The rest if Contiki!!

We spent one night and one half day in Fox.  A group of us did a helihike up the fox glacier  where we took a helicopter up into the glacier and spent about 2 hours hiking around and listening to how the glaciers are formed and move. It was a trip I don't know that I would ever do in Canada, so it was a lot of fun. Plus, now I want a helicopter...

We left Fox midday yo continue our travels southward, and took an amazing ride through a series or turns ans bumps named the rollercoaster by the coach drivers. We also came into Queenstown on a road that apparently we weren't supposed to take because our bus w alas too long! The last leg of it had an amazingview followed by a decent through a series of switchbacks that required us to let the driver know if any cars were coming up the hill to meet us!

Queenstown, our next stop, is known as the adventure capital of the world. Here you can do just about anything from hi jumping out if a plane, off  a cliff, off q bridge or out if gondola. We spent 3 nights and 2.5 days here. Our fist dinner was at.the skyline restaurant that overlooks all of Queenstown and some of the nearby lakes and mountains. The view was amazing, and the food almost as food. We then went out for the evening to a bar fir dome partying. Our group of 47 only had about 9 guys, if that many, so we made for an  interesting spectacle when we entered the bar. We turned alot if local guys' heads!

The next morning I was up early to go skydiving, but our trip was nearly cancelled, and ended up being postponed to noon ( we were originally supposed to jump at 830). Then I spent the rest of the day walking around the town. That night was a big night our fir mist of us.  We had dinner at Ferg Burger (biggest and best burger EVER!!!) then went to the boiler room to wait for our half-hour turn in the -5 Ice Bar. We got to put on Ugs and massive warm jackets to go into a freezer to have some Vodka at the proper temperature. It was alot if fun! My party night didn't end until 4 am when Anita and I finished our long walk back to the hotel from the club we left at 330 am.

I got about 45 min sleep before I had to get up to go River Boarding with Mad Dog.  River Boarding is basically white water rafting on a boogie board instead of in a raft, so you get hit in the face by all the rapids, and kick with your fins instead of paddling.  AKA, its major awesome and a great way to wake up after a loong night!  In the afternoon I want to do the Canyon Swing, which is similar to a bungee, but it's 60m of freefall then a massive 150m swing over a river! It's also different from a bungee because you can do just about anything to jump! Flips, run and jump, sit and release, sit and wait while they CUT a cord holding you up, or dangle upsidedown while they pull a release cord. (and your second jump is free if you go naked..which I may or may not have done...) Oh! And there's the invisible chair: sit back blindfolded into the void nit knowing it's there - we had a guy on our trip that got tricked into doing this!

For our last dinner in Queenstown we had pizza at Winnie's and then while some people went out, we went back to the hotel to chill and play cards.

The following morning we left for Dunedin where we toured and ate at the Speights brewery then headed off to a ghost tour of the Octagon and one of the cemeteries.  I caught an orb on film, and a few other peeps caught bunches of them in varying pictures. Before leaving Dunedin the next day, we toured the Cadbury factory and witnessed the only chocolate waterfall in the southern hemisphere ( I think...) and where I ate too much chocolate, including drinking  chocolate!!! It was delicious! We also climbed the steepest street in the world, then departed for our last destination: Lake Ohau.

We arrived in Lake Ohau mid-late afternoon, and 4 of the boys, Sinead ( one of my roomies) and I decided to go down to the lake for a swim.  It was definitely worth it!!! The water was freezing (maybe 12¤? So I've been in colder!), but if you swam out a bit, you could do a 360 and see mountains all around you!  The sky was beautifully blue, and the water slightly milky from the glacial minerals; plus, the company was great!  After our last dinner, we got sheets from the hotel to make togas for our final night's Toga Party! It was our tour manager's last trip before he moves from Contiki NZ to work at either the Canyon Swing in Queenstown or Contiki Asia, so we planned a going away event for him.  It started with all the girls dancing for him, then out came the boys one by one, each with a letter on his chest to spell out Brendan, and each doing a dance! It was hilarious to watch as Brendan had only a toga and a mask on, and each guy came to give him a bit of a lap dance all in their togas!!! I ended my night with a short stint in the spa ( aka hot tub).

The last day was spent travelling tailback.to.Christchurch.and saying goodbye to.the people flying out that night.  We had our final farewell dinner at the Flying Burrito Brothers (Mexican) for those that were still around, and had a few drinks at our hotel for those staying there or nearby.  The next morning many people had left already, and Anita and I saw off the reminder of our tour.  Only she and I had booked in for another night in Christchurch, so we went with Mike, our driver, to check out some cars, to get his iPhone fixed, and we wandered around on our own. We also helped him do a bit of cleaning on the coach because he started a new tour the following day.  That night was uneventful, save for a chat with 2 of Mike's next tour, an English banker from New York and a French woman from Australia, and for watching Date Night.  In the morning we said goodbye to Mike and saw off his coach before catching our shuttle to the airport.

Whoa! That's alot of writting! I started in Christchurch this morning, and I've been writting snippets since then, in the plane etc.  So I apologize for any and all of the mixed tenses!!

I'm currently in bed in Auckland. It's nice to be back in one place and nit bouncing from hotel to hotel, though I'll likely do that one more time.  I think I'm going to be moving into rez this week (I found out that I got excepted mid last week, and I think at this point it's prudent to take it rather than continue my own search).

Anyway, im off!  TTFN

Ps. If you're thinking of doing a Contiki, I totally recommend it!