Stuck in the moment & I can't get out of it!

3 go Mountain Biking!
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyaconnor/collections/72157609516772066/

Heard U2 on the radio playing "stuck in the moment & you cant get out of it" yesterday to which Jackie commented that this was my bungy song!

Monday 15^th December

Today was the original bungy day – however the weather the first half of the week isn't predicted to be great so bungy is off until Thursday at the earliest!

Jackie & bike
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Quality bag shuffling this morning from one of the Japanese girls in the room. Last night she emptied her entire rucsac & repacked it, this morning she did the same thing again – Jackie could have a contester to take her shuffling crown! She seemed to pack every single item in its own very noisy plastic bag & then put them all in a big plastic bag to which she spent forever squeezing the air out of it – thankfully she left today so there will not be a repeat of that ritual every 12 hours! Jackie took the opportunity though to steal her bed so she didn't have to perform weird gymnastics getting up & down from the top bunk.

Jackie at 5below Ice Bar
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Had a word with the friendly staff at the YHA to book the first of todays activities – Jetboating! Cost was $109 each & thanks to being YHA members we get a free photo each as well. Made our way into town where Jackie ate herself round Queenstown – first ice cream, then pizza slice & finally a chip butty. Bus picked us up at 2pm and together with a bunch of guys who had done the bungy that morning we set off. Said chaps who had bungyed were dressed in Aussie rules strips & were quite frankly all knobends – that's polite as well – hopefully they were not going to be on our boat as I think at least one of them would have hit canyon wall with a little help from moi!

James our fabulous barman
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Hooray – the KEs arent on our boat! Had to get decked out in a black cape which was a cross between Darth Vadar & a hairdressers cape – yes braw! Add on top the obligatory bright red lifejacket & you have one hell of a fashion statement! Got ourselves into the boat – we were at the back. The way the have set up the boats is that they are on a wee slope so everyone has a good view of what is coming up ahead. Our guide was a chap whose name I thought was Kelt – some strange NZ name I thought until I found out that was in fact his surname – the first name of Alexander being not nearly as unusual! We spent the next half our whizzing up and down the shotover river – getting very close to the canyon walls & doing 360spins. It was good fun but not nearly as exciting as I had thought it would be. For the second time in as many days we had a dull group – perhaps if we had been on with the KEs it would have been a better laugh & perhaps even the driver could have been persuaded to go a bit faster!

Our Israeli friends
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Decided to be a bit stupid on the photos seeing as we were getting a free copy. These can be viewed at www.shotoverjet.co.nz go to daily photos and enter in these codes: SHJT812151406293 and SHJT812151406294

Girl in the shop was amused when she asked us what we were doing next replied “going for a beer” well it was beer O'clock!! Had another type of Montieths in the cafe – this was their original lager & was a fine as the rest of the range. Also ordered a Scone which the girl behind the counter persuaded me to get as they were juts freshly baked – needless to say her memory did the same as so many people over here in NZ does & returns to goldfish, so 15 minutes later I had to go and ask again for my scone – their memories over here are terrible!

scary baby - Darrens secret love child?!
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Got the return bus back into town & decided to take the Gondola trip. $29 bought a return trip including a shot on the luge. Cost for the return by itself is $22. They also had a dinner deal which was $75 for a 3 course meal, gondola & drinks which I thought was a pretty good deal & one we might do later in the week. Midway up the gondola an air raid siren went off which was very amusing. Views from the top are really stunning – although you really could be looking over any Scottish mountainside. Had a very nice hot chocolate admiring the views & then went to do the luge. Had to get ourselves on a chairlift to take us up to the start of the luge track – Jackies first time on a chairlift & I must say really odd being on one with having skis attached to your feet, or having to control poles. Unfortunately the luge was overrun with an annoying party of immature Spanish twenty year olds who would stop suddenly on the track & then cut you up on corners – there are times when a semi automatic would be an nice accessory!!!

Obviously there are swings!
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Back down the Gondola & feeling a bit tired from the afternoon lager we decided that the only way to overcome this was to have more alcohol! There is an ice bar here called Minus 5, so we had a wander along & signed ourselves up for the 6pm slot. $27 bought you access into the bar for half an hour & a vodka cocktail. The staff were downright miserable and rude & really if you cant get on with people then don't work in a public facing job! The barman was a nice chap though & made up a mean frozen Kiwi which consisted of Midori, kiwi vodka and apple juice all served up in an ice glass. The place was at around -7 when we got in there & I thought quite refreshing, they should have had it all decorated in xmas decorations & playing slade in the background though – that would have made us northern hemisphere people feel a bit more christmasy! Quite fancied another cocktail but as the hands were starting to freeze off we decided to move next door to the warm cosy boiler room. The barman in there made me up the same cocktail but used fresh kiwi along side the kiwi vodka. Was amusing listening the bar staff talk about their staff night out – our chap had a complete memory blank from around midnight & was told that at around 3am he was last seen going off to email his mum!

