I am very sorry to have to start this blog on such a bad note. Im not sure if you are all aware but Stephanie had a brilliant camera that she used all the time - and I mean all the time it was always around her neck so she could get the best photo possible. I think you all know where im going with this; Stephanie's camera is no more. Although it was on its last leg it doesn't make this loss any easier. The worse thing is that it was in my possession when someone knocked it out my hands and it fell to the ground. It also didn't help the following day when we took it into the camera shop; Stephanie was in tears looking at the women with hope in her eyes. The women looked at us and smiled - at this point we thought it was good news, relief was flooding over me, when her words cut threw us like a knife, "Nope it's had it, throw it away and buy a new one". I think the women actually took pleasure in telling us this. Back to the blog:

Well so much has happened in the week and two days since Danielle has been here, I shall start at the very beginning. Stephanie and I stayed up late Wednesday night making banners getting very excited for Danielle's arrival the next day at noon. We were waiting at Queenstown arrivals with our banners and great big smiles ready to welcome Danielle to New Zealand. After lots of screaming and hugging Team P (-1) were back together again obviously it's not the same without the 4th member who we miss very much, but we will just have to make do! A quick stop to get supplies and we headed back to Reavers lodge were Stephanie and I are staying, there was enough room for Danielle as Stephanie has a double bed. That night we all got dressed up and headed into town - there was no room for jetlag! We had a lovely dinner at Stephanie's restaurant Britannia along with our friends Sally, Max, Lucy and Ian. Stephanie finished working there the night before so we went to eat there one last time. I had already finished work a couple of days before and Stephanie finished work at Max the following Sunday. That night after dinner we carried the night on at our favourite place the Boiler Room with cheap drinks, we then carried on the dancing at Winnies. It was a great first night but not surprisingly Danielle was tired so we called it a night. The next few days Stephanie was at work so Danielle and I went into town, in Queenstown at the moment it's the Winter Festival. There was loads of things to see and do in town such as the street parade and the swimming race in the lake - its winter here so the water would have been freezing one guy had to be pulled out! We were under strict instructions not to do too many exciting things while Stephanie was still at work!

On the Monday we finally started doing all the activities we had planned, Stephanie had finished work the day before so we were all together. We go up earlyish and headed to the gondola to take us up to the top of one of the mountains in Queenstown. When we go up there Danielle and I went on the Luge which is basically a toboggan but instead of going on snow it works on concrete, it has a track you have to stay on and you can race down to the bottom you then go on a chair lift to get to the top to go again. While we were on the Luge Stephanie was taking pictures - she has taken over Danielle's camera, it's no replacement but it will have to do! Danielle and I only had one go on the Luge as it was really cold but you can just keep going. We took some more pictures and decided to see how much it was to go paragliding as that is where the paragliders take off. Danielle and I did fancy doing a skydive but it was a lot of money and im not sure if I would have been too scared, Stephanie didn't want to do a skydive but thought she might like this. We got the price list and then found ourselves being talked into doing it there and then, especially when they mention the D word… discount! We decided we would do it although Stephanie was a bit unsure as this wasn't planned and was definitely not in the itinerary, especially since we had paid for a return down on the gondola! We had to walk up the mountain a little more to the take off point, we were all nervous but very excited. Each one of our pilots were really lovely but really laid back, they didn't give us much instruction only that we had to walk and then run off the edge of the mountain and they would do the work! We had to wait a little bit while the pilots sorted out the equipment and strapped us in, we were in front while the pilots were attached behind us. I went first but we had to wait ages for some wind, meanwhile Stephanie was grilling her pilot how many times he had done this before and was he sure it was safe! Once we finally went it was amazing it was such a bright day and we could see the town, mountains and lake perfectly. It was so peaceful being up there but Danielle and I both said that we would definitely want to do a skydive as we needed more adrenaline! Stephanie loved it and thought it was just the right amount of adrenaline and that she would do it again.It was really great and we are all so pleased we did it we even had pictures while we were doing it. As I went first I was able to video the girls as they landed it was really funny as all you can hear is Danielle screaming! Once on the ground Danielle told us that her take off wasn't so smooth and that her pilot had fallen over while they were running, Danielle shouted to him what should she do and he just replied keep running! We had a really great day and then we went to Fergburger which topped it off. Fergburger is a small restaurant which does the most amazing burgers, they have many different types and they are huge, you don't even need chips with them there that big - of course we got chips as well!

