Wow.. New Zealand

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Well what can I say.. a great trip comes to an end...

New Zealand's South Island is one of superior beauty.

We flew into Christchurch on the 24/7. After a few troubles at airport security (surprise surprise) we went to the car hire section. As it turns out they had stuffed up our booking. They had given us 2 cars that had not been skiierised, even though they knew we were driving to Queenstown to ski. So after reorganising, that took us just as long as it did to fly form Sydney to Christchurch, we were under way with our 6 hour drive at 7pm.

We drove in complete darkness the whole way, which we would later find out was a tremendous shame.

We arrived at Queenstown and checked into our hotel. Rohan, Az and I were in a 2 bedroom unit. Dave and Matt were in a room of thier own. We had a few drinks before we hit the sack at about 3am.

The next morning, as I drew the curtains, my jaw dropped as we discovered why people rave about this place. Aspen On Queenstown had just happened to supply us with one of the most spectacular views of one of the most beautiful towns in the world.

We headed into town to hire some ski gear. After selecting the best priced gear we could, a trip to the top of Bob's Peak sounded like a good idea. We caught the gondola to the top. What we saw was more spectacular than our view from the room.

At the top there was the infamous LUGE!! Anyone who has been to Queenstown would, or should, know of the luge. We had many runs down, some blood was drawn but a great time had by all.

The next day, skiing begins. We made our way to Coronet Peak. This was my first time snowboarding, suffice to say, I sucked. But I slowly got the hang of it during the day.

We hit the slopes of Coronet Peak again the following day. I started to get a little better but was really beating my self around with the constant falling over. I got home that night and had bruises all over me mainly my knees.

That being the case I figured that I need a day off. My decision to not ski the following day was my best desicion the whole trip. We traded in our multi pass and went to the Shotover Jet. It was ok but nothing to rave about. Rohan summed it up with one line.


After that we headed to the first ever commercial bungy jump. AJ Hackett Kawarau Bridge.
At 43 metres above the Kawarau river, this is not for the faint hearted. (but then again when ever is bungy jumping) Dave was considering to do it. After we asked him his thoughts about 14 times, common sense prevailed, and Dave didn't do it.

Later that day we tried something a little less terrifying, Putt Putt golf. It was ok.

That night we went to check out a bar called Minus 5 (so called because it is constantly kept at -5 degrees and everything is made of ice) It was $25 and you only get 20 minutes. Stuff that! so we went to the pub across the way. It was much better.

The day after we made our way to The Remarkables. After a couple of hours Az and I found that we have had totally had enough of snowboarding so took our hire gear back and went into town for some lunch while the other guys kept skiing.

Since Az and I had a extra day to use and we weren't going to ski, we thought we might take part in some of these adventure sports that Queenstown is famous for. So on the last day in town, we decided on Heli-rafting. We caught the bus half way up Coronet peak. Shortly after a helicopter arrived to take a few people over the mountain to the Shotover River. Az and I were the last group to go so the helicopter pilot made a few extreme manouvers that no one else we got to do... we felt special :) We landed on the edge of the EXTREMELY COLD Shotover River. We did the obligatory saftey training and pep-talk. We felt confident that we would be warm enough with our 3 1/2 wet suits on. (you have to remember this is New Zealand's South Island in winter, in a river that has no sun on it, so to say it was cold was a mammoth understatement) So here we are, two Aussie boys about to jump into a questionable looking raft (just kidding:) ) below freezing water with an instructor that finds it amusing to see stupid Aussie tourists fall into hypothermic waters. But it was all good. Apparrently no one had died on this recently so we felt ok about that. It was that cold in the river that there were frozen Icicles hanging off the walls of the canyon we were in. The fact that we were in extreme conditions made it all seem more extreme than it really was. To be honest, the company we did it with was very professional and safe. The wetsuits were warm and we were pretty comfortable the whole time (except our feet because they were sitting in water the whole time so they were literally blue when we finnished) After all that we were treated to a very appreciated selection of hot snacks and a sauna.

The Final day arrives and we start out rather early for our 6 hour drive back to Christchurch. The drive back was the most spectacular I have ever done. The scenery was simply magnificent. So back in Christchurch we had just enough time to check out the main Christ Church before we headed to the airport.

New Zealand's South Island is a place I would love to come back to. Unfortunately I only got a chance to see a small amount of it and I know of many things I would love to do and see.

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