Day 8-10 - from whitewater to peace and quiet

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sorry, it's been a while since my last post. been hunting around for cheap internet :P

so to recap the past couple of days:

nov 11 - whitewater rafting

we pulled in to queenstown shortly before lunchtime and managed to get on to an afternoon rafting tour. kevin mentioned that one of the rivers, the shotover, was used in the first lord of the rings movie (the part with the two giant statues). of course, we decided to try that tour - despite it being class 4 rapids. they pretty much give you the option to bail at any time - what with every staff member warning you about broken/sprained limbs, drowning, etc. and with names for each of the rapids like "toilet", "pinball", and "oh sh*t" why wouldn't you think twice about going in the water? and to make matter worse, we had to take the most nerve wracking 40 minute bus ride i've ever been on. we had to take a secondary highway out to the river - a highway formed by miners in 1890 using dynamite. obviously they weren't planning on vehicles as big as tour buses back then, since we were driving precariously to the edge of the cliffs the entire time. i would have taken pictures out the window if there hadn't been a greasy face mark on the one next to me.

now any issues i may have had with the mildew odour coming from my wetsuit were quickly washed away once we got in to the water. we met up with a brit from glouchester named richie, and he and deja were quickly nominated by our guide to take the front seat. kevin and i sat behind, and two american ladies behind us. unfortunately we must have been the outcast group because we couldn't find a seventh person to join us. luckily they were training other guides that day, so we had ryan, our guide from maine, and ben, a local who was learning the ropes. the trip lasted about and hour and forty-five minutes, and i was freezing near the end of it. and despite the pouring rain we had a blast! we almost flipped over on "pinball", but managed to pull through.

unfortunately kevin forgot his towel and a change of clothes, so he had to sit through a 20 minute drive back to our hotel in arrowtown in his trunks. he also had to spend $10 at the local grocery store to buy an extra towel.

following a quick change and drive back in to queenstown, we stopped in at the speight's restaurant/bar to try their beer and watch the kiwi's beat the british lions 34-4 in the tri-country rugby cup. the group of brits at the next table seemed none too pleased...

nov 12 - no kiwi's

the next morning we returned to queenstown in the hopes of seeing some kiwi birds. we missed the kiwi preservation centre up in hokitika, so we figured the bird sanctuary here would be the next best thing. ha! at $30 per person, we'll never know. we took a pass and took a walk through the town before heading back on the road. we left for te anau - about a 2.5hr drive from queenstown, and the gateway to milford and doubtful sounds. the drive up is kind of odd. it's like driving through montana until you hit the mountains again. te anau feels a bit like canmore, and there's a huge lake here. in the 50's they built a power station for the smelting plant in the mountains, so the water levels of lake te anau and lake manapourri are artificially controlled to maintain "natural levels". the excess of water is routed underground to the powerstation. it's kinda cool to read about the setup, but the tour of the underground powerstation is a bit pricey.

nov 13 - finally alone!

kevin and i have nearly torn each others' head off several times in the past couple of days, so i decided to take a break from the guys. they're off kayaking in milford sound this morning, while i spend the day to myself. i needed the down time anyway, what with the frantic pace we've been keeping this past week. i spent the morning walking along the lake front and writing postcards home. i've booked myself on a 7hr bus/cruise tour of milford sound tomorrow, to buy a little more time away. te anau's not exactly a bustling metropolis (i think the population is under 2000 people, and there's only one main street) but it's relaxing and relatively affordable. that reminds me... i have to buy a lunch for tomorrow, since i was too cheap to add on a meal plan to the tour...

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Comments

[heath]

a tip for lunch
maybe there is a hospital near by where you can buy a lunch. oh wait that's GROSS. john's been at the hospital everyday. we miss you!

[MicroTong]

i'm a fatty
heh... i should check out their hospital cafeterias. my diet's been relatively poor during our travel days. in fact, i had nothing but cheese crackers for lunch today... miss you guys too (nothing but testosterone around here!... )