Rest of the Best

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Our final stretch began with Queenstown, which is known as the adrenalin capital of the world - so it doesn't take a genius to figure out what type of thing we were going to be doing there. One of the main attractions was the CANYON SWING. This basically a swing into a canyon. It starts off with a 60m freefall followed by a 200m arc that happens as soon as the swing kicks into action (Thankfully it did). That was really fun although only lasts a few seconds really, the best bit being the fact that the staff are the sons of the devil, and like to have fun by pretending to push you and then pulling you back. Julia was sat on her chair for about 5 minutes before they finally let her go, as she was too scared to push herself off. Dan however decided it would be better to hang onto a rope until he lost his grip. So with him they let him hang over the cliff for about 2 minutes waiting before they eventually pulled the lead to release him. Nasty Pasties.

So anyway, as if chucking yourself off a cliff was not enough excitement for one day, we though we had better do a spot of white water rafting in the afternoon. We travelled along the scariest road in the world in a rickety old bus to the beginning of the adventure, while sweating in wet suits, on a hot day. The rafting itself was fun although our guide was very over the top and there was just too much tame water for our liking, and we got eaten by sandflies most of the way around. This aside, it was still fun, although could have been better and scarier.

The next thing that we wanted to do was luging, which is a cross between a Go-Kart and a toboggan. It's right at the top of a mountain you can only get to it by Gondola. So we raced down this hill on a very challenging track, and nearly came off a few times. Dan unfortunately won every time (sometimes by cheating though) and even managed to take a person over which is very impressive. Got to say its cheap and very fun so would recommend it to anyone.

So that was Queenstown done, to some extent anyway, as you can't stay in Queenstown without spending money unfortunately. Our next main destination was the Fox Glacier, via Lake Wanaka. On the road we saw a place called puzzle world and Julia just had to stop as she had read about it and thought it looked really fun... She was not wrong. It's got lkoads of optical illusions that mess with your head, like a room where the water runs uphill (or appears to), and a swing hangs to the side. You are best to just look at the pics to best describe it. It also had this maze and we raced an English couple around it. We lost.

Fox Glacier was our next stop along the route, and the only thing you can do there (that would not require you to sell a kidney to fund it) is one of the hikes. We opted for the half day one as we are not fit enough for a whole day. To get to the ice we had to walk up 800 steps through a forest in all of our layers of clothing. This made us extremely knackered, but it was worth it as the hike over the ice was very interesting and a unique experience to say the least. But after all of the beauty we had another walk all of the way back down the mountain again. Sweet as.

So next to Nelson. The drive there was long and tiring, but we make it in the end and arrived in the place that has more sunny days than anywhere else in New Zealand (and to be fair it was a sunny day when we got there so 100% record so far). We did not really want to stay in Nelson for too long as we needed to start looking for work sooner rather than later... But there is always time for at least one adrenalin activity. So we decided that a quad biking and skywire combo was the way to go. The quad biking was on a massive farm (16, 000 acre) although its more of a forest. So after some extra tutoring for Julia we headed off biking up a mountain. The activity was really fun, although very dusty and scary, and its definately a thrill travelling fast on the edge of a cliff. We also did a skywire ride on top of the mountain, which is not that good to be honest. Its was basically a chairlift that freefalls until the motor kicks in. We got up to 84 km/hr, which was not bad...but it was no canyon swing.

After all the excitement of the South Island, we now have no money, and need a rest. Next stop Wellington to job hunt.

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Comments

[kathryn]

nice talking to you Julia
Hi both, It was great talking to you on Sunday Julia - you haven't changed -you can still talk loads and as fast!!! Lovely to hear all your tales of what fun you are having. Sounds like you are having a really great time - wish i could come out for a holiday. Will phone you soon. Aunty k xxx