Blowing away the cobwebs/migraine...

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The 31st of January wasn't the best day ever. I woke up feeling decidedly dodgy, for no good reason. The weather was hot and sunny, it's not like I'm in a horrible town, and it's not like there was nothing to do. Yet I woke up barely able to lift my chin off the ground. Not because yesterday's massage had crippled me - far from it, I feel far more able to move around than I have done for weeks, yippee - but just because I was feeling rubbish. Grim.

I decided to wallow in self pity at the hostel, and type up all the blogs that I'd written in Word and forgotten to upload to Travelblog. Reading them back today, you can tell I wasn't feeling right - I appear to be overly emotional and lacking humour. Must remember not to write blogs while more miserable than Morrissey in future...

Today started in much the same way. Woke up late but this time, with a nasty migraine all down the left hand side of my head. Entirely unamused however now in full understanding of why I started to feel rough yesterday. Feel like someone's tied a weight to the left hand side of my chin. Have image in my head of looking half David Coulthard. Not good.

However...it's my last day in Queenstown today and I feel I've achieved little other than walk around a lake and around the top of a mountain, eat Fergburgers (amazing, very healthy vegetarian creations, not like lard-tastic Maccas) and be wound up by other backpackers. I could stay in my hostel room but it's been taken over by 5 Germans - there's only an inch of floorspace left for me, as they've unpacked the camper van they've been staying in and fully unloaded it into the dorm so it can dry out. The stench is unimaginable to you, but if I were to describe it as like having 2 full wardrobes of clothes dunked in stagnant water and left to go musty before drying, accompanied by a room full of shoes cheesier than Gorgonzola, it might give you a sense. Not to mention they insisted on playing 'let's try to steal items from each other using the power of headlamps only' until gone 2am last night. The reasons behind the mega headache are suddenly becoming a lot clearer!

So out I headed but my head was still pounding. I need to do something - anything - to get rid of it. There was only one thing for it...

Jetboating

Yup, what better way to feel instantly better than to take a ride at 80kmph through narrow canyons in an aluminium boat? On a whim, I booked and paid for it - not cheap but right now, I'd pay anything to shift the hammers in my head. 10 others were on my trip and we were shuttled over to the Shotover centre, at Arthur's Point. Rain ponchos and life jackets issued, we posed for our photos (noticed I needed to dye my roots - need to fly hairdresser Vicky out tout-de-suite). Our driver - Mikey - appears to be a lunatic. Perfect - just what you need when careering towards rock faces. I'm going to enjoy this...

I took my seat next to another single girl and we were off. Mikey (which I appear to be able to say only in the manner of Robert Lindsay in My Family), hit the pedal and sent us flying inches away from the canyon edges, so close that you felt you were going to crash constantly. Steering towards the canyon face, he'd literally pull back just when you thought it was too late. 360 degree turns every now and then that sent you flying out of your seat. 30 minutes of careering up and down the canyon in this boat, and we were done, not without a couple of little stops to make sure the silent folk at the back who'd gone white as a sheet were still alive, and to dish out a little bit of local history about the gold panning in the area. Gold is still being found today, in fact one guy at the centre cashed in $4,500 last week that he'd collected over a couple of years. I was about to hop out and start panning myself, but Mikey took off again to do a final 360 spin to pull up level with the gangway. There's talent/one massive show off right there!

Back at the centre and it turns out they've put together photo packs for us, to buy at the bargain price of $39 (!) as well as recorded 5 minutes of us live from the boat (+$20 if you want that to take home too). The video was brilliant - if I wasn't watching the pennies I'd have bought it in a shot. You can see me being thrown 2 ft off my seat before crashing down in a fit of giggles. Love it!

Did it make my headache go? Nope. Should I have told the guys that ran it that I have back problems before getting on it? Probably yes - not so sure it's done the back the world of good. Physio would be unimpressed. Would I ever let Mikey drive my car? Not in a million years! Am I bloody glad I did it? You betcha - well, Queenstown is adrenalin junkie paradise after all, and if I'm not going to bungy or skydive, I might as well crash face first into rocks instead ;-)

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