Queenstown

Queenstown was probably my favorite place we have visited thus far. It is a very charming town that is right on a huge lake, and has the feel of Park City because of the surrounding mountains. Queenstown is also known as the adventure capital of New Zealand. There are a billion things to do there, but unfortunately they all cost a billion dollars to do. The activities vary from jet boating on rivers, river surfing, bungee jumping, parasailing, a luge, jeep rides, sky diving, heli biking, and much, much more. Being presented with these options, we were hard pressed to decide which activities to do in the two days we had there. I finally decided on bungee jumping, river surfing, and jet boating.

Probably the best out of the three was the bungee jumping. They have three jumps to choose from, so after contemplating the options I went with the Kawarau Bridge jump. It was the first bungee jump in the world, so it has quit a bit of history. The bungee jump is placed on a bridge over the Kawarau river, so you can choose to be dipped in the river on your jump or not. And you also get an amazing ground rush because you come so close to the river surface. It was amazing!

The second activity of choice was river surfing. This was a blast! River surfing is pretty much taking a normal boogie board, that is usually used to surf waves, and surfing down a river rapids with your board, fins, and of course, a wet suit and helmet. You surf the river for about 3-5 kilometers then at the end of the float you have the option of doing some cliff jumping, having a go at a gigantic rope swing, or a steep waterslide into the river. The water slid into the river was awesome! You go down the slide with you boogie board, and because of the steepness of the slid and the flotation of your boogie board you go skimming across the river for about 30-40 feet!

Jet boating was also a ton of fun. They take you out on these Jet Boats that go 40-50mph up and down these narrow river walls, and do 360’s multiple times. I was quite nervous to get in the boat because I could see the bottom of the river easily, and it was not deep in the least! So when we took off going 40mph I was shocked we weren’t chewing up the propeller and blowing holes into the bottom of our boat. Apparently these boats were designed by a New Zealander, for this specific river, and they are designed in such a way that they do not need more than four inches of water to project. Crazy huh!

All in all, Queenstown was a blast!

Random New Zealand Pics

White Bait

Since I have been in New Zealand I have expanded my horizons considerably. I not only eat fish about once a week, I enjoy it, with the exception of the featured dish of white bait. As you can see in the picture, it is a small fish with no vertebrae. Therefore New Zealanders scramble the whole fish up in eggs and eat them for Sunday Tea. When they come out they still have their eyes in tact, so your dinner is starring at you as you eat it. I could only stomach a few bites, and luckily I think my refrain went unnoticed for the most part. Unfortunately Katie and Megan had to eat the leftovers for dinner the next night. Sorry girls.

Bluff & The Catlins

Recently my host family took us to a place called Bluff. It is the most southern part of New Zealand, apart from Stewart Island. So the coast line you see behind us is the closest you can get to Antartica on the South Island. Pretty cool huh! You would think that it would be covered in snow being this far south!

The picture above was taken at the Catlins. This particular coast is referred to as the petrified forest. The rocks down below are petrified wood. It was pretty cool. We also visited a beach in the Catlins that occasionally has dolphins swimming in the bay. We lucked out cause that afternoon there were a dozen or so swimming in the waves. The water was freezing, but we all got in to swim with the dolphins. If you would just tread water in a group of two or three the dolphins would come quite close. It was amazing! I only had one get within about ten feet but there were a handful of people that had them swim right by them or underneath them. The coolest part was watching them surf in the waves and jump out the back side. You could see it really well from the beach.