Our arrival in Queenstown wasn't too late and we stopped off on the way at the Kawarau bridge bungy, the first bungy site in the world, and where I was booking and paying for my Nevis bungy and canyon swing on Tuesday. The site itself is beautiful, suspended over a clear blue river in a narrow gorge with a vineyard over the road. The downside however is that you can watch people bungy and make yourself nervous about your own forthcoming fall of death. The Kawarau bungy worried me most as once you have finished bouncing up and down numerous times you stay suspended upside down and have to grab on a pole to be hauled into a dinghy which is waiting on the water. Very unattractive and for me potentially nosebleed inducing. Not to be deterred though I signed up for a different bungy - the Nevis, 134m of pure adrenaline saved only by a thick piece of elastic. What was I thinking?!

This all over we got into Queenstown, nestled alongside Lake Wakatipu beneath the shadow of Queenstown hill and across from the Remarkables mountain ranges, named for the 'remarkable' sight of them at sunset. Since most of us were up early for the Milford Sound trip the next day it was a relatively quiet affair, consisting of a visit to the ice bar. For those of you unaware of the concept of an ice bar, it is, in simple terms, a bar made of ice. Or at least in this case a big room lined with ice blocks and with the bar, stools, tables and glasses made entirely of the stuff. You're given a lovely snuggly pair of boots to wear, a big furry hooded coat and gloves so your fingers don't stick to the glasses. There are different ice bars all over the place but this one had a deal we just couldn't resist so Jorieke, Susie, Ryan and I went and had a cocktail alongside the giant ice bear, vainly trying not to drop our extra slippery glasses in the process. Since it's -6°c you can't really stay for that long but it was a fun experience nonetheless, and good practice for my snowboarding lesson later in the week. Our first night in Queenstown was also the night of giant pizza. Humongous 20" pizza in fact. It deserves a mention simply for the amazingness of a pizza over a foot wide. Delicious it was too.

Before I go into detail about the Milford Sound trip next it's probably prudent to give you a little background. For a start it isn't actually a sound. Nope, much like the Australians Kiwis like naming things incorrectly. Sounds are actually formed by rivers eroding the mountains, such as Marlborough Sound which the ferry takes you through up to the North Island. Milford is a fjord, a very Scandinavian sounding word which means it was created by receding glaciers. Milford Sound is one of the wettest places in the world according to the driver we had - he'd obviously never been to Yorkshire but I won't hold that against him - anyway it's meant to rain about 250 days a year if my memory serves me correctly, and since it was winter I didn't have high hopes.

Being on a bus at 7.30am is not a pleasant experience, but luckily we had a four hour drive ahead of us to reach the ferry point in Milford to nap, so once everyone was aboard we set off in the dark, leaving the equally early skiers and snowboarders waiting for their mountain transport behind. The sun seems to rise ridiculously quickly out here and before I knew it it was, if not bright and sunny, at least bright and cloudy outside. And put it this way, I'm glad I wasn't asleep for the drive. The countryside down in Fiordland is absolutely stunning. Now I know these are words that I've bandied about a lot so far regarding New Zealand, but it's difficult to find new ones to describe the beauty of the place. I guess I'm a mountains kind of girl, they are just so solid, permanent and calming, especially with the sun glinting off the snowy caps. Anyway after about an hour the weather picked up and the clouds must have been mostly burnt off by the sun, and our stop in the Eglinton Valley was like something out of Lord of the Rings. Nothing was filmed there but it transported me immediately to Middle Earth. The land between the mountains has been farmed in the past so has a burnt ochre shade of dried grass carpeting the floor, flanked by mountains rising up towards the azure sky and deep green forested mountainsides tapering into snow covered peaks. You may be able to tell I loved it. Numerous mirror lakes dotted the landscapes further down as we went through alpine mountain valleys. To get to Milford you have to drive through a tunnel bored through a mountain - it's a bit different to your normal tunnels in that it slopes downwards at a steep angle and the walls of the tunnel haven't been encased in concrete as they usually are, so rough blasted mountain rock whizzes by your window as you drive down. The valley leading into the sound is something I'm surprised Jeremy Clarkson and co. haven't driven along, winding roads down through the valley, with hairpin turns I've no idea how the bus driver managed without careening off the side of the road.

