Well the plush hotel was lovely spent most of the time in the hot spa and i had a bath ...the first in 6 weeks(not washing in general i have had showers but not a bath) was lovely i had about 4 just to get my moneys worth was great! Then we booked into our hostel and good old mum and dad had sent me and Jono a xmas card which was really nice have been feeling quite homesick over xmas and receivig that card was nice looking forward to ringing home on xmas day but it makes me sad aswell, its strange being away for xmas! Anyway on a happier note tonight we are going to a minus 5 bar which is minus 5 degrees inside and everything is made from ice, the chairs, the walls and even the glasses you drink your cocktails out of, you can only stay in there for 30 mins but what a cool place to spend xmas eve!!!! Then were gonna hit some of the bars and maybe the casino if im feeling lucky!!!! Then on boxing day were going to go white water rafting on the shotover river which is where alot of lord of the rings was filmed and there are 6 grades of rapids, 1 being beginners and 6 being professional brave me and jono are going for grades 3-5! eekk!!!!!! looking forward to it though and then were going to do some canyoning which is basically abseiling down rocks, jumping into waterfalls and throwing yourself off them! Thinking of doing a bungy jump....actually who am i kidding i would never throw myself off anything head first would feel like i was jumping to my death but it is a young persons dream here loads to do is good, anway hope everyone reading this has a happy christmas and is not missign me to much xxxx

So on xmas eve we went to the minus 5 bar but was more like minus 10! was freezing even with the boots and gloves and coat they give you but was really good and the room was quite small but there were ice sculptures everywhere and the seats were made of ice was fun! Got really drunk that night and we had a little flutter in the casino but we wont talk any more about that cos we lost at roulette and 21! Xmas day we went to the gondala which is like taking ski lifts to the top of queenstown on top of a cliff so had amzing views and on top there is a  ride called the luge where there are 2 race tracks a scenic and a fast track, there like 3 wheeled sledges and we took the scenic track but drove like boy racers all the way down was so fun overtaking all the slow japanese who didnt know what they were doing! Everything was closed xmas day so we had an indian for dinner but was nice actually!

On boxing day we went white water rafting was really fun, to get there we had to go on a road called skippers canyon which has vertical drops either side and you can see cars at the bottom where they have obviously fallen off and when we hired the car we were told we were not allowed to drive on this road so was good to see what all the fuss was about but it was scarey! anyway the rafting was quite tame apart from about 3-4 hard core rapids which were fun but to be honest the guide at the back does most of the work and we just paddle(or pretend to like me) when he yells paddle and if he thinks were going to go over he shouts get down and we all hide in the middle of the raft so was fun and would def do again! There was a point where there were some swimmers rapids our boat all jumped out and had  a swim and the current sort of took me again and jono had to grab me and pull me back into the boat so he saved me!The next day we did canyoning and i was so scared my legs were like jelly the whole time! We had to walk up quite steep hills to get to the top where we zip wired across the forest which was scarey then we had to abseil down some rocks into the first part of the canyon i felt like indiana jones and i had a pink helmet on so i felt quite cool! Then we had to sort of lay down and go over a waterfall which was so scarey i went under and panicked a  bit but the worst was yet to come. We had to do a few jumps then we come across a 20m jump off some cliff into a pool with rocks all at the bottom, was so scared my legs went all wobbly anyway i did it and then my near miss happened, jono was all set to jump so he was with one of the guides and the other guide was the rest of us a bit behind, the curent sort of dragged me along and the guide that was with us shouted to the other guide to grab me as i went past but he didnt hear her so off i went shotting past these rocks and into a deep pool of water taking out the guide along my way so he landed on top of my head(thankg god for my pink helmet) and jono sort of pulled me onto a rock to catch my breath i was quite shaken up and scared and didnt really like this canyoning malarky! so jono has saved my life twice in past 2 days maybe i should give the adventure sports a miss for a bit! am such a  weakling !Good to see all the waterfalls etc but to dangerous for me!