Hi Guys,

As you can see I have now made my way South to Queenstown, which of course is renowned as the adventure capital of the world.  I have had a busy few days, so you may have to bear with me on this one.

As I mentioned on my last journal I was due to head south from Christchurch to Dunedin on Sunday morning.  After finding my hostel with little problem, I quickly set off to explore the city and my first stop was of course, the Speights Brewery.  This was so cool as I learnt a little about a subject I am obviously passionate about and most importantly I was able to sample all of their beers.  A very enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The next day, I decided to do a tour of the Otago peninsular which is a popular place to spot some of the native wildlife.  Our first stop was to see some Albatross in the wild, which if I am going to be honest was a little dull.  After all a bird is a bird right, not the most exciting animal.  After this we took a little drive to this beach which was so much better, we were able to first spend some time spotting hundreds of seals playing happily on the rocks.  We then made our way to a neighbouring beach where we saw some sea lions, and one in particular was a little upset by our presence and decided to charge us!  Yep, once again I find myself being charged by a wild animal although I have to confess I found this hilarious as there was a group of Japanese tourists on our tour and their faces of pure horror were enough to put me in hysterics for a week.  Moving on, the highlight of the day was right at the end when we saw the penguins all coming out of the sea and settling for the night, there was one penguin who was slightly lost lets say and walked right up to wear we were all crouching and was literally about a metre away!  It was so cool to see it up so close and not the least bit concerned by the 10 tourists crouching, snapping away at their cameras (with no flash obviously).  Such a cool day.

The next day I had a little bit of time to kill before boarding my bus to Queenstown, so to save a bit of money I decided to walk to and up and down the worlds steepest street, Baldwin Street.  Which amused me for about 5 minutes!  I then hopped on my coach with only 4 other passengers and made our way to Queenstown.

On Wednesday I decided to get up early and do a walking tour around Queenstown to get my bearings.  It is so beautiful here with the massive lake and the backdrop of the 'remarkables' mountain range, which was used in the Lord of the Rings.  Anyway, my walking tour took in a few attractions before I made my way up to the gondola for another ride high up in the mountains.  This time I could not even look down it was so steep.  One of the main attractions to the Queenstown Gondola, apart from the stunning views of course, is the Luge!  The Luge is kind of a cross between a toboggan ride and a go-cart track, which winds down a 800 metre track.  Anyway, it looked so cool so I decided to give it a go.  They say the ride looks tamer than it actually is, and they are not kidding but it was so much fun, whizzing down this track, round the bends and through tunnels until you reach the bottom, whereby you are then whizzed up to the top by a ski lift to do it all again.  This was awesome! 

Anyway, after this and doing a short circuit I made my way back down the gondola with my eyes shut for most of the way!  I then spent the remainder of the day on the hike up and down Queenstown hill which had superb views of all the rolling mountains.  I know I keep saying all the scenery is superb but it really is!

This leaves me onto today, a day where I decided to do a few of the many adrenaline activities on offer here.  To start off with I went on a jetboat ride, which is basically a big speed boat, adrenaline-fuelled ride.  We were whizzed around the lake and up and down the shotover river at super fast speeds, winding around rocks, through bridges with lots of 360 degree spins on the way!  In fact it was so fast that I spent most of the hour trying and failing to get the massive, oversized poncho that was provided out of my face!  Still it was a fantastic way to wake up and get my heart racing for what I was then about to do..

Now, as you all know I have a ridiculous number of fears and where better to confront them than the adventure capital of the world, right?  One of my main fears of course is heights which has to be up their with the some would say weird phobia of knives.  Anyway, whilst I could not quite stomach doing the bungy jump and the skydive seemed slightly out of my price range I settled instead for a spot of paragliding.  So this afternoon I am pleased to say I managed it!  I was picked up at around 1 in the afternoon, naturally due to my nerves and generally weak bladder I had visited the loo no fewer than 15 times and no I am not kidding!  I was reluctantly taken to the top of this massive mountain and strapped into my gear and onto my guide.  I had to ask the poor guy about 10 times whether it was all secure and what if I fall out of my harness.  He smiled at me and repeatedly told me to relax and started giving me my instructions.  So he goes right, all I need you to do is run forwards towards the edge... WHAT!  I have to run toward the cliff edge I ask.  once again, he says just relax you will be up in the air before it gets to the edge.  Anyway, I was less than convinced and I took a deep breath and darted forward and as soon as I could no longer feel my feet on the ground I promptly shut my eyes and crossed my fingers.  Well slowly but surely I opened them and I can not explain the moment of relief and euphoria I had experienced, I mean I was actually flying.  Anyway in the end I loved the experience, even though I was what felt like miles above ground!  It was such a great experience and my heart has only just stopped racing and I have been on the ground for a few hours.

So that's my Queenstown story wrapped up.  Tomorrow I am due to catch a bus to Wanaka which is only about an hour away but is supposed to be a great place for a days trekking.

I hope everyone reading this is well and I will look forward to hearing from you all.

Until next time,
Jon