Queenstown...

Where to start - we have done so much since our last entry!

Got up bright and early on Friday and decided to take a hike along the moonlight trail to the Ben Lomand Saddle, which promised fantastic views over Queenstown. Apparently the trail should only take 4 hours but they hadn't told us that it was all uphill (well, it was from the end of the trail that we started!). The sun was shining and (once we'd found the start) it was a fantastic morning's walking - all around the mountain where we overlooked the bungy swing (unfortunately we didn't see anyone on it) and we had the trail all to ourselves. Anyway, about 3 hours in it started to get a bit tougher...then a bit tougher and on and on! 6 hours later we arrived at the top and although absolutely knackered, the views over Queenstown were fantastic!


View over Queenstown

We needed an early night to recover from that, and the next day we had booked in for Jetboating and White water rafting on the Shotover river! Wow, the jetboating was unbelievable - so fast and almost hitting rock faces! Also, the 360 degree turns were coo, though we did get quite wet! After that we thought rafting would be a bit more relaxing - yeah right!!!!!
After getting kitted up in wetsuits (very flattering) we were taken to the top of the river by helicopter which was amazing! There were 6 people in our boat plus the guide and the trip started out quite calmly, with us practicing the strokes. We thought it was going to be a breeze, but then the rain started and we finally got to the rapids - grade 4 out of 6 for our first time, hmmmmm! Needless to say we both went for a swim in the freezing river (Nath out of choice, Stace basically just flew out of the raft)! Definately something we'll be doing again, but perhaps when its a little warmer (we've still not had much luck with the weather)!


Shotover Jet Boat

The next day Stace had booked in to do a bungy jump - basically thought the best thing to do was to pick the highest one so we went on the trip to the Nevis cable car jump! Its basically a static cable car suspended 134metres above a valley - scary!!!! Due to Naths fear of heights, he decided to show support and to just come along and watch - big mistake! Once you're there its very hard not to get swept along with it and so both ended up doing it - Nath actually being the second person out of our group to do it! OH MY GOD, it was unbelievable!!!! We got some video footage but didnt' manage to get any photos - luckily (or stupidly) we were able to buy them there - check us out on website http://www.ajhackett.com/. Click on daily photos and enter the codes: AJHN611123640356 for Stace's and AJHN611123540326 for Naths!



Looking down from Bungy Cable Car, and the jumps

Right, after a thrillseeking few days we decided it might be better to slow down so we headed further south to Te Anau to check out the beautiful scenery at Milford and Doubtful Sound. We've just arrived here now so are going to go for dinner and a few drinks before heading out on a boat trip tomorrow. We'll update you all very soon. Also, just to let you know that the comments button does work so look forward to hearing from you!