Once we arrived in Milford and boarded the ferry we were treated to a two hour ride through the fjord, which, whilst impressive, I wasn't that enamoured by, to be honest it started to look a bit samey. The names were quite random in many cases though, 'lion mountain', 'the elephant' and 'Sinbad gully' to name a few. An interesting fact about Milford is that it has one of the highest mountains in the world to rise directly from the oceans floor in Mitre peak, and one of the highlights of my day was the Stirling falls which drop 155m down the mountainside and we pulled in really close so I got a bit of a shower from the spray. It's amazing how loud waterfalls are when you get up close, luckily Susie and I seem adept at sign language as we attempted to take photos whilst our cameras were getting soaked by the water. The second highlight, or at least memorable moment, was seeing a seal beat a fish to death on the surface of the water. So much for cute and cuddly! After a quick hour in the underwater observatory which was nothing to write home about, we were back on the bus for a long 4 hours back to Queenstown.

I awoke with a stomach of tangles at the thought of my forthcoming bungy and canyon swing. Nervous excitement is probably a good way of describing how I was feeling as I walked up to the pick up point and was weighed, a harrowing experience in itself and one of four weighings that day. After scrawling all over my hands - blue on one hand for my photo number and red on the other with my weight for the correct elastic tension - I was sat on the bus with Alex and Charlie from the Kiwi bus for a 40 minute journey where the driver cruelly reminded us that we had '40 minutes to think about what you're going to do'. Charlie was seemingly terrified whilst Alex didn't seem fazed by it at all. I have to admit that as we got closer my excitement was overriding the nerves as the anticipation increased. The Nevis bungy and swing is over a large canyon so we changed buses to drive up the last section of road which was steeper and would take us to the check in point - and another weighing. That humiliation over we were sent outside to get our harnesses on ready for the bungy. I'll say this about the Nevis crew, they are nothing if not professional and safety is a high priority so I definitely felt safe in their capable hands. Harnesses on and time for one last weighing (I felt like a piece of meat!) before getting the cablecar over to the suspended cabin we would be leaping off. Now you are attached to the cable car with your harness, but it was still a bit hair-raising as it has open sides so you are exposed on all sides. It gives you a brilliant view down to the valley floor as well, so you can see exactly what you're going to be jumping into - gulp! But if it's good enough for Orlando Bloom it's good enough for me!

Once safely ensconced into the cabin I was one of the first people to get the ankle straps attached so was gearing myself up for the jump itself. Then the first person was attached and went, then the second, then the third…in fact I was the penultimate person to go out of our group so got to watch six people jump, with varying degrees of terror and fear on their faces. About half came up looking elated and like they had had a great time, the other half looked like they had had an accident on the way down. Charlie screamed like a girl when he jumped, a fact Alex and I were quick to remind him of several times over the next couple of days. A big positive for me regarding the Nevis jump was that you aren't pulled up back into the cabin feet first - because it's such a long drop and it takes about 3 minutes to pull you back you have to tug at a red strap which releases some mechanism so you're brought up in a seated position. This is all fine and dandy, and good for me worried about a nosebleed being upside down for an excessive amount of time, but there is the added pressure of remembering to pull said strap after you have bounced a couple of times at the end of the bungy cord. Everyone else seemed to manage fine so I was hopeful I would keep hold of my faculties as well and not make a fool of myself!

When my name was called I sat myself in the chair to get the cord attached to my feet. There are so many karabiners, velcro straps, buckles and cords that it looks like some kind of ancient torture device! I did feel safe though, there was lots of checking and double checking and the guys at least seemed to know what they were doing. The moment of truth arrived and as I penguin shuffled off the chair and to the edge, the long fall appeared before my eyes. 3, 2, 1 and I leapt as far as I could off the ledge, no hesitation I just went. An exhilarating moment of weightlessness occurs when you jump, then gravity takes hold and you plummet down at high speed, adrenaline coursing through your veins and washing any terror you might have felt away. Or at least that's what it was like in my case. When you reach the end of the elastic cord there is no sharp jerk like I expected, it's a smooth ride upwards, where a lot of people try to flap their arms like a bird, thinking it will keep them there, but obviously it doesn't. I think I managed not to do that and kept my arms outstretched, almost feeling like you can fly. Once the second bounce is over it's time to pull the strap that switches you to a seated position so you can be winched back up, and just like that, it's over, and I want to do it all again. I think I quite like jumping from a height.

