South Island, part deuce

Last time I left off, I had just went canyoning on Wednesday and then called it a night because I had an early morning GOLFING!!! However, I forgot to mention that after canyoning, a 6 of us from the trip went up the gondola and did our mountain luging! This was soo much fun but in a completely different way then what we already experienced. All this was was little carts that you push the handle forward to go and pull it back to slow down and stop and you choose from two tracks to go down. It was the type of good, clean, non- extreme, cheap fun that little kids should be doing. But don't be fooled, these things hauled ass, especially on the banked turns on the advanced track, I even flipped one on a turn but it was a blast. We stopped to take pictures, raced, even tried to ride tandem and race down the scenic track, but we were too big for the tandem thing. We also got to do all this on the top of the hill while the sun was setting so it perfect time of day.

But now I will get back to the best part of the trip, well second best. I had wanted to golf in NZ since I got here and the opportunity presented itself so nicely. I conviently had a 4 hour window the next morning if I were willing to wake up early, and to golf in NZ, I could make that sacrifice. I paid $170 NZD for club rentals (left handed), transportation to and from the course, greens fees, balls, tees, and a cart. I played Kelvin Heights in Queenstown, one of the top 10 scenic courses in the world; I think it was number 7 or something. But it was a good deal, so I took it! The only problem was that I had a river boarding reservations at 12:30, so I had to take an early tee time. I got a 7:45 am tee time and that means a 7:00 pick up. I felt a little weird golfing in regular sneakers, jeans, and a sweatshirt, but I was still golfing! It was perfect, because the seasons were just changing so it started to get cold. It was me and the greens keepers on the course so I had time to find my first couple drives. It was one of the best days of golfing I have ever had. You will see from the pictures that it was absolutely breathtaking, AND I shot under a 99, but it was after not playing for months. So I will not say much more and I will let you enjoy the pictures. And I took the ones of me while putting the camera on a timer in the cart.

Suck it Uncle Roger

After golfing, I got went back to the room, got my bathing suit on, got some lunch, and it was time for river boarding! To everyone who doesn't know, we pretty much body boarded level 3 rapids in the river. It was so much fun but it was a lot of work. Pretty much, whatever the rapid wanted to do, it did it and there wasn't much we could do about it. After just 10 minutes of getting used to the board and flippers we were thrown into the rapids. We all ended up on each other at most times because we couldn't kick out of the rapids, but it just added to the excitement. We hit 3 foot walls of water, circled around in whirlpools, and kicked out of current exchanges. Then after about 20 minutes of hard work, we got to have a different kind of fun. They had a jet ski waiting with a life raft on the back so we all went took rides on that. Just so happened that I met the driver of the jet ski prior to this day, and I was partners with our guide, so of course we got the worst of it. I'm pretty sure I rolled over at least 6 times each time I was whipped off. But it was a hoot. And don't worry, we had wetsuits, life jackets, and helmets so we were ok. After the jet ski, They had a couple cliff jumps, a HUGE rope swing over the water, and a 25 meter water slide that we got to play on. They had 4 heights of cliffs to pick from, a 4 meter, 7 meter, 11 meter, and a 21 meter. I did all but the 21 meter... No one would even go near that thing. There was a ex-special forces guy with us from Colorado and he wouldn't even touch it. He said he was qualified for anything up to 16 meters, after that was a death wish with calm water beneath it. For the rope swing, we jumped off a 20 ft. high platform to get the rope swing going, so we got it going pretty fast. On the water slide we got to go down on our boards whichever way we could think of... that was safe also. I almost stood up at the end but never did make it. It was so much fun to just ride a rapid then almost be rewarded at the end with a mini water park. However, for obvious reasons we couldn't bring cameras and the pictures the guy took weren't that great and they were expensive. So if you want, here's the link to the website of the river boarding company.

http://www.riverboarding.co.nz/

After all the excitement for the day, we got back to the rooms and passed out for a power nap. Because in an hour and a half after we got back, we had our final dinner with the excursion part of the trip. It was a lot of fun to just see what everyone else did on their free days. Some people went on a cruise in Milford Sounds, others did a horseback tour of the Lord of the Rings sights, others just hung out. Most of the people were from Australia and so I may try to get over there soon, but it's an expensive flight so my funds may hinder that trip. But because it was our last night out, we celebrated appropriately. We drank a lot. One bar had a "ski shot" and that was where the have a ski with 4 holes in it for shot glasses, and everyone takes the shot at the exact same time. May not sound cool, but trust me it was. We just spent the night dancing and bar hopping until it was time to leave. And in the morning, all the Australia people were driving back to Christchurch and the next day they all flew out. Meanwhile, Hilary, Shannon, and I rented a car from Queenstown and were going to continue our vacation by touring the rest of the south island. I will leave it there and pick it up later because this is where some excitement happened. So again, here are some scenery pictures. So enjoy! And I don't need to hear it about the females, on the trip it was pretty 3 guys and 21 girls. One of the guys was gay and the other was weird, so they were stuck with me. And the last one is for the grandparents... a goober picture of only me.

this was the ski shot (they told us it was rum but it was really whisky, hence the faces)

And here it is, the long awaited blog entry(entries). Also, I decided to open up ever blog post with a different picture of New Zealand scenery... I know, I should be a free-lance photographer. This trip has been the greatest of my life and it was so great that I will have to write about it in spurts, so it may take a couple entries. But I will start with the organized part of our trip, so the first 8 days.

