Sunday saw us leave Makarora, with a bit of a hangover but all in high spirits after a really enjoyable night. Next stop...Queenstown...the adventure/adrenaline capital of the world! We stopped off at Wanaka where some people did sky dives and others went to look round the town, but I and a few others took the opportunity to go to Puzzleworld. Now to me Puzzleworld = Good fun...come on its in the name! So anyway we spent about an hour or so enjoying the puzzles: the room of faces with each face following you around the room, a room where the floor was on a steep gradient but everything else was at normal level, it was totally confusing - I was in stitches. In there there was a seat that rolled upwards as you sat on it on its small track, water that flowed upwards and a snooker table that when you placed the ball at one end it would roll up the snooker table and in to thye pocket, without being touched - all this was done by certain use of angles and basically one huge optical illusion. $10 well spent in my eyes! We also had a go at the outdoor maze, but it started raining so we decided to make a quick exit and climb under the fences...defeating the object of a maze! We then took a quick stop at the Kawarau Bridge - the home of bungy jumping. http://www.bungy.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/189 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungy_jumping for more info. We watched a short video on the history of bungy jumping, and were then given a small tour round the builing. A few people on the bus booked their jumps, and it was fun watchin them jump off. The K Bridge is a 43m high jump above the Kawarau River. Once they'd jumped, I booked mine...not this one though, I booked the big one...more info to come! From the K Bridge it was a small drive into Queenstown. First impressions were small and relaxed looking place, in the winter this is a popular ski resort and there was that ski resort feel to it evenb though it was summer time. The town is overlooked by The Remarkables, a remarkable small mountain range. The group had a BBQ at the Thirsty Ram for tea with a live band playing. Basically I was chillaxing in preparation for the big day tomorrow.
Monday 25th - The Big Day!
An early start, butterflies were flying around in my stomach already. 10.50am depart from the AJ Hackett center in town - destination : The Nevis Highwire Bungy site. I called a couple of people to say my last goodbyes (Mum and Webby I think). The bus arrived and took our team of 4 (Me, Zoe, Isla and Lennart) out into the unknown. We arrived at the site and my first thought was - Oh Crap! The Nevis bungy is the highest in the Southern hemisphere, standing at 134m tall suspended in the middle of this huge canyon by a few wires! That's 134m of pure adrenaline. The pod hangs about 170m above the canyon floor, and getting over there was scary in itself. My second thought - that doesn't look safe! We signed in and got geared up, out of the four of us it was only me doing the bungy, we were all going to do the Nevis arc staright afetr my jump. We were taken out to the pod via a small cable car, and when we got to the pod you could see through the glass window floors to the canyon floor below. Third thought - Let's do this! So i was strapped up and waddled once again to the ledge, every nerve in my body telling me don't do this, heart pounding like mad. Smile for the cameras...5, 4, 3, 2, 1...JUMP!!! I have never been so scared but yet so ecstatic in my life. The buzz as i jumped was amazing. I'm not going to lie, I was swearing like mad, but after a few seconds they turned to screams of enjoyment. What a feeling! The freefall lasted 8.5 seconds, time it on your watch, its a long time to fall trust me! The groundrush was just awesome! one of the best things I'll do on my trip I think. I was hoisted back up to the pod, with a grin from one side of my face to the other - job well done! My video should be up on here soon, watch my perfect technique and no hesitation! After my jump, Zoe decided to do it, good on ya girl!!! Smiles, high 5's and hugs all round.
But it doesnt end there...oh no...our next challenge was to do the Nevis Arc, the worlds highest swing. A 70m freefall followed by a 200 odd meter swing. First to go was Isla and Lennart on a tandem swing, it looked so fun! Me and Zoe did a tandem swing (I'd won a 2 for 1 ticket for best costume in Baz Vegas), and due to weight distribution (me being the fatty) she had to sit on my lap for the swing (we were strapped in!). Usually they release us after a 5 count, but i requested that they suprise us. The freefall was terrifying, mainly because i was hurtling towards the ground head first...not good! Then the swing cuts in nd we flew across the canyon, it was awesome. Again, hugs all around for a job well done! We collected our tshirts, hats and dvds and headed back to Queenstown all on a huge adrenaline high. That night we headed up to the luge, a downhill go kart track on the top of a mountain. It was such a laugh racing each other downhill, again money well spent. From there we had a night out in celebration at Worlds Bar, where we had cocktails in teapots all night. What a day!

Tuesday and wednesday were both chill out days, I watched SherlockHolmes on wednesday, me and Zoe rented a kayak on the tuesday evening. The views looking back to the town from the water were stunning, the mountains were glowing in the setting sun - beautiful! We didnt stay out long, probably 15 minutes as it was cold. Zoe left to go to Christchurch on Thursday, and although I dont like saying goodbye I guess it the beginning of a new chapter on my NZ trip.

Thursday saw me take the bus to Milford Sound. Another early stray bus departure, with new driver Rob - his favourite and now my favourite word- Choice! Our drive to Milford sound saw us go through Fiordland National Park - I never imagined that I would ever see natural beauty like that, it was amazing. The views we were met with once out of this underground tunnel were out of thsi world. We had entered 'The Valley of a thousand waterfalls' and there were quite literally a thousand small waterfalls trickling down the huge, steep, rocky slopes. I was speechless. We made it to Milford Sound and went out on to the Milf0ord Cruise boat. There were some spectacular sights that I saw...Mitres Peak - the highest sea cliff in the world, adn Sutherland Falls - a waterfall 3 times the height of Niagra Falls, along with many more! We made a quick stop on our way back to our accomdation, we saw some Kea's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea as well as a small glacier and the chasm. That night we stayed at Gunn's Camp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Gunn and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollyford_Track. There were millions of sandflies, which have a powerful bite, annoying things! I had an early night, but woke up around midnight and ha da walk outside, the moonlight lit the camp up. It was clear sky and the moon was accompanied by a million and one stars. It was magical.

Friday 29th Gunns Camp to Invercargill/Bluff/Stewart Island. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invercargill

Just stopped off at Invercargill for a coffee stop. Drove on to Bluff for a photo stop at the most southern AA sign in the world, and also at this lareg model of a chainthat connects Stewart Island to the mainland. Old Maori legend has it that the north island is a giant fish that was caught by a maori chief on his whaka (canoe) that is represented by the south island, then stewart island is teh anchor to stop the south island/canoe drifting away. When you look at the map of NZ you can imagine that the story is true. Next stop Stewart Island, full of guys called Stewart...not! It's actually a huge bird sanctuary. I went on a fishing boat charter and caught loadsof blue cod...really tasty but not as nice as snapper! After tea we went to watch the sunset at an observation deck on a hill, there wasnt much of a sunset because of the clouds...shame!