Ok all so we are in Queenstown now and the weather has taken a nother turn - this time for the good!! the last 2 days have been bright blue sky, and at least 30 degrees!! Probably one of the contributing factors to me jumping off a bridge on the way in to Queenstown!!! More of that later.

We set off after our fun but very cold time in Dunedin on our 300 km trek in our trusty streed - Sunny D. The drive was lovely - we passed through this huge area of Otago where they must produce all of the worlds fruit!!! We literally drove for miles and miles passing innumerable fruit farms, all of them with cute little farm shops selling everything from necatrines (which we finally gave in and bought a box for a bargain price of $4!!!) to cherries to cider - something i have been looking for since i left the UK! The only time i have tasted the sweet apple taste was in a British bar in Melbourne, so to see some locally grown stuff put a big smile on my face, and a dent in my wallet!!

As always the scenery was absolutely stunning but it eally was getting hot in the car. About 20 km before Queenstown we went hurtling past a brown tourist sign for the AJ Hackett bungy jumping bridge. This is where commercial bungy jumping started and is the worlds first ever public bungy. About 200m later the junction came up on us, so i slammed on the brakes on poor old Sunny D and swerved off the road and into the car park! We needed to get out of the car and this looked like the perfect time to do so - watching stupid ppl jump off the bridge with elastic bands on their feet and getting dunked in the river as they do it (only bungy in NZ to do a river dunk!).

We spent a little bit of time looking into the beautiful turquoise blue river and laughing about how refreshing it looked whilst we waited for the first bungyer (if thats what you can call them??) to jump! All of this time i had this naughty little devil sat on my shoulder telling me how nice it would be to fall upside down for 43m into the water! Eventually the devil had poisoned my mind enough and i gave in - sod it i was going to do it, the only real obstacle was the price tag - but hey when has that ever stopped me getting my own way???? So off i went to fetch my wallet and take off my top and flip flops ready for a swim!!

Half an hour later and Sarah was standing on one of the viewing platforms with the camera poised as i was having some ropes strapped to my legs. They then ask you how wet you wanna get - the guy before me (who was the same weight) went in to his knees, so i said as wet as you fancy, the guy looked at one of the other operators, and fed through some more rope to the bungy and started laughing. About two mins later he said "do you really wanna get wet??" to which i replied "yeah sure, thats all i came for" so he fed through another foot of rope and asked me to step onto the platform.

Then i was instructed to not jump off as i will slap the water, but gracefully fall off the platform and make sure i tuck my head in before i hit the water (reason being if you dont, the water gets behind your eyes and can actually dislocate them and blind you [a story we were told only the day before!!!]) so i took their advice and let gravity take over after the count of 5!

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SPLASH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that was it! I ended up being completely submerged in the water from head to toe, before being sprung back up into the air, but what a rush!!! The feeling when gravity has taken hold of you as you fall off the ledge, you know there is no going back, then the world turns upside down and the water rushes towards you, nearer .... nearer ... nearer .. then in whoosh .. in your mouth, ears, nose everywhere before the violent jerk rips you out of the water and y9ou are dripping dry like a sock on the washing line.

Anyway, the rest of the day was calm, we checked in to a lovely hostel (although there are some very annoying and rowdy northerners creating a racket - the dirty potty mouths) and dah a nice Italian, before enjoying my cider!

Today we went to Deer Park, as it suggests a deer park which is where about 7 or 8 scenes were shot for the Lord of the Rings (those of you that know the film - Basically the fellowship join with the Rohan on their way to helms deep and are attacked by the wargs, including the cliff where Aragorn is apparently dragged to his death off a cliff into the (Kawarau) river - the 'cliff' being about 6ft high!!!). We got to see and feed llamas, deer, pigs, sheep, donkey and saw yaks, bison amongst others. It was a really nice day and had amazing views over the Lake and Queenstown itself.

We have now booked to do the Milford Sound cruise on thursday which should be wicked!!

thats it for now

x