I think I've fallen in love (again). Not with a hairy white water rafting instructor this time though, instead I've fallen in love with this place, Queenstown, and New Zealand in general really. The only thing it has going against it is that it's pretty much as far away from Devon as it is possible to get! Queenstown is a little bit like Devon actually, but with mountains and bungy jumps and weird bars where you get cocktails served in teapots and sunshine and... okay, so it's really nothing like Devon (and in Devon's defence, it doesn't have a beach - the pebbles next to the lake do not count). I would like someone else to move here please so I can come and visit often (if they could own and fly a private plane that would be lovely).

So anyway, I survived my 134m fall to earth the other day! Just. I think my mind will be forever scarred a little by the bungy jump experience though. For those of you that haven't seen the video you can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBMomE8zx6M - apologies for the small swear word that falls out of my mouth as I look down off the platform for the first time (Grandma - cover your ears!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWTp1A-wP-4 - And this is Kirsty's.

It was as horrible as it looks and two hundred times more scary! I regretted jumping almost as soon as my feet left the platform and the only two thoughts running through my head as I fell were "so this is what dying feels like" and "can I have my stomach back please?". I don't think my body could really understand what on earth I was doing, and so I didn't really start to enjoy it until I had pulled the cord that made me flip into an upright position and I was being reeled back in, and even then all I could do was swear and hold onto the rope for dear life! I'm glad I did it, but it's definitely not something I'll be doing again in a hurry...

Since then, Kirsty and I have been on a four day tour of the southern end of the south island, taking in Dunedin (the supposed student capital of the country), Invercargill (where I think the people are outnumbered by sheep 200:1), Te Anau (which reminded me of the lake district - damp and green) and finally Milford Sound (which would have been beautiful were it not for the persistant rain and mountain mist). As you can tell, I was really impressed with it all! To be fair to the 'Bottom Bus' (as it's called), it probably would have been better had we been spending the four days with people we knew (specifically the other grapes) rather than complete randoms. There were only nine of us on our little bus in total, including this weird man who had REALLY bad dandruff and enjoyed sitting in front of Kirsty and knocking the back of his head against his seat and therefore showering her legs in his scalp... As if this wasn't bad enough, when Kirsty and I went out for dinner on the first evening he took our very unsubtle "oh my god, there he is, avoid all eye contact" whispers and glances as an invitation to come and join us, and proceeded to pull up a chair without even asking! Who does that in a restaurant?! Even the waiter seemed a little confused, as he looked between him and us and casually asked "so are you joining these ladies?" at which point Kirsty and I both tried to send him telepathic messages along the lines of "NO, DEAR LORD WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS, NO HE'S NOT!" and dandruff boy said "oh yes", and proceeded to order food. It was such good food too... beautiful bangers, creamy mash, lovely roasted vegetables in cheese sauce AND a dusting of dead skin... Yum!

Those four days would probably also have been more enjoyable had Kirsty and I both not gone down with the 'Queenstown Cold' the day we left. Unfortunately the cold comes with the travelling territory, as backpackers tend to share everything from kitchen utensils and showers, to bottles of beer and saliva... It's basically the same as 'Fresher's Flu', in that there's no avoiding it, everyone has it, and you just have to get on with it. I'm hoping I might just about have kicked it by the time we leave Queenstown in four days, the one thing this city can keep is its germs!

NB: for a more detailed account of the past couple of weeks go to www.offexploring.com/kirstymacdowall as I hear she has written another epic!