Not a bad wake up call, we went for a short run (short because I didn’t want to screw my back up again as it’s feeling rather tight and achy at the moment) a good stretch and a few core exercises around the big lake in Wanaka, we weren’t getting the bus until 9am which allowed us time for a quicky shower and free breakfast, great oat and fruit mix cereal!! Ellie went for the rice crispies and cardboard cornflakes, I’m to sure why because she always says she wants what I have when we have this so why not take the leap!? Pull away from the cardboard cornflakes life get down with the oats and raisins!

First stop was just outside of Wanaka, we got to hike mount iron, one of the smaller volcanoes that looks out on a 360 degree view of Wanaka and all the mountains that surround it, we’ve definitely come at the right time to New Zealand. I know that we have the uncertainty of a little rain and wind and it’s been a little on the cool side in places but we get to see all these mountains with snow on their peaks still and it makes the scenery change so much!
It wasn’t a bad hike, constant uphill for about 50 minutes and of course a little less back down. Ellie (bambi) didn’t fall once. I’m not sure what’s happened to her she’s found her feet, no hazardous trips from her in a few days! Oh... no actually I lie, we had s big trip this morning on the run, she rolled her ankle on a floor tile on the pathway. Silly billy!

We were spoilt with the views again, back through the southern alps on our way to Queenstown which sits sort of in the middle of them but at the bottom of that makes any sense... (if not check a map).
The winding Kawarau river blue as anything we had ever seen, complimented by the yellow flowers and big dramatic mountains. It was, yup! Beautiful!!

We stopped off in Cromwell, a fruit town where they pretty much only grow different kinds of fruit trees (including those lovely grapes for fantastic wine) it was called ‘Mrs. Jones Fruit Stall’ they grew the fruit in their fruit fields, it was so nice to drive through the middle of them, they just had the fruit name next to each line of trees.
They made fresh fruit ice cream. Be rude to not have one of those wouldn’t it!? I had a mixed berry, which she made in front of me. Oh my gosh it was delicious, so creamy and fruity!!

Next stop at the AJ Hackett Kawarau river bungee for Mary to do her bungee jump and us to check in for ours tomorrow!
It was the oldest venue in to do a bungee jump in New Zealand, it was a pretty picturesque site to do it at to be fair! You could even get your head dunked into the water too haha! I I had the money I’d do them all, they all look great even the one in Queenstown hanging off the edge of the mountain overlooking the town and lake. That one you can do loads of flips and be strapped to a chair to jump off the edge.

Queenstown was very pretty! Very small compared to what I thought it was going to be, a little village more so than a town sat around the huge lake, lots of funky shops and loads of ski and hiking gear shops because it’s a big ski resort town. You can sort of tell that by the look on the houses and bars, it’s quite Scandinavian looking.
Finally checked into a Nomads hostel that’s actually clean and well maintained!

This afternoon we got out and went for a wander around the village and chilled a little before the bar crawl tonight with the kiwi bus (we won the voucher for this in lake mahinapua hotel).

We all met at the red rock bar, got wrist banded up and went onto the next where food was included; it wasn’t great amount of food for $25 dollars and a few shots. I did somehow win limbo though... either my stretches everyday are working wonders for my back and flexibility or I’m with some very stiff inflexible girls. I won a free game of mini golf (which I won’t have time to use because we are out most of the afternoon tomorrow doing the bungee and swing) and the next day we head for the deep south, but I did get a free glass of wine out of it!

I think the most value we got out of the ticket for the bar crawl was the entrance to the ice bar because we had more than half price off a drink and free entry.
Bloody Baltic in there! Wise advice do not wear flip flops into an ice bar at -12 Celsius! Be super cheeky and ask to lend a pair of ugg boots from behind the bar haha. Toasty! Ellie the tourist was off on her photo spree, she loves a photoshoot does our Ellie!

