Well I couldn't go to Queenstown in New Zealand without participating in some of the mad crazy activities that it is famous for could I??? But no I still wasn't tempted to throw myself of a bridge on a long piece of elastic so I stuck to some water sports instead. A couple of options were available to us re what river but Andrea and I opted for the Kawarau river mainly as we are both sad Lord of The Rings fans, because this is where they filmed the scenes at the end of the first movie (valley of the Kings!!).
So you can't go White Water Rafting and not get wet.......we were having some fun swim time here..
Andrea looking cool (well trying to!!).....
Some calm paddling through the beautiful scenery to lull us into a false sense of security.....
Yes that is the mad person on a piece of elastic - now you understand why I opted for the wet suit activities??? This is the Kawarau Bridge Bungee - the world's first ever commercial bungee jump was done from here - all I can say is what possessed them to tie a piece of elastic around there feet and jump of a bridge 43m above the river??? And they paid for the pleasure.....
Getting into the raft is not exactly elegant or easy!
No Andrea hasn't just jumped out of a plane - we had to run around the edge of the raft without falling in - not as easy as it sounds...
Just to show that I was on the raft as well.....
That's me jumping off the 3m rock into the river - just practising for the next day's activities.
So I wasn't able to take any photo's when we were going through the rapids for safety so this is one of their photo's of our raft- there was 7 of us in the raft including the guide - but if you look closely there is only 6 in this photo - that's because I am the yellow dot under the water at the front left side of the boat (as you look at it) - was great fun....
And another scenic photo at the end of the trip.
Next day Andrea and I got into our wet suits again (think this was the 4th day in a row we had put these things on!!) and off we went Canyoning - if you don't know what that involves (we obviously didn't when we booked it) keep scrolling and have a look at the photo's....In this one I am just about to start an abseil down the side of the canyon....
Zip sliding over to the other side of the canyon.......
Getting wet obviously - the names on the helmets are so they can work out who you are and sell you only your photo's!! Andrea was Sharkey and I was Cyril....nice!!
6-8m jumps into the water
Walking through the Canyon.....
Having zip slide out into the middle of the gorge we had to abseil down from the zip slide rope then let ourselves drop into the water ....this I very much enjoyed :-)
Getting wet......some more.....
More abseiling.....
Some face first jumps into the water........
We were being a bit cheeky and taking the piss out of all the couples on the trip who had to do a 'posey' photo of her being rescued by him.......think we did it with much more elegance and grace!!!
Everyone was jumping for joy at the end that we all survived with no injuries.
Later that night we were out in Queenstown and met Adam and Jess who we had met trekking a few weeks before. Those maddies had just done a bungee jump. We had a laugh and listened to quite a good band in the pub.
Getting in the mood for coming home.....
Queenstown itself is not overly exciting - it sits on Lake Wakitipu and is surrounded by beautiful scenery but the main attraction is all the mad adventure sports which go on.
Puzzling World in Wanaka has lots of hands on puzzles and illusions for us to have some fun with - it is aimed at big kids!!
The room where you were constantly being watched.......
Defying the laws of gravity......
Silke and Andrea in wonderland......
Even the toilets were entertaining......
The maze is one of the main attractions at Puzzling World - after a little while Silke had enough and went to sensibly have a coffee out of the rain - but of course Andrea & I being of a more stubborn diposition kept going....
Of course we kept going around in circles and getting more and more confused....
But eventually with the help of Chom Poo Moo we found the exit.
The Leaning Tower of Wanaka.
The Paridiso Cinema in Wanaka has to be the best cinema I have ever been to - comfy sofa's, a break in the middle of the film so you can have your pre-ordered meal and if your in quick you can even watch the film from a V/W Bug!!! How cool.....
I'd never seen one of these water bikes before.
Silly poses with the big hand......
The road safety signs in New Zealand certainly make their point....
We stopped a few times on the drive from Wanaka to Franz Josef for some photo's and there were some lovely wild flowers around the lake.
Even though the weather was miserable some of the views on the drive were amazing.
Lots of rain meant there we passed loads of waterfalls and strong rivers - this one literally was taken out the passanger window as it came right down to the side of the road.
Lunch stop - was very quick that day as we were as cold as we look in this photo!!
Keep going the last photo's of my New Zealand trip still to come......
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