From Mt Cook we took a drive down to Twizel (best pronounced with a west country accent) and 'freedom camped' at the side of the road. The night was thankfully a lot warmer and even though we had a few horns blown from sad lorry drivers we all caught a relatively good nights kip.

The next morning we travelled to a quaint town by the name of Cromwell which was the centre point between Lake Wanaka and Queenstown. Decisions, decisions... The lure of an adrenaline fuelled couple of days was too strong though and off we set. We'd been warned of icy roads and treacherous conditions in the south island before leaving Auckland, but so far it's been plain sailing (other than our struggle in the mud). And the drive down to Queenstown was no different. To eat up some time we stopped at the infamous AJ Hackett bungee over the Kawarau river. A 43ft drop off a wooden bridge with the option of dipping you head first into the river. We got the opportunity to spectate the nut cases doing the jump and it either scared you or got the blood pumping to go and do it yourself - I'll let you guess at my reaction! It's an incredible location to do it in though and anyone over the age of 10 can do it. In fact, whilst we were there biting the nails a girl no older than 12 tempted her way to the edge. Everyone was willing her on but she eventually backed out :-(.

Once we'd all got a taste of things to come, we hit the road again. We stopped in Queenstowns neighbouring town of Arrowtown for the afternoon. It was an idyllic place with an 'old town' modelled on the days of it's gold mining heritage. The shops held plenty of charm and even their pub had a great warmth to it. It was a great way to spend an afternoon in the sun to unwind, relax and prepare yourself for the madness which was sure to come.

And so our first full day arrived in the town we'd heard so much about. The place certainly had a bohemian feel about it. We were walking along streets packed full of boarders and skiers wearing the fluorescent jackets sporting crazy beards and hair alike. After our standard stop off at the i-site, George went and treated himself to an infamous Fergberger which was monstrous! Our second port of call was to go and book up our first adrenaline junky activity - the Kawarau bungy! Queenstown has a great vibe though and most of the shop assistants all seemed to be travellers who'd come to NZ and settled in this crazy place. That evening after we'd checked back in with the campsite we went back in to town to see a boarding event we saw being made earlier in the day. They'd constructed a ramp with 2 rails for skiers and boarders to wow the crowd with tricks. It was accompanied by a DJ and beer/food tents which took your mind off the chilling temperatures. After watching about an hour of the competition (which included some pretty sick spills and thrills) we felt the cold snap and headed to a few bars before retiring for the night.

The next day was the big day... Time to jump off a bridge! The anticipation was worse than the skydive as I'd mentally prepared myself for it. After seeing people jump I was both excited and nervous of the prospect of jumping 43m down to a river to be saved by a piece of bungy cord. The weather didn't help things either. It was a bitter cold rain that slowly progressed into sleet and eventually snow as we were driven up to the iconic Kawarau bridge. Weight checked and valuables taken out the pockets and I was ready and set. After a quick brief my ankles were bound and secured and I was staring down at the turquoise mass of water beneath me. 3-2-1-Bungyyyyyyyy! The ground rush was supreme as you feel yourself falling to what you think could be the end. You completely forget that you're attached and your mind doesn't comprehend what you've just put yourself through. But at the same time your adrenaline has kicked into overdrive and your heart is racing at twice its usual speed - a feeling that just doesn't come along with anything else. Needless to say after the craziness, we were due a night on the town to celebrate! As George's birthday was coming up we hit the town and took part on yet another epicly organised bar crawl - simply sweet as bro! We hit 6 bars with 6 free drinks and even a little free pizza... No wonder it gets run every night of the week apart from a Sunday and Monday!

The night was such a success we decided to celebrate a little further by demolishing a Sunday roast dinner at one of the pubs. It also lined Woody and Beans stomachs for their upcoming adrenaline rushes! Woody had set himself up for the Nevis bungy (Australasia's highest at 134m) whereas Beans had opted for the worlds largest swing across the same canyon. So off the lads went to face their fears whilst me and George spent the day chillaxing in the pub... Such a contrast in activities! Eventually me and George decided to do get up, have a Starbucks and go watch 'Inception' at the cinema. The film is a complete mind bender but is well worth the hype it's received. Make sure you go in with an open mind and are prepared to sit and focus on the story for a full 2 hours though otherwise you might end up paying for another ticket just to catch the storyline! We got back to our holiday park and greeted the lads who came back sporting smiles of excitement and relief! They both got the photo/DVD packages so we spent the evening chilling out watching them jumping and swinging in a ball of adrenaline!

After another warm nights sleep (damn I love a power hookup) it was time to celebrate the third birthday of the trip! It was George's turn to turn the bonny age of 22 and we started the day with the standard cake and gifts. Then it was time to watch the birthday boy jump off the bridge! His knees didn't want to seem to want what his head did as he prepared for the leap. In the end it was more of a fall but he's done what we all achieved and in some style! To calm down the nerves once more we treated ourselves to a pizza before starting our merry journey on towards Milford Sounds.