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Queenstown is known to be the party town of New Zealand and we headed out with our new roommate James from Sydney. We went t oWorld Bar where you order a cocktail and it comes in a teapot with shot glasses. Many photos were taken of this! We ended the night in Fergburger where we had the best burger going! It was huge (yet for some reason I found the need to also order onion rings! Fatty). However we managed to eat it all up unlike most of the people we ended up talking to in the queue. Lightweights!
I booked myself on to do the Canyon Swing earlier in the week and now I had to do it. Basically you jump off a ledge 109m high and freefall for 60m into a canyon. Then you swing at the bottom for 200m in an arc going at 150kph. And I did it backwards! Crazy. I've never been so scared in all my life!! They properly mess with your head before you do it too. The guy holding me was called Rob and he told me to put my heels over the edge so I very sliowly edged back. Then he held my harness and told me to lean back but I was so scarred I couldn't do it. He had to lean me back by letting go of me a little. I was told to look up at the camera but I found it so difficult just to do this. I managed it and then slowly turned to the one at the side. I can't begin to explain how petrified I was. The he messed with my head! He pulled me up then down making me drop a little making out he was going to drop me entirely. Then he pulled me right up and it was a bout now I told him I hate him. He pretty much then pulled me up a little one more time then let go. I could never have jumped on my own. I screamed so much the whole way! It was amazing but also so scary!! I swung around at the bottom for a bit in disbelief about what I had just done. When I was being pulled up the rope also bounced and jolted at one point so I screamed agian. It scared me so much. I was just scared getting back on the platform, then to make it worse Rob grabbed my harness as if to help but he dropped me a bit again. I screamed at him! No no no no!! Not again! My heart skipped several beats. When I was firmly back on 2 feet we made up and hugged. It was so amazing but I could not do it again. I was shaking for ages after with the adrenaline. I also the photo and DVD pack because it was so funny to watch back. Oh also the person who walked off the platform when I had just got on it was Dan Carter! He didn't jump because he was injured but he had gone down with his family. Thats pretty cool by itself.
From Queenstown we also did a trip to Milford Sound. I'll tekll you about the soon xxx
When we woke up in the morning for Milford Suond it was raining, fast! We had been lucky enough to miss all the rain in New Zealand so far as it had been cold but not wet. We weren't really prepared for the weather as we only had flip flops and Lou had one pair of pumps. So rain was a bit of a problem. Luckily I text Beck and she had some trainers I could borrow. Phew no wet feet for me today. I would have felt very silly in rain and flip flops. The drive there was 4 hours but the scenery was stunning and we had quite a few photo stops along the way. There was one particular moment when we were blonde. The driver slowed down to drive over a bridge so we could take photos of a great waterfall. As we were on the righthand side of the bus we looked out of the window next to us and took photos of the water bubbling along. I was thinking in my head, what is he on about this isn't a waterfall? It was only when we had almost crossed the bridge Louise looked to the left and there was a huge gushing waterfall. It was pretty awesome and we missed it. Would have been a great photo.
As we continued through the windy roads the rain turned to snow! So glad now that I wasn't wearing flip flops. We had a little play in it and some more photos! Then we got to Homer tunnel which takes you directly though a huge mountain. All day the journey had been driven to a soundtrack with Peter Andre being played at the waterfall and now the Mission Impossible theme was played through the dark black tunnel where you litterally couldn't see the person sat next to you. It was just wide enough to fit 2 car in and our driver was swerving from side to side, putting on his brakes making us all jolt, it was very funny even if not entirely safe. As we approached Milford Sound the driver continued his soundtrack playing Celine Dion before we got on the boat. We then had a 2 hour cruise around Milford Sound (which is in Fiordland by the way). It reminded us of Halong Bay in Vietnam as we went past 'soaring peaks and towering waterfalls and New Zealand nature at its best'. We were also informed (several times) that it is wronlgy named as it is a fiord not a sound. A fiord is a valley created by a glacier, whereas a sound is created by a river. When we boarded we had an all you can eat buffet. It was pretty good and obviously we fed ourselves well going up for seconds. My backpack also became 3 times heavier as we went home with 3 apples, 5 kiwis and handsful of ketchup. Got our monies worth. THe student is obviously still in us. We did have a dilemia part way through our meal. The captain told us dolphins were swimming alongside us. What to do: eat or see dolphins? After a little deliberattion we went outside with our bread rolls (best of both worlds. ALthough is it a little mean to eat a fish finger sandwich infront of a dolphin?) by the time we got there though the dolphins had gone, nevermind though, back for more food. THe Captain then drove us right up to a waterfall. We ran out for a quick pic but still had food on our plates. In was funny when some people off our bus came back in though. There's a man called Moses on our bus and the best way to describe him is an Iranian Mr. Bean (although hew now lives in England and his ENglish is really good). He had a stroke and it had badly affected the left side of his body but he was really upbeat and quirky. Once you get talking to him you cant get away. He really was friendly and harmless. But he wanted a photo in the waterfall, literally! He was that far in you could hardly see him. He was so wet and dripping head to toe. He must have been there a while because when he wants you to take a photo he gives you directions, closer, left a bit, a bit further back; it takes at least 5min for 1 photo bless him. We went up to the top deck to admire the views. The boat was a little rocky though, you could barely stand at one point it was throwing you around that much. I felt drunk staggering around trying not to fall! Beck and Lara decided they wanted a photo of them jumping in the air so after about 8 goes they finally got a good photo. It was our turn then and I think me and Lou managed it in about 5 jumps. By this time people had started to watch us and then man decided he wanted a photo of all 4 of us! So we gave him our cameras and he took a couple of photos on each. We must have jumped about anopther 10 times we were struggling to be in time. At one point Lara was jumping on 2, me and Lou were jumping on 3 and Beck was jumping on what would have been 4. It was basically a mexican wave of jumping. We had just done our last one and were giggling away to ourselves when a steward came upstairs and told us that we had to stop! God knows how loud we were downstairs repeatedly jumping and thudding on the floor, although not all in time.
We were looking through our photos when we realised that we had been stopped for quite a while. We assumed it was to see more wildlife as we had already seen a pengiun and some seals, so we went to have a look. This is when Beck realised we were at the underwater observatory and we were suppossed to be getting off. So we ran down the 3 levels of stairs to get our bags and coats when the captain put out an anouncement that they were waiting for 4 passengers and that we had 1 minute to get off. Whoops. As we were getting off Louise heard some of the stewards talking; one asking what we were doing and the other replying that he had no idea but just saw us bolting it down the stairs. We entered the observatory laughing away but everyone else was silent and waiting, oh dear. I don't think the guide appreciated it, he was a bit on the serious side. We were then told the same information we had already been told twice by our drivers. It wasn't really that great down there, we just saw a few fish swimming around. We then hopped back on another boat which took us back to our bus. It was a 4 hour return journey over and around the mountains. We watched a Kiwi film called Boy but as it wasn't disney or a chick-flick we weren't too entertaind by it. It was then an early night before a long drive back to Christchurch.
- comments
jackie You are a lot braver than me there is no way that i would have jumped forwards or backwards lol Been waiting for weeks for this post. Hows work going? Hope you are still managing to visit places and enjoy yourself. Take care Love Jackie xxx