Quick Update from Northland

Hi everybody, our trip is winding down now.  We just spent about 4 days up in the northern portion of the North Island, hoping to just hang out on the beautiful beaches up here and just relax.  Well, we got to relax, but the sun decided to take a vacation too!  We had one day of part sun, where we did a boat cruise into the Bay of Islands, and we got to see some bottlenose dolphins on the way.   They are very playful and let our boat just sit there while we watched them.  Yesterday (Saturday) it poured rain almost all day, and all of last night.  Today it is totally grey and cloudy again, although no rain....yet.  We're heading to Auckland today to spend the rest of our trip.  Let's hope we find a wee bit of sun again!! 

 Take care everybody, and see you soon,
 Nat and Barry

Mar. 1: Adventure-Town - Queenstown!

As we headed north back to Queenstown, the fog was thick in the valleys.  We hoped it would lift so that we could enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery surrounding Queenstown.  And we were rewarded - as we drove around the east side of Lake Wakapitu, the fog burned off the reveal the mountain ranges that rise upwards from the lakeshores.  Took some pics with the other tourists and arrived in Queenstown.  My heart was set on doing some jetboating, highly recommended by friends who've visited Queenstown, and Barry was going to relax for a few hours in town.  There are 5 different companies that offer jetboating action, ranging from wild canyon rides to longer cruises in the Dart River.  Since we wanted something quick, I went for the most popular canyon boating option - the Shotover Jet.  So....

From the gondola lookout in Queenstown

The Shotover Jet runs about every half hour, as the ride lasts only about 25 minutes.  And once you arrive at their Shotover River office (an 8 km shuttle ride from downtown), they quickly throw you a lifejacket and a rubber water robe (it's basically like the cover you wear at a hair salon to protect your clothers), and line you up at the pier to wait for your boat.  Our boat was only about 3/4 full, so of course I choose an edge seat to get as close as possible to those canyons!  I didn't regret it either, as it is definitely more thrilling when the driver zooms you just under cliff edges and you feel like you have to duck your head to avoid getting clocked!  Makes me wonder why we don't wear helmets, as there's a very small margin for error on these rides.  These drivers supposedly get something like 120 hours of training before they can captain these boats - it helps that they are young guys who aren't afraid of what could happen.  Anyhow, it was definitely a good thrill.  Highlights for me were the close canyon turns and going upriver against the rapids!  We did lots of 360 degree spins on the river but they weren`t that scary after awhile.  Amazingly, these jet boats can speed along on only inches of water - the river was very low and we thought sometimes we were hitting the bottom but apparently those were just the rapids we were jumping over. 
After the boat ride, Barry and I met up again in town and we walked up to the Skyline gondola and decided to combine with some luge rides at the top.  These aren`t the luges you find at Canada Olympic Park (thank god!), they are sit-down sleds with handlebars to steer and control your speed.  The views from the gondola and the lookouts at the top were fantastic - you can see why people are drawn to Queenstown for holidays.  I can imagine this would alot of fun in the winter too.  As for the luge rides - really fun, I wish we`d gone for more than the 2 rides!  I was starting to feel that lure of all the adrenalin activites you can experience in Queenstown - there were paragliders taking off from the gondola and I was starting to consider it.  So much to do, so little time, and we had a flight to catch the next morning back to Auckland.  Sigh....