Hellllooooo everyone :-)

What a glorious day we've had in Queenstown - no rain today, enough cloud cover not to get too hot, and enough sun for Nat to feel slightly tinged (Yes, she had her factor 50 on).

Another early start today for our trip to some part of a very big national park (sorry, can't remember the name) where we were expecting a 4x4 off road drive, hike and jet boat ride. Lets just say the 4x4 "offroad" was a little tame and took us along the edge of the woodland, alongside the Dart river. We didn't even need seatbelts. Maybe the driver was just being cautious, seeing as the remaining 18 passengers in this vehicle were OAPs (There were loads of youngsters at the start of the trip, but we got lumbared in with them - how bloody typical!) The scenery though was fantastic, and we recognised a few shots from some famous films about little people trying to get rid of a piece of jewellery.

We were on the wrinkly 4x4 for about 45 minutes, then we approached the woodland for our "Hike". Again - very tame, a gentle stroll would have been slightly more correct advertising. We decided to stay at the back of the group; A: so that we didn't have to catch any OAPs falling (Sorry, but we are on holiday) B: So we could take photos of the views they were missing as they were to busy watching where they were stepping and C: Nathan needed a wee. I think he christened a red beech tree, although don't take my word for it as to be perfectly honest neither of us were listening when he was telling us how to "identify your beech trees". It was tall, round, tree shaped and in a forest = tree. Simples!

So, feeling slightly deflated about the two let downs we made our way onto the massive riverbed and put on the obligatory full length flasher-style raincoat, and life jacket. After the OAPs struggled into the boat (it was major cringe time for us both, embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch, so yes, we did what any good person would do, and turned away to look at the scenery) we embarked, feeling and looking like twits. Whatever disappointment we had from the morning's activities VERY quickly left us; the Jet Boat was incredible! Bloody fast (up to 50mph) up the river doing turns and rapids and geting bumped around and avoiding rocks and trees, and basically making lots of waves and having the best time ever! (Well, we were. The OAPs didn't look particularly happy when the driver accelerated past 5mph. They looked even less so when he told us to hang on for dear life and spun the boat around 360 degrees - Classic!)

We were on the boat for about an hour and saw so much of the mountains and valleys that would have taken days to walk to. Nathan has got some fab photos (of course) and some video too that no doubt we will bore you with when (if!) we come home.

Got back to Queenstown about 2:15, and not wanting to be lazy we went for a quick walk up the road to the skyline gondola. Much steeper and scarier than the Christchurch one, but equally impressive views from the top. We watched a bit of live entertainment (bungy jumping - Nat is still feeling ill just from watching them crazy fools) and then went on the Luge track (basically small buggies on a racetrack) Great fun, and no crashes :-D Sadly, no photos from that cos we were racing each other... Nat got down first!

We're now chilling in our room as Nathan decides where we are going to eat tonight. Its such a chore having to go somewhere to eat all the time... Yawn! Free day tomorrow, we've both said we should chill out somewhere and do very little as our next free day isnt until we get up to Auckland :-S No doubt tomorrow's blog will be filled with stuff we've crammed into the day and we'll be moaning about how tired we are!

Love to you all x x x x x x x x x x x x x