South Island NZ an adrenal gland overload.

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Well I know I have been slacking on my blog updates but this has been due to being just too busy (again) enjoying myself around New Zealand. As such I will have to give a summary of my time here in NZ, so here goes, the South Island…
From Christchurch, which is so much like a quintessential English town it is unreal, I went to Queenstown known as the adrenaline capital of the world and yes this title is very appropriate as there is every extreme adrenaline activity you could ever think of as well as a lot of very crazy people also. As well as the adrenaline capital this place has also got to be the physiotherapy capital of the world and for very good reason. I noticed this at the doctors in Queenstown when I had to go pick up some more malaria tablets for my next Asia adventures and I was surrounded by the unfortunate ones for whom these adrenaline activities had gone wrong as I was the only one without some sort of bandaging or plaster cast. This was all very sobering and stopped me from embarking on anything too stupid although I did still manage to do some ‘mad dog river boarding’ which entailed body boarding down white water rapids, this ended up being a lot scarier than it sounds (well I was scared) and also a canyon swing which is a sort of freefall drop until the line tightens and then swings you through the bottom of the canyon above the Shotover river (they explain it better on their website http://www.canyonswing.co.nz) and for this one I was bleeding scared !
It was then onto Milford Sound and also Fox Glacier which are both incredible places, I will add photos later although I am not sure they will do any of the places in the South Island justice as they are just so staggering and incredibly huge.
After this it was up to Kaikoura which is one of the best places for spotting whales and dolphins. I took one of the boats out to see the whales and the guide was covering his arse saying that seeing them was not guaranteed but that they usually average 1 to 2 sitings. We ended up seeing 4 huge sperm whales which was phenomenal and then the guide was saying how they rose to the surface in 3 different ways, the most common being with their blow hole first, hence the spurt of water we first saw and the most rarest being the breaching method when the whale swims so fast to the surface that it launches itself out of the sea.. With that, the last whale we saw, a 20 metre, 50 ton, male, comes flying out of the water in front of the boat and then goes onto repeat that another 4 times. Awesome. I think that has got to be the most tremendous thing I have seen since starting my travels. I will load a picture here but to be honest I was just too busy watching the whale and just pointed my camera in the general direction and just clicked do I have a lot of pictures of the sky and sea. Watch this space.
Other notables on the South Island were quad biking in the hills around Nelson when the weather changed from blistering hot sunshine and the track a dusty dirt track to pouring torrential rain and the track ended up being a muddy mess. They do say that NZ can experience all the seasons in one day and that is definitely true.
So that was South Island NZ, an absolutely amazing place, both weather, scenery, and people - this is one that has got to be repeated.

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Photos

Finding Nemo
Here's the last pic of the 20 metre, 50 ton sperm whale just before....

Finding Nemo 2
... he made a spectacular re-entry

The Queenstown Canyon Swing
Even my shit was scared !