Day 4 - K Bridge and Queenstown

Drove back along the same route we had done to Milford and visited an old gold mining town called Arrowtown on our way to K Bridge where some people were going to throw themselves off a perfectly good object and pay a ridiculous amount of money for the privilege! K Bridge is the home of bungy, bought myself a jumper and just watched the mentalists do their thing!! Then we headed to Queenstown, got settled into our lodge and made our way out for dinner to the Skyline restaurant. Its a very long, steep cable car ride up the side of a 400m mountain... To say I was nervous was an understatement!! View was great from the restaurant, and buffet was fantastic, but thought I was going to explode afterwards. Then we went to a couple of bars in town and rocked out big time to our "day song" which is "Shake it" by Metrostation lol. We were going crazy in the one bar, were all roasting by the end! Did some jager ski sled shots which were funny, and played some pool, drank and danced! Rolled in at 3am when Janette and I had no key and had to wake up our roommates.. Dont think we'll be up for roommate of the year award!!

Day 5 - Mad Dog River Boarding - Queenstown

It was D day... Or MAD DOG day... The time had come to throw myself head first down the Kawarau River armed with a boogie board, flippers, wetsuit and helmet! Yes, insane.... I was nursing a bit of a sore head from a nite on the town and 6 hours sleep, but, off we went! Got given the option to pull out if we werent aware that river = chance of drowning... Didnt fill me with confidence but Id paid my money so I was staying on the bus!! Arrived, got our kit on, got our safety brief, then it was straight in the water. A quick bit of instruction, I then got cramp in my toes, not a good start when only practicing, so i was attached to the head guide and we went head first into the unknown!! At first it was fine and I thought, hey this isnt so bad, what was I worried about.. Then came the rapid "Man-eater"... It tossed me a bit but I stayed on the board and thought Id done the worst of it.. WRONG! 800m strip of rapids lay ahead. All I saw was one all mighty wall of water and I was heading at it sideways.. It could only end one way, with me off the board!! Picture the scene - Im velcro'd to my boards long flexible cable, this is then wrapped round my guide... I go under BIG STYLE - leaving him to try and keep himself afloat and get me back up!! Felt like I was under forever, boards were going over my head, I was swallowing water, it just seemed never ending! It probably wasnt more than 10seconds, but I actually thought that was it, I wasnt coming back up, it was game over. Pretty scary. When I got back up, I just tried to breathe as I thought Id prob go under again as Id lost my board but was getting hit by more walls of water. I was physically shaken for 5/10mins after. But least I was alive and had successfully tackled the rapids :D The rest was a lazy float down the river, then a crazy sled ride on the back of a jet ski, with my friend Mike and me just holding on for dear life as the guide pulled crazy 180's at full speed! By the end of it I was so tired I could hardly even walk up the steps back to camp never mind get out of my wetsuit lol. It was a thoroughly exhilirating day, but not one Im sure Id like to recreate any time soon!! Glad I did it though :) As if that wasnt enough excitement for one day, next was the pub crawl. We headed to an ice bar in town called Minus 5 for our first stop. Donned our jackets with furry hats and gloves and in we went! Was pretty much like being in a commercial freezer with ice sculptures, although drinking out of ice glasses and sitting on ice couches was pretty cool! After that, we went to World Bar to drink cocktails out of teapots and shot glasses... A little strange, but a novelty! Quote of the evening - Im off to find my teapot, SOMEONES RUN OFF WITH MY TEAPOT!! lol. Got a bit bored in there so 4 of us set off on a misison to find better music. Was pretty much a pub crawl of Queenstown, every time a bar closed we just found a new open one!! Finally rolled in at 4.45am, taxi driver literally drove to the hotel glass doors so they opened lol, an epic nite. Two of the guys who had also been Mad Dogging had to be up at 7 to go white water rafting lol, we said good luck with that one and went to bed!!

Day 6 - Queenstown

The pain kicked in as soon as I woke up at 10. My whole body felt like it had been beaten, oh yea it had, by the rapids!! Janette and I decided today was going to be a laaazy day as it was also raining (no surprise as it seems to follow me everywhere..). Did some laundry, had a nap, went to town, bought some books for our time on the coach tomorrow, bought a MAD DOG jumper as a reminder of my near death experience, sat on a bean bag, came home, had another nap (you can see the common theme here), had dinner, packed and went to bed!! Soooooo tired. Tomorrow, Fox Glacier with a 6.30am start. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.