What you've got to do to make you think of home!
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Had dinner at Winnies – thankfully no dragonflies this time! Didn't want to go home so had a wander around the town looking for a suitable hostelry and not finding what we wanted opted for Pog Mahones. Yet again one pint turned into around five! Had a very entertaining evening sitting beside 2 Israeli boys. The younger of the 2 Ben (21) had been in the army & fought on he Gazza strip, he spent a good deal of the evening recording videos to his girlfriend back home. His pal found all this highly amusing & put this down to his immaturity – rich from a 23 year old! Both of them told us that there are a lot of scare stories about Jerusalem and that the place is safe to go to. They taught us some Israeli phrases including some that really are not for girls but never mind, anyway I cant even remember one word of what they taught us! One of their pieces of info was that Hummus in NZ is Sheeeit – not nearly as good as in Israel! Young James the barman also kept us entertained & well deserved his tip at the end of the evening.

Very apt T-shirt - one for the Clachaig!
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Tuesday 16^th December

Due to the mucho alcohol we didn't get up until midday.

Pouring with rain outside which is apparently the forecast tomorrow as well – great!

Booked the Bungy! AAAAHHHHH! 11am on Thursday is the time of doom, so 10pm Wednesday night for you UK people.

me & coat
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2 Days until Bungy!

Today we just pfaffed around town; had breakfast in Aspire – very nice, then off to do some shopping in the supermarket. Bought myself a Icebreaker top & then back home. Decided an evening mountain biking might be n ice so wandered back into town; unfortunately we would need to do a half day hire which wasn't really good value. Wednesday will be biking day instead. Had a walk up to the yoga centre on industrial lane which is off gorge road at the end of Shotover street. The do Bikram yoga so am going to go to my first 40C yoga session tomorrow night. Nice wee place and no appointments are required. The woman who does the Bikram yoga has been thinking of starting up a bikram business in the UK and has settled on either Glasgow, Edinburgh or Ireland somewhere. May have persuaded her she wants to come to Glasgow!

Sunset from Pogs
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Back at the hostel now – very busy tonight. Had tea here – with Jackie managing to explode her tin of beans on herself. Jackie has just come back from the big computers wittering on about Milford sound & me not getting my facts straight about getting up on the last day. Having reread my comments its apparent our Cuthbert is still not reading things properly! I'm also having to endure her brushing the dried in bean juice form her hair bedside me – boakarama!

Wednesday 17^th December

more sunset from Pogs
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1 day until Bungy!

Up this morning to grumpy Jackie who had been woken at 4am by some rather inconsiderate Germans who thought that chatting loudly, texting & eating biscuits was acceptable behaviour for that hour! Needless to say I didn't hear anything. I did wonder though why Jackie was talking about space invaders & towels – all became clear when she explained that one of the girls had put her towel over mine when there was no need & lots of space elsewhere. So Jack grumped all morning until she worked it out of her system. Had a skype chat with the parents – nice sunny day (not forecast) so could show them the views out over the lake & the Remarkables mountain range in the background.

me & the bike
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Back up in the room getting ready to go biking (noisy German Shites have moved out thankfully!) and some tiny kittens plus 1year old mum appeared just outside the bedroom window. They scarpered as soon as Jackie went out to say hello, but soon reappeared when she came back in. Really tiny wee things & dead cute. Breakfast for them was half a banana that mum had found so needless to say our task until we leave is to feed them some tuna! (update - been to supermarket & we have a couple of tins for them!)

The free hat I got to shelter me from the sun at Pogs
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Had lunch in Vudu a fabulous café on Shotover street. Lots of nice choices & café that could possibly challenge the Fat Dog up in Rotorua. Had a very pleasant toastie & took a couple of cakes out for the trip.

Hired our bikes in outdoor store on Shotover street; $60 for half a day for both bikes. Bikes are pretty decent as well – brand new specialised with disk brakes.

After a bit of navigation trial & error we ended up on the right track – a nice gentle lake side track that passed by some really rather nice houses. Crossed the river and ended up on a narrow track often having to cycle through long grass/bushes etc. Path was good but due to lack of practice had to get off & push the bikes on some technical bits. Jackie managed to get a fly trapped down her top so gave anyone coming in the other direction a left breasticle view as she tried to get the fleck out – would anyone have noticed though – white Scottish skin against white top add in the flat 11a chest & I'm thinking not!!

