Kareoke time and extreme-ness yet again!!
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
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23
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Trip End
Feb 11, 2007
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Just to let you know I'm still having a great time but it's so close to coming home time now that I'm really looking forward to it. Only 11 days left! I'm trying to cut these blogs down a bit cos theyre so long! Takes me ages to write them!!
Saturday - On saturday we left Franz Josef and headed for a place called Makarora in the middle of nowhere about a few hours outside of Queenstown. We stopped off at Lake Matheson for a hour and a hlaf walk around it because on a really calm day like it was, the reflection of mount cook and tasman in the lake makes for some great upside down scenery viewing and photos. It wasn't as great as I imagined but the views were beautiful and it was a lovely walk in the sunshine. We had a coffee in the sun before getting back on the bus and travelling on again. We made a few more stops:
* Thunder Creek falls, a tributary of the Haast river, making a 28m waterfall into the valley below.
*Gates of Haast - massive boulders in the white water of the Haast river.
* The Blue Pools - gorgeous blue pools off the Makarora river that look like blue lagoons. Had to cross this very swinging bridge to get to them though which was a little scary as it was so wobbly.
We got to Makarora and checked into our little triangle dorm rooms which were very cute. It was just the campsite and a few other little buildings and apart from that not a lot else. We booked to have a meal that night and I had lamb, chips and veg which was lovely. Then we showered as we had heard rumours of a kareoke competition after happy hour in the bar. We had such a good night, we weren't drunk and there was only 14 of us but we all took part! I sang with the girls and did a few duets with the boys. I even got the guts to sing on my own and we did some massive grop songs at the end like wonderwall which were so funny! At the end we had to decide who won. The plan was to put all our names in a glass and pull one out. Ben thought we should write the name of the person we think deserved to win and then jen said why don't we just decide now. It was at that point everyone looked at me and then Ben said all those who think Leanne should win put your hands up, and everyone did! I was so chuffed, embarassed and quite speechless by how nice they all were! So awesome! I won a paraglide to do in Queenstown. Wooop!
Sunday - We got up to go to Queenstown, the extreme sport capital of New Zealand. We stopped off on the way to take photos of Lake Wanaka, New Zealand's 3rd largest lake and then stopped in the township for lunch. We also stopped off at the legendary Kawarau bridge bungy site, home of the first AJ Hackett bungy since the 80's. We watched a DVD about the secrets of bungy that was supposed to convince us brave and stupid ones that we were gonna be safe lol! Then we watched a few people throw themselves off the bridge. It's 43m high and the one that Jack did. I booked into to do the NEVIS highwire jump for the following day with Nick and Andy. Crazy we might be as Nevis is triple the height of the bridge jump at 134m!! We got into Queenstown pretty early so went for a wander around and me and mel ended up having a pimms (well i did) in the sunshine at a bar by the lake. It was lovely. I spent the evening chilling, watching a dvd and chatting to everyone sat in our dorm.
Monday - was D Day. I woke up with a stomach so full of butterflies it was so scary! I was even more scared than I was for my skydive cos this time it was all about me and conquering my fear. We were supposed to check into the nungy shop on town before 10am then we would be driven out to the site about 40 minutes out of Queenstown. The drive into the site was scary enough up this big ass mountain with steep drops to each side of the dirt track our bus was going up. When we got to the top I had one last toilet trip (pretty essential as onc your in your harness its a bit tricky) and then got harnessed up. Nevis is suspended on wires across the canyon above the nevis river, it looked so bloody high I nearly keeled over! We had to get on a cable car over to the 'pod' where we would jump from. We arrived there to the sound of monkey wrench by the foo fighters which instantly relaxed me and I was smiling when it came to the time to put on my ankle straps and enter the seat of no going back. I was sat in this chair by the ledge I was about to launch myself off whilst J strapped me to the bungy cord and showed me how to work the foot release that would put me into a sitting position after the jump so I could be winched back up to the pod. All of a sudden I was shuffling to the edge of the little metal square and I was looking down!! Ooops! J told me to look straight ahead, then it was 3,2,1 BUNGY! The most terrifying, exciting and nauseating feeling in the world is the one you get as you're about to jump off. Every bone in my body was screaming don't do it but then I was flying down with my arms out, head down and the ground rushing towards me! There is no feeling like it it's awesome! I bounced and swung around wooping and screaming! It was so cool. Then I had to do the foot strap which unfortunately had got stuck around my right foot so I spent a while dangling on the end of a rope in a canyon, doubled up upside down trying to release my feet which I finally did! I was winched back up and when I got it the pod I found out I couldn't walk cos my legs had turned to jelly and I was shaking. The only word I can use to describe how I felt is euphoric!! I saw nick and andy jump and then we got free t-shirts, hot dogs and a drink and then we were bussed back. To top off an amazing day we had a wicked night out, I got drunk and called it a day at 1am when I could hardly walk anymore lol!!
Tuesday - we had to get up early to leave for christchurch, which, with a hangover like I had, isn't one of the best feeling in the world. There had to be a few emotional goodbyes as we were going our separate ways. some of our new friends to the south of the island and the aussie girls we had met were coming with us. We stopped off on the way at Lake Punaki to get a really good view of Mt. cook again and then again at lake Tekapo before getting into Christchurch, picking up supplies from the supermarket and cooking a joint curry. Yum! Lazy evening again!
Wednesday (today) - had to get up to say bye to the aussie girls which was really sad! Amy made me cry when she started bless her but we've promised to visit them in perth and hopefully that will happen in the next few years! Or they can come see us in england yay! Me and jolly had a very lazy morning, showered and dressed then went shopping and that's all I've done! Mel and jen are rafting again so will be back later and we go to pick up the campervan tomorrow woo hoo!!
So that's me updated, I dunno when I'll update again because we're just gonna be in the van so might not be for a while! Not long now till I see everyone! Can't wait for a pub night, a rock city night and especially family and boyfriend nights!!
Lots of love Smiffy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
