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Published: August 6th 2007
Today was Dart River day. I had no idea what we were going to do today. All I had heard was that we would go on a hike and a nice boat ride down the river. It was a little bit different than what I expected.
We took a bus through the mountains to get to our destination. It took a bit longer to get there than normal because of some rock slides in the road that needed to be cleared away. After some maneuvering we made it to Glenorchy, a little town outside Queenstown. It was so small, that really the Dart River Expedition Center is the highlight of town. When we got there we were split into two groups. Our group was to go on the river first then the hike. Each person has to wear a windbreaker sort of cover up and a life jacket. It was so cold, so when we added the new layers to the ones we were already wearing we all looked huge.
We all piled into the jet boats and headed down the river. It was so much fun. We did some 360s and took some sharp turns; that was
Dart River
Me getting ready..exciting. The only problem was that it was soooooooo cold. The cold water on my face didn't help things and I ended up with wind burn for the first time. Other than that it was fun. The scenery was great and we were able to see some of the sites where they filmed for the Lord of the Ring movies.
The hike that followed was very interesting too. Our guide told us about the way the old Maori people had lived. Also we learned about the animals that are native to NZ. There are no native mammals, only birds. All of the mammals, like fox, that were in the country were introduced by the British. Our guide showed us traps to catch small animals that were killing off the birds, especially the kiwi bird.
It was a good day, minus the windburn.
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