A few more bars with a few more games, one in particular- the pizza box game. (Played in Indonesia the beer box game) we had to grab the box off the floor with our mouth and without any body part going on the floor other than our feet, once everyone playing has passed a level they ripped a bit off the box to make you stretch further down to the floor. Again, somehow I won! What?! Those pyshio stretches and my neurologist’s work has done me good. I won a 241 voucher for the shotover jet boat in Queenstown but we’ve already done it and it would still have been super pricey for us to go halves so I gave it to Mary the runner up and I just had my free drinks :) so generous of me!

It actually turned out to be a really good night considering we were a very divided group because of two buses coming together and there not being very many of us in our group either.

Ellie reckons we got in at 2am last night because she drunk text mum and dad lol, we must have been drunk I can’t remember it being that late!
All eight of us were super lazy in or room this morning, none of us surfaced very early.
We had enough time to grab some breakfast and head on over to the bungee meeting office to check in and get ourselves on that shuttle or to the canyon for our canyon swing and my bungee!

I was so excited, I knew that when I got to the edge of the ledge and it was time for me to throw myself out I would s*** myself but up until then I was super excited! More than I can say for Ellie, she looked terrified and very worried about the whole situation. What a better way to try and overcome a fear of heights?!

The bus up to the top of the canyon was pretty much almost vertical. Ellie was petrified, I wasn’t too clever either, it wasn’t a properly tarmac or concrete laid road t was loose stones and gravel that can make you slip even more.
Way passed thinking about it as soon as we got to the top though, pretty much instantly harnessed up and sent over to the platform for the bungee which was suspended by wires from either mountain over a 150/200metre Deep canyon with a very rapid river running through it. WOW! Now to get there we had to get a mini cart over to it that would only carry six people at a time - Ellie screamed and screeched for all six of us haha. She had to come for mora support and to take photos because I got up at 6am for her adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane.

It was a little nerve racking watching people leap out into thin air for an 8 second free fall before the bungee cord reacted and after that you bounced around for a good minute or so!

My turn, in the chair to do my legs up with lots of cords and clips before stuttering over to the edge and feeling my stomach reach on spin cycle I didn’t really have much time to think about anything before I knew it the guys had laughed at tapped my back to help my push and fall in to mid air for 135 metres. ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! I think I smiled and ‘woohoo’d’ all the way down and bouncing about! I’m sure my go pro will show the real picture though from the video haha. I wasn’t able to tug my clip open so that I could come back up to the top the right way around so I just stayed hanging upside down haha, it was white nice on the back to be honest!

Ellie’s up next! (My second turn for a dose of adrenaline). But first we had to go back to mainland from suspended land via the little cart and then back out onto another suspended pod but for the catapult and canyon swing we had to walk along a 10m wobbly bridge, again Ellie really wasn’t enjoying this and especially as I was bouncing up and down and running back and forth on it haha!

The canyon swing.... well I definitely lost my hearing in the right ear from miss. lewis.
We were suspended over a ledge, backwards. So looking at the guys on the platform. He said, so do you want us to count you down or a surprise? And after he said that Ellie was about to answer, not quick enough for him to already make his mind up and press the button, he face is spectacular! Hahahahaha!
Bloody fantastic! This swing was the biggest in the world at 150metres, my bungee is the tallest in the Southern Hemisphere. Such an awesome view in amongst the canyon with the river below us, it was nice to see it from the right way up. I sat back and enjoyed the view, Ellie wasn’t so sure about peeling her hands away from the straps.

After being back on firm ground and getting our goody bags of a free T-shirt for the bungee and a free hat for the swing (a hat that makes you look like an American trucker or a super dorky tourist) we got the shuttle back into town through the picturesque wineries up against the big dramatic mountains and headed for a world famous Queenstown FergBurger. We’ve been told all about them from lonely planet to online blogs and previous visitors; for the reason we found out was that yes they were very delicious and had ingredients and condiments in them that you wouldn’t have in a normal burger but because my god they were so damn big! Bigger than the palm of our hand! We had more burger than bun which is extremely unusual as it’s usually the other way around.

An easy one tonight because the adrenaline had definetly come in waves of emotions and that one being tired after our massive high and because we have a super duper early morning for the Deep South.

For once it wasn’t just us being old and boring going to bed early it was the entire room and a few girls in the other rooms too. Finally! It’s not just us haha.