Queenstown,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
We flew over to NZ with Qantas (great airline) over the beautiful hills and were already amazed by it. We found the hostel we had booked after a while, probably the furthest and highest from the town centre but we had a room on the end with views over the town, Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkable mountain range beyond (thats actually what they are called). We went mountain biking down Skippers Canyon with Vertigo bikes which was great, Lucy went down the road the first time then down the harder singletrack with me the second. It was quite easy but a great track all the same, reminded me of the tracks we ride in the Peak District. We were given wicked full downhill bikes too, much better than my bike, so ignoring the guides requests to take it easy I gave everyone a head start and hammered it down as fast as I could. When we were driven back to the top of the 6km run I was exhausted and took it a bit easier the second time but still thrashed the bike. The guide was a great chap and could see I knew what I was doing so just let me get on with it. After the second run we were driven straight to the Shotover River for the whitewater rafting we had booked as a combo. We had to get straight into thick wetsuits, jackets, lifevests and helmets, I was sweating so badly and thought I'd faint as I was still roasting from the biking and it was a cloudy but warm day. Luckily once we took to the water they let me jump in to the freezing water on the calm bits to cool off. The rafting was great, some rapids were grade 4 which is pretty rough and a 200m narrow tunnel for which Lucy had to sit on the front of the raft as "Tunnel Girl" and steer. We were in with a Spanish family whose two lads were a bit younger than us, the mother was pretty scared as she was tiny and nearly 60 I reckon. One of the sons fell out and had to be rescued and after that we had to sit in the bottom of the raft for the hardest rapids which just wasn't extreme enough for us. Lucy ignored the guides orders once and sat up on the side through one big rapid but he was too busy laughing at the Spanish to care. One raft flipped in the big section and we had to stop and rescue them. The guide KC was great, hilarious talking to them in broken Spanish which he learned in Chile and the family were really sweet, giving us two postcard photos from the pack they bought at the end which was far too expensive for us. Lucy asked KC, who used to be a farmer, if he shears sheep to which he replied "We don't bloody share our sheep in New Zealand love!".
We walked to the top of the Skyline Gondola for great views over the valley and lake as it was too expensive to go up in the gondola. We watched a girl do the bungy from up there dropping into trees next to a cliff and decided we were defo not gonna do a a bungy jump. We walked back down the downhill bike tracks which I found and I realised I had to ride them whatever the cost as they were brilliant. So the next day I got up early and went down them with a guide from the shop, we got to go up in the gondola twice and hammer down the purpose built tracks which I loved. Lucy went on a Lord of the Rings sightseeing trip which she enjoyed but it was a bit cloudy and rainy which spoiled it a bit. The scenery around Queenstown is incredible as it is, mountains and lakes, forest and moors, snow still on tops of the highest peaks.
We were thinking of going on the jetboats which Queenstown is famous for other than bungy. It wasn't extreme enough for me as there seemed like there was no danger involved. On the news that night we saw one had crashed into a jetski killing 2, the 3rd crash of this season. Good job we didn't do it, it's the most dangerous of all.
