Queenstown Madness

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Well, Queenstown is pretty mad.

Everything is quite full on, from the people to the activities, even to the legendary fergburgers.

Our first full day in Queenstown and I didn't really have my camera on me as today was activity day, so sorry but no photos for you today. I was up by about 7am and met Danny (fellow traveller on the Magic Bus) and we checked in for our "surfing" experience of the Kawarau river. The day promised to be full of white water comprising of grade 3 and 4 rapids.

The half day activity was run by a company called Frogz. These guys are really great fun and I would highly recommend it if you are ever in Queenstown. We were driven to the launch site by a crazy Australian called Dan. he had massive dreadlocks and I knew I would be getting on well with him throughout the day.

The river part was run by Thomas and another guy (his name escapes me, sorry), and they led us down the canyon. Teaching us how to surf the waves, how to get spit out under the water and generally how to have a great time. We did this twice, the second time was a lot easier than the first. The trick was to get good balance on the boogie board and to really pay attention to Thomas' signals.

Back on the bus we came into Queenstown and there was a long line of traffic on their way out of the town as Credence and Clearwater were playing a gig just out of the town. We headed over to Fergburgers for something to eat. These burgers really do live up to their name. To be honest I had never heard of them before, but according to a taxi dirver that I spoke to the previous night they manage to turn over $115,000 profit a week and have had to start their own bakery to cope with the demand of the buns they need to complete the burgers !!

After this I headed back to meet up with Toby again, while we had been doing the river he had been sky diving, to get ready to head out for the Shot over Jet boat. This boat is pretty crazy, it has a flat bottomed hull, so it can glide through the water. The engines suck in 800 gallons of water per minute and spit it out the back so that the driver can steer which means there is no need for a propeller or anything to be in the water. This allows the boat to travel in water which is only 4 inches deep.

The driver will also do this circling hand signal meaning he is going to do a 360 degree turn. So you hold on to the (heated!) hand rails and he spins it round. You end up getting very wet haha.

After this we headed back to the YHA and had a bit of a kip and then out for the night with guys off the bus - Danny, Anna and James, plus we met up with the woman - Isobelle from the Abel Tasman walk and a few others.

Needless to say I had a bit of a hangover hahaha.

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