Mercure Resort Queenstown

... I finally decided on what my thrill, adrenaline pumping, push me adventure was going to be. Not bungy jumping, not the chair swing, not paragliding, but...White water rafting down the Shotover river. It was an absolutly perfect day. The sun was shining the river was beautiful and we had some awesome rapids to get through. I was apprehensive at first but once I got in the water, I knew I was going to love it. And guess what? I did!!! I can;'t wait to do it ...

Just outside Wanaka we discovered a place called Puzzling World, which has a huge leaning tower just outside. After the success of the whimsical water works we decided to take a look. On going inside we were met with a cafe, with about 20 tables, each with about 5 little puzzles on. Dad (Jon's) would have loved it - they were all little wooden things and just like the stuff he has at home. We skipped past these ...

... in the van together, much fun was had winding Neal up about what we were going to do in the night, my buttocks being bared more than once by way of threat! Next morning we jumped on the boat and checked out Milford, which was stunning, many waterfalls and Mitre Peak slap in the middle of it, staggering natural beauty. That night we got back to Queenstown and got on the smash, beers, Jager and God knows what else, can't really remember what happened, good times ...

... Lloyd, me, James and Chanelle and Lucy (from Nelson) went on the pub crawl around Queenstown, an organised pub crawl of 9 bars, including free food. We met up with Lisa and Jo (who had been to Milford Sound) in Skybar. The bars were pretty good, although a bit quiet, Skybar and Frasiers were ok, the best bar was Winnies, which was jam packed, with some quality music, we spent the rest of the night in Winnies before heading back to Base hostel.<br>

... beside a car and went over to say hello to our neighbors for the night. They had been sleeping in a car (!!) for one month in NZ (it gets to -7degrees at night here!!) so I invited them over for a drink and some chilli. We had a great night eating, drinking and swapping stories and then headed off to bed. Well, we were only in bed for about half an hour when the whole van started rocking...violently!! Man I nearly peed my pants!! A storm had come from absolutely ...

... OR take them to the local vet, pet shop, australia zoo to look after and risk them laughing us out the door, because god knows why they'd want to take on a bunch of vermin! anyway, so after getting them all into this container and clearing out the under seat cupboard, where we discover this amazingly constructed nest of ripped up plastic bag shards and pieces of foam insulation from under the front driver and passenger seats, we decide to place the container back under the ...

... to the church. Daniel and Louisa went upstairs with us and met everyone but decided to go their own way and find their own place to stay for the night. Then, we began hearing all the stories about how the teams go connected with this pastor. 12 people stayed with her last night, and us and one other team showed up today. My roommate, Amanda's team did not know what to do when they arrived in Queenstown, so they opened the phone book, and ...

... ate the fish. Franz Josef glacier was also featured in it for a second. When we got to Queenstown it was freezing! We had somehow manged to book ourselves into a hostel that was up a lovely steep hill! Queenstown is a real ski town with lots of hostels, motels and hotels. From the garden in our hostel we had a lovely view of the lake and mountains. New Zealand just seems to be full of mountains and lakes because I am typing this I am yet again beside a lake ...

... is that our money situation is really beginning to bite again; Australia and New Zealand have proved to be more expensive than we'd hoped/feared, so we can't wait to get to South America, which we hope will be more like Asia in terms of expenditure. <br><br>You can spend an extraordinary amount of money in Oz &amp; NZ because there's SO MUCH to do, and we ...