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Published: February 18th 2005
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Nevis 134m Queenstown
"Muuuuummmmmmm......Agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....whooooo hoooooo" Well we did it ... no not run off and get married when none of you were looking, but "The Nevis". 134m of utter terror. I have never been so scared in my entire life. I was a gibbering wreck. Bryan was as cool as a cucumber.. talk about role reversel on the extreme sports. I was nervous when we arrived, I was green when I saw the "small" 43m bridge and by the time I saw the contraption which I was going to hurl myself off I was distraught. You have to get a cable car to a 'pod' swaying percariously on little metal strings in the middle of the canyon.
Everyone ahead of me just walked up to the platform and wheeeeeeeee off they went, not even a pause. Then the guy infront of me jumped the wrong way and everyone started saying "whatever you do don't jump like he did". As if I wasn't nervous enough!!!!! So I got to the seat. Then PANIC. I was crying and flapping my arms (yes, I know I can't fly but my brain was not fully functioning at this point). The guy was trying to get me to the ledge
Te Anau
Father Ted and Mrs Doyle go on a summer holiday and remind me to jump head first. Then the whole pod started chanting my name to encourage me to jump. So 5,4,3,2,..1 and off I went and half way down I went from "agggghhhh" to "whoooo hooooo" and roaring laughing. Needless to say the dvd is quite amusing 😊
So even drama queen scardy cats like me can do this ... if you are ever in Queenstown this is a must.
Its a beautiful day in Kiakoura today (which is a nice change - more about that in a minute) and I did one of the most fabulous things of my life today. I got up at 4.45am and jumped off the back of a boat and swam with HUNDREDS of dolphins. Oh My God, there is nothing like it. They are so graceful and beautiful and amazing. It just was a fantastic feeling. You can hear them all "talking" and then they come up to you to check you out and they're looking at you and its a very surreal experience. I've have never seen so many dolphins in one place at one time. They are Dusky dolphins which are smaller than bottlenose ones and they jump
Milford Sound
These waterfalls only exist when it is raining - an hour after the rain stops and they all disappear! out of the water and do back flips and somersaults. Not a bad way to start the day.
Queenstown has amazing views and lots to do and we got one glorious day to take the gondola up the mountains surrounding the town which is situated on a lake. Since we arrived in the South Island the views have been continuosly breathtaking. The drive to Wanaka from Franz Josef was spectacular. And we spent two lovely days swimming in the lake at Wanaka, which has to be our favourite town in NZ so far.
As I mentioned the weather has been a little tempermental since we arrived in Queenstown which was about a week or so ago. So we were dicing with Fate when we booked our overnight cruise for Milford Sound. Our logic was that the longer we were on the water the more chance we had of the weather being good. Well the drive from Te Anau to Milford was goodish and the drive is a beautiful one (a lot of just staring out the car window in awe of the size of the cliffs) but the rain started in style when we got on the cruise
boat and boy did it rain. We got 120mm of rain on the trip. I don't think other than actually swimming I have ever been so wet in my life. However the Sound, though definitely not what you see on the postcards, was spectacular. The entire walls of the sound were transformed into waterfalls - hundreds of waterfalls. Got up close and personal with them too when we went kayaking in the rain off the boat. Dolphins came to visit us that evening too and we got to check some seals out. Milford is another fantastic memory.
To be honest there have been nothing but brilliant trips for us in this country. Doubtful Sound was beautiful. Franz Josef Glacier was great. Since we arrived in the South Island the views have been has been beautiful and just when we thought they couldn't get any better we arrived at Mount Cook on Monday night. We arrived late on a lovely evening and got some photos of Mount Cook which is the biggest mountain in NZ. Just aswell we reckoned as the next day you couldn't see in front of your nose with the rain, which basically was the same bloody
Milford rain after following us up the country. Wednesday dawned with not a cloud in the sky and we had been recommended an overnight stay on the mountain range at Mueller Hut so, no bother to us, we booked the night and took off on the four hour walk up the mountain to the hut. No one warned us that you have to be a qualified mountain goat to get up there. I have never climbed anything in my life like it. In fact I am still wincing when I walk up or down steps with the pain in my thigh and calf muscles (there were 1,063 "official" steps on the middle part of the downward clamber - I counted). The views made it all worthwhile - not that I have any photos as my digial camera is on siesta at the moment - don't ask its a sore point. Will hopefully get it fixed next week in Sydney. The valley of Mount Cook is extremely flat and then these mountains are just there! It is impossible to get any perspective until you see something like a little ant and realise that its a human being.
So there you
Lake Manipouri
Sunrise on Lake Manipouri on the way to Doubtful Sound have it - more adventures from NZ and we put the tent up for the last time last night and I have to say I was more than a little sad. But we've got two more days in Kiakoura, which is ... yes, beautiful too....and then two days in Christchurch. I guess the next one of these will be from Asia somewhere.
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