These 8 days were the most action packed days you could have. It all started with the Franz Josef Glacier (prounounced glay-seer by the kiwis) hike.We didn't know what to expect but as soon as we came face to face with the glacier, we realized how awesome this would be. We had to walk about a half hour to the glacier from the base of the mountain so we were nice and hot when we got there. I will mention this a couple times in the coming entries but the best thing about New Zealand attractions is that they take care of their customers. So they always give you everything you need; warmth, boots, axes, wetsuits, etc. So for this we had rain jackets, ice pick axes, boots, crampons (ice spikes), and trousers. But this glacier was insane. We did the full day hike so we got to a good height on the glacier. Throughout the day, we climbed up an ice cave, crawled through an ice tunnel, went under crevices, and repelled down some parts too. It was so much fun. And this whole trip, everything seemed to work in our favor. The weather in the morning was a little cloudy so we saw the clouds creep over the mountains, then it was sunny and hot in the afternoon so we could take off our jackets and put on the sunglasses, then it rained when we were on our last leg down the glacier so it cleaned up some of the ice and made us bundle up a little. We all had a blast, and the pictures we got were unbelievable. And I was even able to fill my water bottle up with pure galcier water. After the hike we went back to our little hostel, hot tubbed, then went out for a night on the tiny little town of Fanz Josef. There were 2 bars so it wasn't a crazy night, but we all got to know each other. There were about 25 or 30 of us on the trip, but only 3 of us were studying in NZ, everyone else was from Australia. So we were the NZ "know-it-alls" on the trip. But that's beside the point.

The next day we got on a bus and headed for Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, and trust me, it definitely is. There are so many things to do in Queenstown that if you had a week there and did a couple things everyday you wouldn't be able to do it all. Before we got to Queenstown however, we stopped in the town of Wanaka, and went to the "House of Illusions" and all it was was a bunch of illusions. It was pretty cool. Had weird rooms that looked like you get smaller, things that look like you defy gravity, etc. They also had the world's first interactive maze (a maze you walk through). Once we were done, we got back on the bus and went to Queenstown. To start out our Queenstown adventure, we did the highest bungy jump in NZ, the Nevis bungy. It is 134 meters high, or 440ft, and its located in a valley over the Shotover river. It may be one of the most fun things I have ever done. I love stuff like that but even I have to admit, once you're strapped in and you waddle over to the edge and look down, its nerve-racking! It was just the fact that you have to jump yourself, there's not much time to think about it. And its scary because unlike sky-diving, you have something to gauge how high you are. But I just jumped once the countdown stopped and took it all in. It was 8 seconds of free fall and I wish it was more. I can't even tell you how exhilarating it was. And family, don't worry. I bought the pictures and the video so you will all see it. But once we finished jumping, we literally just went back to the rooms, dropped our gear off, then headed for jetboating on the Shotover river. This also was sooooo much fun. We were in a jet boat that sat 14 people and the engineering on this thing is crazy. It can reverse so quickly and the maneuverability was insane. It even had brakes so we were literally inches away from hitting rocks. The boat could even do 360's. I didn't want to bring my camera on it but I have friends who got pictures so I am in the process of getting those. I will post them later. But like I said, this was such a rush. Pretty much everything we did on this trip was awesome in one form or another. After our 20 minute ride and numb faces, we went back to the hostel. That night then was the bar crawl. Every night in Queenstown there is a company that runs a bar crawl: 5 bars, 6 free drinks, $25. I will just say that the "free drinks" were only shots handed to us at the door. Then at every bar there was a 2 for 1 special on something that night. So we were definitely hammered. But I did meet a girl who knows a lot of people from high school, she went to a rival high school of mine... small world.

So the second day, Wednesday now, and this was our first free day. Meaning we got to choose what we wanted to do, everything else had been set up by the trip. Me and a couple other people all went canyoning. We went out in one of the rivers and repelled off cliffs and waterfalls, cliff jumped, slid down waterfalls, swam in FREEZING pools, and zip lined. It was a lot of fun to just kind of play in what nature provided for us. The only bad thing is that it was probably the coldest any of us will ever be. Between the glacier run off water, the cold conditions of the day, and the shade of the winter in the rocks, no one could feel anything on our bodies. And I'm not exaggerating when I say our whole bodies were numb. But most of us just ignored it and had a blast. It took up most of the day, then we just went out again that night. Nothing too crazy but we wanted to check out the nightlife on our own this time. Queenstown definitely has a good party scene. But it's second in NZ to Wellington (thats not just my opinion) so we had some fun again. That is where I will leave it for this post. Many more to come when I get home back to Wellington. Sweet as.

P.S.- if you have any questions, just comment on the post at the bottom. Or if you just want to comment, do it. I enjoy reading them and it makes my blog look like someone is at least looking at it.