Me at the Ice bar
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Had a stop near a private jetty complete with boat & jet ski – very nice houses here. Needed a pee so went off into the bushes where I somehow managed to miss the ground & pee down my leg into my sandal – not nice at all. “you canny f*ckin park here” walk took me down to the lake so I could wash said urine from my sandal & foot.

After our wee break we took the road back along to the bridge – much fun cycling up the hills & then speeding down them; not such fun was the sore arse bone that has suddenly appeared – even as I sit on the nice comfy sofa here my backside is bloody sore!

me again at the Ice bar
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Just typing this up before we head off to a Bikram yoga class – well looking forward to this although I don't think I will be particularly flexible!

Right back from the Bikram all showered & psyching myself up for one more sleep until Bungy! Yoga was good - bloody hard work though & I don't think I've sweated so much in my entire life! Half way through I did think I was going to faint with the heat, but thankfully that coincided with lying down on the mats for 5 minutes & "breathing"! Managed to do most of the poses so was quite pleased with myself & think I might actually go for another class before I leave Queenstown. I wondered what Jackie was doing at the side of me as she kept stopping at certain moves which I thought was odd seeing as she's done loads of Yoga before. As it turns out she needed to fart the entire class & didn't want to - foolish error of bean burrito for lunch being to blame for that! Christ - the next time I type this I will have bungyed - What the feck am I doing???!!!

me looking a bit like a retard
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Thursday 18^th December

BUNGY DAY!!!

Just uploading my photos in bed before getting dressed for the big jump. Very nice German girl in here (who is reminding me of Corina!) is amazed that you can bungy off the bridge & get dunked in the water – how someone who is in Queenstown didn't know this I think is amazing, but then if you're not looking at all the adrenaline madness here then I guess you may not know the full details of each activity!

Before I sign off to get dressed I must put down into words the extreme shuffling that went on this morning at 5.30am FOR AN HOUR!!! I had my 32Db earplugs in and could still hear it. There must be something with the Japanese culture that means they feel this inner need to pack each individual item in its own sandwich bag (of the very noisy variety) and then get up at a stupid hour (when on holiday come on??!!!) to take all the bags out of their bigger bags and examine each of the contents before putting them back into the original bags. This woman this morning was on old Japanese woman who must have spent at least 10 years of her life doing this. Please don't let us have another contender for this hour long shuffling record! What is Japan going to be like aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!

The Scotland Mac
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5..4..3..2..1......BUNGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Completed at 11am this morning & how utterly brilliant fun was it?! Well it was once I'd left the platform as to be honest the platform is bloody awful! Really felt quite sick as the jump master told me to scoot forward to the “AJ” sign on the wood right at the edge – thankfully he was holding onto my harness so I wasn't going to faint off the platform! In the end he told me to look straight forward & keep moving forward until he said stop – so that's what I did! Then came the infamous on the count of 5,4,3,2,1..... and off I went in a perfect dive into thin air & towards a river gorge 43 meters below– utterly f*cking brilliant! Even managed a Danjeroooouuuuussssss on the way down! You don't feel the bounce back at all on the joints & bouncing around was fabulous fun – was quite disappointed to be pulled into the rescue boat below I could have swung around all day! Did manage to touch the water – just, so all ambitions DONE to quote Mr Ramsey!

View from the gondola looking over the ledge bungy
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Had to climb back up the stairs to get up to Jackie & the rest of the crowd – bit tiring after yesterdays biking but I think I grinned like an idiot the whole way up! Bit of a bonus is that a couple who we had been talking to before I went off on my walk of doom to the platform had taken a whole set of photos. He is a professional photographer & was using a nice wide angle lens to fit in the entire bridge. He's going to email them to me when he gets back to the UK in 3 weeks time so I look forward to them. Obviously had to purchase the video/photopack & a whole load of souvenirs so all in all have spent a small fortune on what was really 30seconds of swinging around! Have just tried to look at the photos online & they aren't on yet however the codes are: www.bungy.co.nz Kawarau Bridge, then codes, AJHK812181096106, AJHK812181096107, AJHK812181096108.

The road to Glenorchy
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In the first photo I cant explain how much I am shitting myself – Jackie said I looked really scared from the viewing platform!

Oh, how could I forget! In a fit of madness & stupidity I decided that the pen/crest/lip gloss would also bungy so they were taped to my wrist for the whole experience – they got fully dunked!

