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Published: April 5th 2007
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G' Day!
We last blogged in Queenstown, the land of adrenalin fuelled fun! That morning we were doing our usual ritual of chores that need to be done the first morning we arrive at a new place: check emails, write blog, book activities, do grocery shopping etc etc. In the afternoon we decided to head up the large hill overlooking Queesntown to have a go on the Luge. There were two ways of getting to the top; taking the gondola or walking, as we were both still feeling active we decided to walk, BIG MISTAKE! the track was hardly a track and it was pretty steep, not ideal walking for flip flops!! After about an hour and a small detour when we got lost, we finally reached the top and the breathtaking views across beautiful Queenstown. We paid for our Luge tickets, 5 goes each, and spent the next hour wizzing down the luge tracks. After that neither of us fancied walking back down so I went and sweet talked the lady at bookings to let us ride the gondola down and pay at the bottom! Once down we/I contemplated just walking out but as we didin't want the
kind lady at the top to get in trouble we decided to pay. To our delight the guy at the ticket office said not to worry and let us have the ride for free! The moral of the story: It always pays to tell the truth.
The next day we chilled out in the morning lookng forward to the activity we had booked for the afternoon. We had decided not to do any Bungy jumps or Canyon swings etc because they only last a couple of minutes at the most, instead we decided to spend the whole day River Surfing!!! Oh yes, we hurled ourselves down some pretty hardcore rapids with only our guides and a modified bodyboard to help us! The 10 km section we surfed down (twice!) consisted of 3 main rapids, Maneater which literally ate me up, chewed on me for a bit and then spat me out a few seconds later, boardless and rather shocked, well no one told me going straight through the middle of it was the "Gnarliest" line to take. when the guide at the back caught up with me his words were "you got pretty spanked in there didn't you?"! Second
was Rollercoaster as it goes up and down, up and down and third was Dead Cow, i'm not sure why its called that, they wouldn't tell us and I didn't really want to know! The whole afternoon was really fun and we were both exhausetd at the end of it, although we still managed a trip to the pub in the evening!
Next up we headed to one of New Zealand's most famous landmarks, Milford Sound. On the way there as we eneterd fiordland it was apparent that it was bye bye sunshine, hello rain as the clouds in the Valley were rather menacing. We arrived in Milford with 3 nights set aside but after seeing that there is nothing there but Milford Sound we promptly booked our cruise for the next morning and decided to just stay the one night. In the morning we set sail on our scenic cruise which was great and even made better by the rain as it produced hundreds of waterfalls which aren't there when the sun shines, at one point we were even talked into standing underneath one!
The next few days were spent slowly making our way to Christchurch to
drop off Genesis. We spent one night in Te Anau which was rather uneventful but good as we met up with another couple with a spaceship "Atom". Then we had a night in Dunedin which was again uneventful but we did find a cool bead shop where we finally turned the pendants Verity made from coconut into real jewelery. And then we spent our last night in Genesis in Oamaru. While there we went to see a wild colony of rare Yellow Eyed Penguins at a beach, We only saw one on the beach but did spot some babies in a nest when walking back to Genesis. At dusk we went to watch a Colony of Little Blue Penguins make there daily commute back from the ocean to their nests on the shore. We weren't allowed to take any pictures which was a shame as they were very small, only 30cm tall, and very cute.
On Tuesday we did our final bit of driving, a short trip to Christchurch and then we said a sad goodbye to Genesis our home and trusted travel companion for the last month. It was really sad to see her being driven off but
as I said "if we're sad to see her go it means we have enjoyed our time in New Zealand".
Now we're in Christchurch and its quite weird being back in a "proper" bed but we're staying at the nicest hostel just outside the town centre, its got a real cosy and homely feel about it, just what we needed after a month on the road and before we head to Australia!!
Tomorrow we fly to Cairns where we will begin our 5 week trip down the East coast, although it was never one of the places we were both really really looking forward to we are both really excited now and can't wait.
Until next time
Stay cool!
G&V
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