Tuesday was all set for a day of skiing we had already got our passes and equipment the night before. We got up early and collected are things at 7.30am when the ski shop opened, we then wanted to catch the first bus at 8am to get the first chair lift at 9am so we could really make use of our 1 day skiing. The bus takes nearly an hour to get to the Remarkables mountain range; the views were really amazing although we didn't see much at the beginning as it was still dark! The Remarks are quite small with only three chair lifts; it was still really good as it has lots of different types of runs. Later that morning our friends Sally and Lucy joined us. We skied for a bit and then we went in the ski park to try some tricks, we skied over a box and down some stairs there were loads of other jumps and rails but they were a bit advanced for us! We then all stopped for lunch on the mountain and took lots of pictures of the views which were incredible. Lucy had to go to work so she left early while we three and Sally carried on, the ski lifts close at 4.30 and then you have to start queuing for the bus to get down. So at 4 we decided to make it our second to last run, this is where the drama started: All four of us were lined up waiting for the chair lift to swing round and pick us up, Danielle made the mistake of skiing a bit too far forward so when we sat down she wasn't on it properly. On this chair lift there was no foot rests so she couldn't even push herself back on it properly, Stephanie and Sally were next to her holding her arms but we didn't think it was that serious so we were all laughing - apart from Danielle! The chair lift was still moving and we were getting higher, we hadn't put our bar down due to all the commotion so when we did we thought she could pull herself up using it. We were still laughing when she couldn't pull herself up using that either, it then got so bad she was just hanging from the bar not even touching the chair, Stephanie and Sally still held her arms but couldn't lift her up. We then realised we were in trouble so we started to shout stop the lift, people on the chair behind us shouted back as well which passed the message down, the lift then stopped. At this point we were about 20 feet up and Danielle had started to scream as she didn't know how high she was and thought she was going to fall. The people skiing on the slope had all stopped and were watching as Danielle was hanging from the bar. We were all really scared and didn't know what to do when one guy quickly took off his snowboard and was tall enough to stretch up and hold onto Danielle's skis he got about four other guys to also hold on so they could lower her down. Danielle was really scared and didn't want to let go as she couldn't see how high she was, we told her that the guys had her and they also shouted out saying they had hold of her. She was then lowered down, a couple of people who work on the ski slopes came running over, we could hear her crying but still couldn't do anything about it as we had to carry on up the lift and then ski down. We had all gone from laughing to crying and were all still in shock thinking what if. We then skied down thinking we were just going to meet her and then do our last run, but as we got closer we saw a crowd of people and a skidoo which is used to take injured people of the mountain. We thought something was really wrong but it was just that he was passing, saw a girl hanging from the chair lift in his rear view mirror and came over to see if she was alright! Danielle was fine but just had a sore back, they suggested she got checked over at first aid and they wanted us to come to the office so they could take a statement. The manager of the Remarks came over to see if Danielle was ok, (we think they were worried we would sue) we started telling him the story when he stopped us and said he saw Danielle hanging from the chairlift from his office! After we thanked everyone for their help we then had to get the bus down - we never did do our last run as the lifts were then closed! That night we had a big night out planned but none of us were up for it after the incident! Now we think about it we should have asked for a refund back on our lift passes as they were expensive, however we were just grateful Danielle was ok! The guys that helped straight away and lowered Danielle down didn't stick around so we couldn't thank them properly but we wrote a note in the local paper saying thanks, they were really great, we don't know what would have happened if they had not of reacted so fast.

The next day it was onwards and upwards, no time to dwell as we had to catch a flight to Christchurch, we were picking up our camper and driving it back to Queenstown. I was really nervous as I had booked it over the internet; I was worried it would be a piece of junk. When we arrived after a lovely smooth flight we were pleasantly surprised by how lovely and shiny all the campervans looked. There was rows of motor homes and Danielle got really excited as she thought our vehicle would be a lot smaller, her smile disappeared when tucked between two giant motor homes was our little camper. The man showed us around and I loved it, it wasn't a heap it was lovely there is enough room for us all and we can stand up and cook in it. That day we were driving back to Queenstown as we hadn't finished everything we needed to do and had planned to leave on the Saturday. We got back in good time, it was a nice drive but we couldn't see much as it gets dark at 5.30pm. Only Stephanie and I can drive the camper as we are both over 21.

On the Thursday we started to pack all our things together and in the evening it was our leaving do! Lucy and Sally had prepared dinner for us so we ate and drank at their house and then we went into town to our favourite place the Boiler Room were we met some other friends. The night wouldn't be complete without dancing on the tables, we introduced Danielle to that tradition and she was loving it. After some well deserved Jagerbombs we moved on to some other clubs with our friends, we had a great last night out in Queenstown. On the Friday we packed the rest of our bits and in the evening we headed into town to watch the rail jam, which is a manmade slope in town covered in snow and has a couple of rails on it (like hand rails for stairs!). Snowboarders and skiers then compete by showing off their best moves doing tricks and jumps from the rail which their then scored on. We only stayed a bit as it was freezing and we had to say goodbye to everyone as we were leaving the following morning. It was really sad to say goodbye as we had made some really great friends in Queenstown. On Saturday morning we were ready for our big adventure the campervan was packed - mainly with food, beer and wine! We had our last meal in Queenstown and then we hit the road. With one last stop at Warehouse to get a lead to connect our I-Pods to the speakers we were finally ready. Let the good times roll!