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)