Skippers Canyon, Jet-Boating and a night in the Ice Bar

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Said goodbye to Julian and another guy in our room called Bobby. Bobby is a business man in his 50’s that ended up here because the bank machine ate his creditcard. He’s been waiting for the bank to send him a new one and for his wife to wire him some money so in the meantime has been living off whatever cash he had left in his wallet. I felt incredibly sorry for him but he didn’t whinge. I can imagine staying in a hostel full of 20-somethings must have been a culture shock for him. I felt ever so mean for returning home last night and scoffing a Fergburger in my drunken stupor, while he’d spent his last $3 yesterday on a can of Tuna. He’d eaten half at lunchtime, and half at tea time. Goodness, if I’d met him yesterday I would have lent him some money, although he said he wouldn’t have taken it. He was happy as the card had arrived and he was off to check in to some grand hotel somewhere.
I spent the morning chatting to people at the hostel about what to do today. Julian had suggested I do a bungee jump, but after I turned my nose up at that, he suggested a Jet-boat ride. After half an hour with the travel booker here at Nomad’s, I booked on to a half-day trip to Skippers Canyon with a 20minute jet-boat ride at the end. Skippers Canyon is the only road in New Zealand where you can’t get insured to drive along as the road is so skinny and dangerous. Stopped at a Thai Restaurant for a quick stir-fry before walking up to meet everyone for the tour.
We drove past Arthur's Point where a man discovered Gold in the Shotover River many years ago. Skippers Road was so thin and windey that you can only fit one car on the road. There are no barriers between your vehicle and the huge vertical drop. We drove through Hells Gate and Heavens' Gate where our van nearly touched the rock on either side it was that tight. Our driver was hilarious and enjoying winding up some of the older passengers, they were getting really frightened. There was a teenager that I was secretly fuming at, since she'd nabbed the best seat on the coach and was taking no interest whatsoever at the beautiful scenery. I caught her yawning on a couple of occasions, but kept my cool and didn't barge her out of the way. We were litterally teetering on the edge of the cliff when finally my side of the bus started to get all the good views and I could see just how close we were to falling off. One wrong move by our driver and we were a gonner.
We arrived at the jetty and watched in horror as a Blue Jet-boat came hurtling down the river towards us. He span the boat and pulled up inches away from the platform. I pulled on a raincoat and jumped aboard. I was so excited I had to stop myself from bouncing up and down on my bum like a 4year old at Christmas. He talked us through a few safety instructions, (yeah, yeah, get on with it, lets go!) then sped off, swerving right and left, throwing us all around the boat, flying through tiny gaps between the rocks on either side. He did 360 spins, soaked us with the river water and pulled up at a place where they filmed part of Lord of the Rings.
When we got out I was absolutely buzzing. New Zealand has blown my mind the last few days, and I'll be honest that this was the place I was least excited to visit. Now I know it's been my favourite!
We walked across the highest bridge I've ever been on and dropped rocks off the side as we each made a wish.
When I got back to Nomads, I met up with Eric the Canadian and we grabbed fish and chips before starting on the vino in the common room. The sound of laughter and shouting as everyone played drinking games could be heard from the floor above. This place is by far the best hostel I've stayed in.
Eric, Sanna, Cecilia and I booked on to the bar crawl that Nomad's organsied for tonight which cost $25 but included drinks in 5 bars, and entry and a cocktail in Minus 5 bar where everything is made from ice (even your cocktail glasses). Entry to Minus 5 is usually about $30 alone so it was a pretty good deal. About 30 of us went out on the crawl. We had shots and drinks in various placces before heading to Minus 5 where we were all given coats, gloves and ugg boots. It was dark inside and very cold. The seats, walls and furniture were all ice, like a giant igloo. Everyone loved it in here.
After a couple more stops we ended up in World Bar where we were given $5 discounts off the Teapot Cocktails... yes you guessed it, it's a cocktail in a Teapot. Chatted to loads of people, danced to David Guetta's "memories" which is an absolute tune, and will always remind me of my wonderful stay and the great people I've met in Queenstown.
Kissed some guy on the dancefloor but he turned out to be a total headcase and started being really possesive. He didn't even like me talking to Eric and the lads we were with, so we escaped and went back to the hostel. Loads of people were already there, chatting away in the common room. Got talking to Sanna's friend Al (who's from Essex and I just love his accent) and a lad called Tom from Chester. The three of us went to the Cinema room when everyone else headed off to bed and watched Factory Girl and some video's on Al's iPhone. We were in there for hours. Tom had an access badge to open all the doors in the hostel and sneaked me in to the Sauna. We all finally went to bed about 7am.

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