DAY 13 - QUEENSTOWN i dont feel at all well this morning after last nights activites however i still make breakfast. a few of us are off this morning to do a jet boat cruise up dart river, set inbetween the mountains. there is myself, kate, laurel, andrea, lisa and grant, windslow and philip on board oh and of course the guy driving the boat. the jet boat is powered by a 5.2 litre chevvy engine that sucks water in and shoots it out to produce a hell of a lot of power. the boat can operate in only 5 inches of water so it can go further up the river than any conventional boat. we are informed that with enough speed up it can go over land. we catch a bus to take us towards the the base of the river to catch our boat, i have no idea how long this takes as i am asleep for the whole journey while the guide tells us maori ledgends of the region, the only one i catch is about some giant that is asleep under the lake and its breathing causes it to have tides. one of only a few lakes in the world that has its on tidal system, no one seems to know why, but i like the giant idea. we reach the boat and put on our fetching splash jackets and life jackets. once on board we take a relatively sedate cruise over the lake towards dart river. it's a beautiful day with blue skys but it is still quite chilly. we get a bit of speed up as we reach the river, and damn that breeze is cold on your face. the best cure for a hangover though, within minutes i am in awe of the scenery, i am rarely speechless but this is the most amazing place i have ever been. we stop at various points for the driver to tell us a little about the area and so we can take some photos. stunning! apparently some lord of the rings scenes were shot here. as we travel further up the river the driver increase the speed somewhat and starts darting in and out and throuigh rocks, this is great fun. the boat is very fast and can turn so quick. we reach a point where the river gets too low to continue. unfortunately the boat struggles in the shallow waters and it keeps stalling and we start to drift in the strong currents. the diver manages to get us to shore, well a large area in the middle of the lake that is currnetly above water where we get off while the driver tries to sort ot the problem with the boat. he shoots off and leaves us in the wilderness. this gives us a chance to stand back and take in where we are. not only is this this the most beautiful place i have ever been there is not another soul to be seen anywhere. the sight of the river surrounded by mountains and waterfalls and snow capped mountains is just incredible, i could just stand here forever. our boat returns and we head back down the river with alot more pace than what we came up the river, bouncing down the river each time we land hitting the bottom of the riverbed. we do a few 360 turns where we get thrown around and get wet before stopping for a short walk up a hill to see, yes you guessed it a waterfall. then back down for the flies to feast on us. i swear i have never been savaged quite so much by insect, no one else seems to have had it quite so bad. my legs look like they have been peppered by a shotgun from distance, ok maybe thats a big exageration but still there must be alot of alcoholic mozzies flying into things round here. we reflect on the trip so far and andrea states how she wishes heaven is just like where we are right now, i must say i totally agree with her. i could give everything up to live just here, minus the eating insects of course. we head back to port and stop for a bbq lunch. the owner of the place tells some dog to sod of then tells us you know its a small town when you even know everyones dogs name. i have decided on a career change. jet boat driver by day, helicopter pilot by afternoon and bar owner at night, all in queenstown. all i need now is a boat , a helicopter and a pub. now a bus ride back to town for my next adventure, im going to willingly jump of a mountain. i pity the fool as mr t might say. well there are eight of us doing this, steve who is thankfull he can do this with his broken toe, grant & lisa, joony, jenny,jan, myself and austin, who has recently joined us. we get on the hadglider bus and they drop 4 of us off at the bottom of the mountain then drive the other 4 to the top. what seems like an absolute age we finally see them in midflight, they are up there for a long time, they all seem happy with thier experience when they reach earth and the remainding 4 are taked up the top of the mountain, im really excited by this now. we get to the top and while they set up the hand gliders we are harnessed up and are given a briefing of what to do. basically hold on here and here and run like heck, keep running before strapping your feet in. we do a practice run without actually flying off the edge, we are not allowed to call it jumping of the edge. off we go 1. 2. 3. run run run. now i was expecting to be running down a slight hill untill we take off, but no, we take 3 steps and we are practically off a cliff my legs are still running despite being some distance from the ground. i get my feet into the harness, with plenty of flapping around. bloody hell this hurts your back, my handglider chauffeur advises me that i can release my vice like grip a bit, i relax a bit and find it alot more comfortable. this is amazing im flying, im really flying. we circle round the face of the mountain to climb on some thermals that are going up the mountain. we get alot of hight at 1 point i was told we were nearly 2000ft up. i get given a chance to steer the thing, this didnt last long as we headed in an undesirable direction. towards the mountain. we mess around doing some really tight turns and circles, you do get some g's of this thing. we were up in the air for what seems like hours when i know it was probably only 15 minutes. when we come into land we make some very tight turns and a few nice dives where we pick up some speed, to me it seems we are coming into land far too quickly but just as we hit the ground we nicely roll to a stop. what an experience. loved every minute of it, run off like a giddy school kid to share my experience with the others. i have video of me doing this so you can all see me flying. well its been a long day so far and all that is left to do is to have dinner and go out for drinks to celebrate steves 25 birthday. we enjoy dinner and steve gets a birthday cake, we all know what he wished for. something continental. back to the hotel bar for another barcardi breezer shotgun, we stay drinking here until they shut the bar. everyone else has gone to bed now, but myself steve and neil decide there is more birthday celebrations to be done, so we head down to frazers bar in the town for a few more drinks and some games of pool, we laugh at the girls dancing on the stage, little did we know what we would get up to tomorrow. anyways back to the hotel for about 2 hours sleep as we are leaving at 5.30 tomorrow. which is nice.