Back over to the checking in place and I was looking forward to my canyon swing - child's play compared to what I had just done. The bungy harness is removed and there is yet another weighing before trooping off along to the swing site, where a lot of couples were doing tandem swings, as well as some burly looking rockers who were petrified. Once again I was last to go but with the pressure of the bungy over it was funny watching other people go and the various reactions different people have to the swing. If you're not sure what I mean when I say 'canyon swing', it's relatively simple and is a giant swing that swings 70 meters down over a canyon towards the cliff face at the opposite side. Not so much scary as fun, or at least I thought so. When my turn came I decided to go backwards after advice from the guy attaching everyone to the swing contraption. Upside down was out of the question due to nosebleed fears, and forwards is apparently not as scary. To start with the swing they winch you out and suspend you over the canyon - as I thought of it a bit like abseiling down a cliff backwards. Because I was alone the operator decided to make me press the button myself - yeah cheers mate! This involved me attempting to press the button with my feet - no easy task when you're dangling above nothing with no force behind you. So what else could I do but try kick the remote…almost out of the man's hand and into the void. Woops! Anyway after about 4 attempts I managed it, quite unexpectedly, and dropped at a pretty rapid pace, leaving my stomach up by the bridge and almost flipping upside down once I hit the arc of the swing. It was definitely less scary than the bungy and I really enjoyed it, but then I was always a big fan of the swings as a child and remember leaning as far backwards as possible on them in Stanbury park so you could see the ground. Reliving my youth out here, on a massive scale!

Swinging around for ages whilst I was winched up I admired the view and was generally pretty relaxed, sad that my day of adrenaline was all over! To top it all off, Susie, Jorieke and I went for a Fergburger, a rite of passage for any visitor to Queenstown. The Fergburger is, probably, the biggest burger in New Zealand, potentially the world, and has a wide array of burgers to choose from, including lamb, venison, chicken, fish and falafel, as well as the classic NZ beef. I went for a particularly juicy burger, the Big Al, consisting of 2 burgers equivalent to ½ lb of beef, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, BBQ sauce, aioli and beetroot in a bap the size of my face. I polished it off with ease, but didn't need to eat until dinnertime the following day! Queenstown definitely encourages obesity with that bad boy! There was an even bigger once I could have gone for but that was a small step too far. We rounded off the evening with a pub quiz which we didn't win but did come solidly in the middle teams, and enjoyed it immensely so that's the main thing.

Continuing with my theme of adrenaline sports, an alarm at 6.30am on Wednesday morning could only mean one thing: Snowboarding at Cardrona. Susie and I had booked a day of lessons and were ready bright and early in our matching rented jackets (so matching in fact that someone thought we were sisters) to get the bus over to the ski resort, an hour away. It was a cloudy and wet morning which meant that up on the slopes it was snowing! This was good as it meant a softer landing for the numerous times I'd be falling on my backside over the course of the day.

Now if you've not tried snowboarding I'd definitely, 100% recommend it. I had so much fun despite being a 'goofy' footed snowboarder and feeling insulted every time Manny, the instructor for the morning lesson, said it. Goofy means you're left footed, odd since I'm right handed but I was the same on a surfboard and apparently would be the same on a skateboard were I to ever try. It's a lot more difficult than skiing since both your feet are attached to the board so if you fall there is very little you can do about it, which I rapidly learnt once on the slightly bigger learning slope, and you lead with your hips and knees which quickly gives you bruised shins from the big boots you wear, but that is all little niggles for the fun you have. I picked up the basics pretty quickly in the morning, but after a hot chocolate at dinnertime my brain appeared to stop working and I seemed to forget everything I'd learnt earlier. This led to falling over at least 15 times, mainly when going backwards since I'd lean too far forward, dig the back edge of the board into the snow and land with a bump on my backside. Good job it has a lot of padding! With the help of Mikko, our instructor for the afternoon - with a group of only three so nearly one on one teaching which was easy for him and more useful for us - I soon worked out where I was going wrong and was managing to board down the slope in a basic traversing movement. Very proud of myself! Next stop, winter Olympics. It wasn't until we were back in town that I noticed all the arms in slings and legs in casts, seems I had a lucky escape!

All too soon our day snowboarding was over, and it was tired but happy that we trudged back to the bus for the journey home to Queenstown. Sadly this was the last evening our Kiwi bus crew would have together as I was staying in Queenstown a few days longer and most of the others were flying out of Christchurch in the next few days. Susie and I went out for a Mexican meal together since the others had already eaten whilst we were still on the slopes, and she was moving on up to Kaikoura as her trip is shorter than mine. Luckily as it was Wedneday that meant that it was Ginger Wednesdays in Buffalo bar, which basically meant that people with ginger hair - ie. Susie, got two for one drinks all night and free shots and stuff so we spent the evening there with the rest of the crew, dancing, singing, eating free peanuts and generally having a brilliant time. As the end of the night arrived we all went separate ways, after laughing at Alex whose 'Daddy is in the Raff (RAF)' and is generally posh. But then perhaps Dean and I just had an inferiority complex, who knows?! I was sad to see everyone go, especially Susie as we'd gotten so close over the few weeks, but as ever happens with travelling, everything is fluid and always changing, so it was time for me to strike out on my own..again.

Becca