Actually, how can I forget part 2, no nervous jobby – not even a pebble, not even a desire – how utterly weird. Signs for the toilets are fab though – men/women hanging upside down from bungy chord – needless to say I've bought one for the toilet back home!

The Glen Orchy Road
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Hung around for a while and watched other fellow jumpers. I think I was the only person out of the folks I saw to hit the water, I also seemed to be the only person who dived off the platform, most people seemed to stumble or jump off – that cant have been good when the bungy chord needed to flip you over! Most amusing was when a Chinese girl got up on the platform, her 8 year old brother was too young to jump but didn't stop him fully supporting his sister with much shouting off "that's my sister, that's my sister!" As we were leaving the KIWI Experience bus pulled in & loads of young folks got off to do their jump. Cheers after cheers as they all did their jumps – quite cool. At the top of the stairs there was a video of live footage & this poor girl was on the platform crying her eyes out she was so scared, she stepped/stumbled/fell backwards saying she wasn't going to do it which was a shame as the platform is the scariest bit. As we got the car an enormous cheer went up & she had obviously gone for it – good girl I think she deserved something from AJ Hackett just for conquering that fear – amazing!

Same Glen Orchy view
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Now back at the ranch – I'm about to go to Glen Orchy for a walk – apparently loads of Lord of the Rings stuff was filmed there – Jackie has had such a tiring day that she is having a sleep!

OK back from Glen Orchy – short trip as the petrol light came on half way along the road which seeing as I left on a quarter tank was disturbing. Drove on to Glen Orchy only to discover the only petrol station was closed so had a nervous drive all of 47Km back to Queenstown where I almost kissed the petrol pump! So didn't do a walk & only managed to take a couple of photos – so productive! Have to admit though that coming out of the forest & rounding a corner to Lord of the Rings view was pretty spectacular, I think this view down the lake is the classic of some baddies tower than was digitally put in here. Not a LOTR saddo so no idea what the baddy was called or indeed what his tower was called – no doubt Boyle will fill in those details!!!

One of the Wee kittens at the hostel
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Had a very satisfying day packing up some stuff to send home - at least that's a bit of weight out of the bag. On the way to the post office a Christmas concert had stared up on the village green - I still cant get used to Christmas carols, decorations & hot sunshine! Did have a bit of a strop in the post office as they had run out of the size of box i wanted - you'd think it was Christmas! The cost for the 6Kg of stuff going home & a wee present for Alexandra & William cost just over $100 which was a bit scary but them in the UK that would have cost a whole lot more. Did however realise that I in fact saved $10 as I had forgotten to  tell the counter woman that I had used another box/bubble wrap/2 postcards - ooops!

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Postage expedition over it was time for a beer! I'd noticed when we went biking that there was a monteiths pub on Church St so it was only right that we enjoyed a nice pint of Pilsner! We then went into Guilty a pub that used to be the court for a pint, although the patio was busy the inside was a bit quiet so we decided to move next door to the Pig & Whistle. As its the last Friday before Christmas there were lots of staff parties going on. Weird what some of the locals wear though - singlets & long shorts, denim shorts/checked shirts/body warmers on middle aged men (I'm thinking of that chap who used to be in neighbours way back when it first started - please someone tell me his name as its driving me mad!!). Was amazed in the Pig as they had Tennents on tap - never thought I would see that anywhere over here! One of the tables had ordered a tall glass container with its own beer tap attached. This thing looked like a massive science beaker and probably held around 5-6 pints - great idea for a group! As the night went on it was amusing watching the office flirtations which stopped as soon as the partner turned up! Met a very drunk chap from Kennoway who went to Buckhaven high. Jackie pointed out an older chap who was reminding her of Stephen - the classic only dances at office dos chap. Got home at who knows when - was absolutely soaked as really heavy rain had come in & helpfully I didn't have my jacket with me! Obviously everyone was asleep - not for long though as Jackie had the lights on & was having a good swear at the fact that someone had taken her sleeping bag!

Saturday 20th December

Not feeling great today - it may be because we drank too much beer & didnt have dinner?! Oddly when Jackie woke up her sleeping bag was in a ball by her head, so whoever had though of taking it had rapidly changed their mind on hearing drunken Scots talk! Took the car back today - the bluebird has been fantastic & brilliant value. We took out max insurance and for 3 weeks the car cost us £380. We've done exactly 3000km and spent only £120 on fuel - amazing.

Came back to the hostel for a sleep - Jackie had a bit of a baok first. got up went for curry & am now back. Early night tonight I think!