I got my hair cut in the morning and even once it was cut I couldn't believe how long it is. It's been curly all the time so I hadn't noticed how much it had grown! Back at the hostel I met up with Victoria once she finally recognised me. She was so used to seeing my hair curly she walked back and forth past me!
We went for a 2 hour walk along the lake front track which was mainly really nice apart from the 10 minutes where it decided to start raining. Luckily both of us had brought waterproofs (always prepared) so it was fine.
We came back to the hostel for lunch and mooched around for a bit until it was time to check ourselves in for the canyon swing. We were bused out the 40 minutes to the canyon. I wasn't nervous at all on the journey. It was only once we pulled up in the carpark my brain realised what I was doing and I was nervous. Jumping out of plane was nothing compared to what I was about to do.
After checking in we walked across this wobbly suspension bridge to the platform where we were fitted into our harness. If you've seen the video you'll have seen that my hands are clenched in a tight fist the whole build up. We were attached to the swing and had to let our legs hang over the edge. Victoria and I were holding on to each other hands so tightly and then onto the harness. The guy made us put our arms out to the side and then held us there for what felt like forever. And then he pressed the button. And we were gone. Just like that. Hurtling towards the earth. We both instantly pulled our arms back in and gripped onto the harness. I screamed and I screamed and I screamed. I screamed as we fell, I screamed as we were shot up the other side and I screamed as we swang back! Victoria was laughing so hard at me and as I got used to it I started laughing too, albeit slightly hysterically! And my whole body was physically shaking from all the adrenalin running through me. As we were pulled back up I kept looking down to see how high up we were and then looking up seeing how far we still had to be pulled in. As we reached the platform we were clamped into a bar to pull us back to the platform. Which made us swing and therefore made me scream. Most people scream a little bit but the guy was pretty impressed with my ability to scream continuously for so long!
Still shaking, we walked back to the office to buy our photos and were then bused back into Queenstown. Neither of us fancied cooking so we hit Dominos and shared a $5 pizza and then, since we'd earnt it, went to cookie time for happy hour. 2 for 1 warm cookies. What an amazing idea.
Today was St Patrick's day so we went on a rather disorganised bar crawl around the town which was still pretty funny. Luckily I'd won a kiwi experience top so I had something green to wear and the girls in my room had bought face paint so they painted the Irish flag onto my check.
We got to go to the ice bar which was really cool...ice cold in fact! The glass was ice and obviously it slipped instantly out of my hands soaking my gloves! Even with the thick coat they gave you I was in I was still freezing cold! All in all though a good night.
Day 156: shot over jet and stargazing
I woke up at 7 so ran to the kitchen, grabbed 2 slices of bread from the breakfast bar and then went back to bed. That way, when I actually wanted to get up and breakfast was closed I had toast to go with my eggs. So sensible.
I spent the morning at that lake doing a bit of life organising... Calling up activities I needed to book and accommodation until lunch.
After lunch I went through town and checked in for my shot over jet boat. We were bused out and given a fetching fully length wrap around waterproof to put on and a life jacket before we got into the boat.
These boats go fast! It took us only a few mintues to fly down the river, skim past the canyon walls doing 360degree turns as we went. It was so much fun! Luckily I was in the middle of the boat so didn't get too wet!
I'd been given a voucher one of the girls got for a free t-shirt there so tried to use it and nearly caused a diplomatic disaster. They kept demanding to know where if got it! Seriously if you don't want to honour it then don't give out vouchers. In the end, since I'd booked through kiwi experience I'd already got a discount so couldn't have one! Couldn't they have just said that first!
We were bused back into town and I joined Victoria at the lake for a bit of sunbathing until it was time for the free dinner at the hostel. It was a small portion of veggie curry but luckily her friend had got one but wasn't going to eat it so we shared his to make it into a meal rather than a small snack.
I got the gondola up to the top of the hill above Queenstown and watched the light change colour on the remarkables as the sun set below the mountain behind me. I then waited around in their coffee shop reading until 9pm when it was time for stargazing.
The stargazing was amazing! We were given these really expensive Canadian Goose down jackets to wear and taken to a dark spot to look through the telescope. I saw through the telescope the Moon, Jupiter and it 4 Galilean moons, the Orion Nebula, the jewel box cluster and the closest star to earth! Wow! I've never looked through a powerful telescope before. I know I did physics so I should have but I haven't. It was truly magical!
Looking through the telescope
The moon taken through the telescope
I got back and watched Hot fuzz and then went to bed.
Day 157: Ben Lomond walk and last night in Queenstown
Victoria and I were up early and set off to walk up to Bob's peak. Turns out the name is more of a general name for the area and so we decided to walk to the saddle of the Ben Lomond walk, about 800m above Queenstown.
We walked for about an hour vertically up through the walking tracks of the Queenstown mountain bike park to the gondola where star gazing was yesterday. We'd obviously taken a wrong turn somewhere as we were not expecting to come out there but since we were there we decided to have a luge ride. Basically after being chairlifted up you ride back down the hill on a sled with a handle to steer and to control the braking. I'm not explaining this that well but it was pretty good fun especially as I over took Victoria on the last bend to win!
We then continued from there on our vertical walk up to the saddle. The views were amazing from there but boy was it sweaty work. My top was so drenched I had to wrap it in a plastic bag and walk down in my bears top as the sweat was making me so cold. Really attractive I know!
We had our lunch before walking back down the hill. It took us 3 hours to walk up but only just over an hour to get back down again! That's how steep it was.
We got back to our hostel and both had a well needed shower before hitting one of the many tea shops in books and we just sat with our pots of tea refilling them with hot water for nearly 2 hours chilling out and reading our books.
I had the free dinner again at the hostel and was luckily only third in line as the queue stretched all the way around the kitchen and out down the corridor. I'd eaten and washed up and by the looks of it the queue was still just as long. It definitely was a small dinner, half a sausage and a few peas, so I went to one of the bars, the find, to meet Victoria. They do $2 tacos on a Wednesday so after two of them (they were also tiny) I finally felt satisfied!
After packing my bags so I was pretty much ready to go we headed to the find (again) for their happy hour tea pot cocktails. I think tea pot was the theme for today!
With our teapots
We then moved on to a bar called buffalo which played music you could dance too rather than trying to be too cool. I mean it played cotton eyed joe and the lion king. How cool is that! They were giving away lots of prizes and I managed to win the dance competition. I think years of dancing like a crazy lady at pop finally paid off. Unfortunately you had to use the voucher in Queenstown and since I was leaving I became Victoria and gave my dance buddy the prize.
I think I may have danced a bit too much as I woke up in the night with the most painful leg cramp!
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