Blogs from Queenstown, Otago, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

Hellooo!! Tis Rach B here, have been a bit slack about writing these long and winding passgaes, that tell you just how much time we have on our hands now that we're not working!!! Anyhoo, we're back together now, which is cool, because now when we both eat cake and ice cream, we don't feel so guilty. A couple of days after Rach F's red jump suit moment, I too donned the super figure enhancing garb and I think I might have fallen out of the plane actually, not jumped. But that's merely a detail. Unlike Rach, who got to see her fellow passengers fall out of the plane before it was her turn, I got to go first. Lucky me. I do have photos and a dvd (and a t-shirt...yeah I got everything), and will ... read more

Yesterday after I spent 2 hours in the Internet place, we went to see what's going on here. It's the first town here that is not asleep at 10PM. We went to a bar, I had 2 beers, we danced, everything was very happy. I hope it's not the only place in NZ like that... Today I did the jet boat ride. That was FUN!!!!! It's a boat that goes really fats on the river, and it's unique in the ability to turn very quickly, on the spot, even 360 degrees. So the driver gets close to the rocks and gets away at the last second, and he does 360 degrees spins, and we all cry "WOW" and it's a good laugh :-) They call it group teraphy... After that we drove to the town of ... read more

Dearest Friends and Family, I would like to talk about one thing today -- FEAR. Yesterday I experienced this powerful sensation in its truest, rawest form. Nothing compared to this. Not public speaking or thinking a dark thief is breaking into my apartment or finals come close. Not even the dreaded piano recitals of my youth hope to touch this sort of fear. I went for a canyon swing. The "Shotover Canyon Swing" in Queenstown, adventure capital of the world, perhaps. A swing? you think. That's kid's stuff! That's what they do at the Hilton on the "Ultimate Rush." Weeee! No. no, no, no. People say this beat the fear factor of skydiving and bungee jumping combined. The victims jump from a cliff mountain platform 109m/360ft above the Shotover River, then freefall 60m/200ft into the ... read more

Another long drive, another 8 hours and it was pissing down even more than yesterday. We arrived in Queenstown around 4pm and it was stunning, the place is beautiful, surrounded by mountains and pine tree covered hills, it's picture postcard material, the town itself is a wee bit over comercialized and plays it's adrenalin hardcore tag a bit heavy, this is where the bugy was born and these days you can pretty much jump of anything with the help of a wee bit elastic, we'll leave that to the English and wander through town. We check into our lodge, kind of like a holiday park thing, and we're sharing a 3 bedroom house with a young English couple and a German family, mum, dad and a son that looks about 23, very bizarre, things seem to ... read more

Hello all Comtinuing to have a great time. Weather remains good with lots of sun and very little rain. It's been quite a busy 3 days since the last entry. We moved on from Dunedin and headed south towards Te Anau. Took a detour of about 100km from Balclutha when we went to see the wildlife around Nugget Point and Surat Bay. Not much at the former except seals swimming below the cliffs but at Surat we met up - almost literally - with the sealions. We went for a walk on the grassy track behind the beach and could see a female sealion on the sand about 10m away. Whilst quietly watching it flick sand over itself to keep cool in the sun Joan saw a bull sealion heading for the beach. It came out ... read more