Arriving in Queenstown on Thursday afternoon we wasted little time in getting on it and having what would be our last night out with The Hoff. He was somehow able to take us to all the bars which had nobody in (no mean feat given how big every night of the week seems to be in Queenstown), and it seemed shameless biased decision making continued!

By the time we rocked up at World Bar tho, and bumped into Lou, Amy & Sarah from our first bus, we were well on our way! A couple of 'teapots' later and Hutch in particular was cutting some dangerous shapes, her favourite one noticeably involving her tongue hanging out!!

Despite her assurances to the bouncer that she was 'pacing herself' we soon after called it a night on the dancefloor and soaked up a nice mix of booze with some chips and curry sauce at Devil burger on the way home!

Predictably, Friday was a pretty slow day, with most of the morning spent remembering the aforementioned dance moves, with Hutch earning surprisingly high respect points amongst the other girls!

We spent the afternoon pottering around the shops buying souvenirs and our final few Christmas presents to send back home. Queenstown was a surprisingly nice little place to walk round, and with the sun shining down on the lake and the steep cliffs with dense forest and even snow in the distance, we knew it was a good choice to spend a week chilling out for a bit after a non-stop few weeks so far on the Stray.

After free food for tea (bonus!) we resisted temptation to go on a bar crawl and saw sense by having a quiet night in as I made my debut (?!) at monopoly!

Saturday was our last day with Jen, Emma & Fran as they were getting back on the bus the following day. So we decided to make it a good one and in the early afternoon got the gondola up the mountain to go lugeing - a kind of cross between go-carting and sledging. It was, to quote Maureen "good, clean fun" (see later!). I particularly enjoyed my overtaking manouveour on Hutch and when, at the end of the track when you are supposed to come to a stop, she decided she was having way too much fun and so didn't stop her luge when told to and instead carried straight on thru the red barrier flaps and onto the conveyor belt taking all the luges back round and up to the start of the track!! Special!!@

The girls' strong performance/domination of the karaoke at Makarora had earned them a free pub crawl and so after our compulsory visit to the legendary Fergburger, we got involved in that with them to see new bars and have some general miiiiilllllage!

At 1.30am I made me excuses and said my goodbyes and headed to the sports bar to watch the United match. Sat there by myself at gone 3.30am and with us losing I was seriously questioning my sanity but the last 10 minutes made it all worthwhile and I continued my worldwide tradition of making random friends in the pub whilst watching United!

It was really sad to have to leave behind our group on the bus, as we had made pretty good mates with most people over the past couple of weeks. The Hoffs sayings such as "sweet as" and "choice", and characters such as Dani (a really funny Swiss girl), Chris (slightly eccentric older guy) and the golden oldies Sheila & Maureen from the front of the bus (Maureen, 84, would get on every day and shout "morning everybody!" down the bus and nearly even did a bungy jump because they offered it her for free!!! Her suitcase (which between Hoff and I carried everywhere for her) was positively antique and Hoff came out with the classic line "Te Papa (the National Museum) wants it back! She also came out with the classic line to Hoff 'I need you', to which he replied 'and I need you!') had all made it really good fun, but we knew we had to kill a bit more time in QT!

Needless to say I was a wee bit tired the next day and we both had a lie in, but we eventually summoned up enough motivation to get up and walked round the lakeside and gardens in the gorgeous sun for a couple of hours, before the free BBQ at our second home (aka World Bar) capped off a pretty relaxing day!

Monday was then one of those days that we just won't forget - time to do Australasias biggest BUNGY! Despite being adamant that she didn't want to do one, in the end Hutch had needed surprisingly little encouragement and so we were both signed up to do the Nevis Highwire - 134m jump in a remote canyon!

Waiting around to be picked up was possibly the worst part, and in the end I can honestly say I became the most nervous I have ever been about anything in my life before (even more than before a big United game)! When we finally arrived at the site I think we were both as bad as each other and stood in the little jump cabin suspended over the river it was totally surreal watching the first 2 jumpers go! I'm even getting butterflies just writing this now and remembering the feeling at the time.

My turn came, and sat in the 'dentists chair' I was seriously freaking out! I had been really looking forward to it in the days leading up to it, but now it was here for the first time I actually wondered if I could bring myself to do it! Nerves came out in a stupid laugh as I stood on the edge, then one deep breath as the guy counted down 3-2-1 and I was gone! It surprised me that I didn't even think about it and as soon as I heard 1 I went for it, hurtling towards the canyon floor.

At the top of the second bounce you are supposed to pull a cord that then brings you upright so that you are more comfortable and can enjoy the views. But there's always one muppet who can't do it and it had to be me didn't it - so I spent the whole time upside down with blood rushing to my head, being winched back up like a fish!! My dismount at the top wasn't exactly gracious but oh well!

So having seen me go, now it was Hutch's turn! She went through the same tension building ritual as I did and found herself on the edge, looking at me as if to say "what the hell am I doing here?!". Her guy gave her the 3-2-1, but she decided she wasn't quite ready and didn't move!!! At that point I was a bit worried for her as I thought it would only get tougher to bring yourself to do it, but after some seriously deep breaths and a second countdown, she executed a textbook dive down into the abyss!!

Even later on, it still hadn't sunk in or seemed real that we had actually done it and I for one wanted to do it all again! That night we both lay in bed thinking about it and it was sooooo strange and surreal to think that was us!

After all that excitement, we spent our last couple of days in Queenstown doing a lot of faffing about with sorting stuff out for later in the trip, FINALLY getting some things booked on Wednesday afternoon, celebrated with another visit to Fergs!!