sefton with a glacier hanging of the side of it appeared. We carried on over swing bridges and over river beds and then finally after a couple of hours came across Mt Cook…WOW - that is all I can say - this fantastic snow capped mountain is New Zealand's highest peak. INCREDIBLE!! We got to the bottom, and there was this lake with a big bloke of ice and it actually looked like a polar bear on his belly sliding along the water!
After Mt Cook came Geraldine (sweet little village/town) we were staying in an old maternity hospital…freaked me out a bit when I had to run to the loo in the middle of the night looked like the corridor out of the shinning…never have I ran so fast to pee…lol. From here we went up to the Rangitata Rover for some white water rafting, we stayed a little lodge and then the following morning went rafting. There were 6 of us girls in our raft, obviously we were the best lol, we were doing up to grade 5 rafts. Was so cool - I just kept laughing all the way through the rapids! Lol half way down we could jump in and swim down the rapids this was cool - but the water was freezing and it caught my breathe a bit and swallowed most of the river… also jumped off a 5m cliff, again stupid! But so much fun! We got back to the lodge and had a BBQ then headed towards Christchurch.
I left the girls and went to Akaroa to do my swim with dolphins - these are the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world - we kitted up with wet suits (might was a bit too tight lol) and then jumped in the boat and out we went into the middle of the ocean… there I was jumping off the boat and into the see - and then all of a sudden there they were swimming past us at arm's length - best thing by far (Thanks Brian, Kes and the girls).
Christchurch was a cool place, botanical gardens, little markets, river running through, seemed like a really laid back city - I thought - this is my last stop in New Zealand. Sad times but onward to AUSTRALIA!!!!!
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