Maybe its a case of still being on the parallel universe in my head but today was kinda a weird day and I cant put my finger on why. Andrew and I left the Backpaca in Wanaka and gave a lift to Amy and Matt who were gonna climb Mount Isthmus on my recommendations.. Even though I did it the day before I still could not find the start off point. Meliss come back.... all is forgiven! She is not so much in demand now cause we are on the south Island and there arent many roads or places that I can get too far lost without her help...although I must say I did use her this evening to find the digs in Queenstown and this time even Andrew got narked with her as she told us this place the Butterfli Hostel was on the other side of the street and futher on! We are doing lots of U turns with this lady! I’d get an “A” in my three point turns!
Anyhow after we dropped Amy and Matt, we went into Wanaka Airport so that I could show Andrew the location of the skydive... there were others at it and he saw it all including a good few landing..
We went from there “on impulse” to a rifle range.... why I dont know but we are on hols after all and everything MUST be experienced! It was a bit of a weird place and they had 4 activities on offer..... crazy golf, clay pigeon shooting, archery and a rifle range... Anyhow the guys who owned the place were really intent on showing us EXACTLY how to shoot something or one!! In fact they got a bit bolshy with me cause my elbow was not in line with my shoulder and I was shooting too low and I should really FOCUS!! God these guys were baying for blood!! Anyhow I only managed to hit 4 of the 20 clays and at that only clipped off two of them by pure fluke.. Now the strange thing is that both of us were a bit uneasy after we came out and both said in unison... that did NOT feel either good OR fun! Maybe I am truely a pacifist.
Legged it outta there in case the guys wanted to enlist us or something and headed off towards Queenstown.. On the way stopped in an old gold mining village where of course we ate and did not go panning for anything except a large citrus slice and a tea!! From there to Arrowtown, a quaint expensive little "unique" Kiwi town... Unique my foot... more contrived really but very pretty and drawing the completely unsuspecting tourists by the busloads.. not my idea of fun but suiting some markets...especially the asian community as there were two streets and one of them a Chinatown... strange but true!
On the way to Queenstown we had a further stop.... at the AJ Hackett.. originator of the bungy and birthplace of same at a bridge called Karawau. It is hypnotic to watch folk hurl themselves off a small ledge 43 metres above a fast flowing river below all for the sake of fun.Now I know what you may say, "Mul u threw yourself off a higher place" but I will retort...there is no hulky Alex strapped to your back as you are ultimately “pushed” off the edge. I was gobsmacked to see a 12 yo doing it and quipped to the lady next to me....”Jesus but I wonder where is the parental responsibility when you leave your kid do something like this...” Of course you will know me and my big mouth but you can instantly guess that the one person I would stand next to was the 12yos mother!!! She just said that he always wanted to do it and had no fear. I would have told him grow up and pay for the pleasure yourself. I was morto that I had opened my gob and you all know I rarely blush but could not get my size 8s out of it now!! She had 4 other sons it seems and he was the eldest.. maybe she was thinking of future college fees or something...!
Queenstown has the most fantastic location ever.. really incredible and mountains all around a beautiful lake. Decided to hike up to the sky road rather than doing the gondola ride up and did I regret it? Soaked with sweat and a big red head on me by the time I reached the top I was scaring adults and children in unison with mud spattered skin.. shivering from the chilly breeze and a sweat soaked bod and top!! I just appeared outta the trees at the top and all the bright shiny folk were oooing and aahing at the fantastic vista below... Nothing for it but a bit of retail therapy and had to get a gondola down as my legs were killing me from the hiking for the last two days...I was thinking of sneaking on and saving the $14 fare but I think a sweaty heavy breathing mud streaked limping paddy is a bit noticible so I did the honest thing and coughed up the dough! In my leaba now and tried to download yesterdays video of Mount Isthmus to Youtube but it used most of my credit on my 3G card. Shag that for a game of soldiers.. this bloody thing was to last 60 days...
Nothing for it but hold on in Queenstown tomorrow for a few hours to get more top up if I want to keep you bored for another 10 days!!!
Night night
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