More adrenaline and fresh undershorts

Rob talking.  Well well well.......another day of high adrenaline with non-stop wide open action.  With the daily 4 am man scream wake up call from the closing of the Queenstown bars, I rose out of bed to see a windy, rainy squall pass through town, and decided it wasn't quite time to get out of bed.   Much later, after a beautiful egg n toast breakfast, colonel style, we eventually packed up and hit the road.  After about 40 minutes of a beautiful scenic drive, we realized that not only we are driving on the wrong side of the road, we were going the wrong way.  U-turn.....and back up, re-route to the original bungy jump.  Upon arrival, we entered the bungy building and thought that we were in a Disney land ride.  Loud music, huge round building, spiraling staircase, and lots of people...the adrenaline starts pumping immediately (even though I have no intentions of jumping off anything).  This bridge/bungy operation was the first in the world and is set on a bridge over a tourmaline blue river surrounded by stunning mountains.  Well, with my love of heights I felt that the need to throw myself off a 45 meter bridge was unnecessary, if not childlike.  However my colleagues Jennifer and "the Colonel" felt that they must conquer the bungy, along with numerous other tourists from around the world.  The Colonel was first up and marched up to the edge of the jumping area like a true soldier.  There wasn't a gleam of fear in his eye as he performed a swan dive off the platform.  A perfect 10 if I have ever seen one, without a peep of a scream I might add.  Next was Jen, who after seeing the Colonel and several others cascade off the platform, marched up as well.  Her bravery was next to none and as she performed a "triple Lindy" off the platform, I thought I heard an echo of "O S@&t" throughout the canyon walls.  Jennifer's performance was that of a ballerina, graceful and yet stoic. 

However, the fun didn't stop here......after a wonderful picnic lunch and meander through Arrowtown, we arrived at our next destination.  If you have been following our adventures, one couldn't imagine how we could out do or possible find something more "extreme", but yet New Zealand is the gift that keeps on giving.  We found our way to the Shotover Jet boat river adventure.  The following was perhaps the most exhilarating activity any of us have ever experienced.  You board the jet boats on a raging river, surrounded by 200 foot canyons, crystal blue water and a sudden fear of what the heck did I just get myself into.  With Kai and Mia safely in the middle seats, a crazy eyed Kiwi driver told us the rules....."it's pretty obvious that one wouldn't stand up or put their hand outside the boat at anytime"........and off we went!  With an average speed of 80 kilo/hr, we sped through the narrow passages only inches away from the sides of the cliffs, holding on for dear life, screaming and thinking "what the hell am I doing on this boat"........one can't describe the fear and rush experienced on this ride, it was unbelievable!  Most of the ride the river is only 30' wide and this guy has the boat pointed at every rock and bolder you think that there is no way you will be able to make it around but "el capitan" pulls off miracle after miracle.  The kids couldn't get enough and definitely thought it was the highlight of the trip.  If you are ever in Queenstown you have to experience the Shotover jet boats. 

Now, once again we are about to sit down to another fabulous NZ meal, a whole beef tenderloin bbq'd, accompanied with Cita's famous garlic mash n Jen's sizzling salad. 

Ta Ta
Rob "needs new underwear after the jet boat" Pennell

Awesome, Stunning, Incredible

So we've been in Queenstown for a few days now.  It's a stunning mountain town on the South island.  It's like Tahoe, only better.  It is also the land of adreneline junkies.  Rob and I took a tour of the downtown area where we were bombarded with videos and pamphlets for bungy jumping, cliff diving, canyon swings, helicopters rides, white water rafting, extreme ziplining, and boats that speed inbetween cliffs with only inches to spare.  We should have had a clue, as the Lonely Planet Guide,  gave out an award for one activity as "the best thing to throw yourself off." 

We settled on the Luge and Zipline for the first day, which both Kai and Mia wrote about.  We lucked out, as it rained just enough to chase people away, but not enough to shut anything down.  We had the luge track to ourselves and our choice of times for the zipline.  Our usually cautious children turned into Tasmanian devils hurling themselves down the luge track and careening down the zipline upside down or yelling "cannonball."  It was SO much fun.  Not to mention, all of this was set against a dramatic backdrop of mountains and lake.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get some of the pictures on the blog. 

We woke on the second morning to snow capped mountains and uncertain weather.  It was hard to believe the view could get more stunning.  With wallets that were considerably lighter after our previous activities, we decided for a low budget day.  There was a hike at the end of the lake that wound through a forest of beech trees to Sylvan Lake.  This area had been the scene of many movies, including Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series.  It was also the start of the famous Routburn trail.  We brought a picnic lunch and hoped that we wouldn't get rained on.  We were the only ones on the trail. 

I'm going to need a thesaurus soon as "stunning" "awesome" and "incredible" are going to be overused quickly. 

The forest was GREEN.  It was beautiful, gentle and inviting.  We started the hike, crossing a suspension bridge over an unreal blue river.  And that was just the beginning.  Moss grew everywhere, so the entire forest, the ground and tree trunks were blanketed.  It was a great hour and a half hike and we were all pleasantly pooped at the end.   Highlighting cultural differences, what we considered a lengthy hike was described as a "perfect hike for young children and the elderly" in kiwi literature.  We are clearly the unfit, lazy americans. 

We stopped at a cafe on the way back to refuel.  Kai was so excited about his coke, that when he tripped and fell, he took it on the face, still holding the coke bottle in the air, with coke fizzing all over him and the carpet.

Green lipped mussels in coconut curry broth for dinner.  Great day. 

Pictures from the hike: the forest and the kids, pretending to be eaten by a fallen tree.

Photoless iPad

I have cursed Steve Jobs and the iPad so much, I'm surprised he has not come for me from his grave. The iPad does not want to play well with Blogger or adding photos. So, throughout the blog, you will only see 1-2 photos per blog and sometimes as a separate post. I'm going back to windows operated laptop for my next trip.

Photos below: Kai and Rob prepping for our hike. The gondola - the trail we took zigzagged alongside the Gondola

Tiki tiki Trail

While the kids went with my parents up the gondola to the luge/zip line/bungs jump/parasail area (this kiwis are crazy), Rob and I hiked up on the Tiki Tiki trail. What it lacked in distance, it made up for in elevation climb. You know a trail is steep when they had to build stairs for it.

Mia Goes Crazy

Guest blogger Mia:Today we went on the luge. The luge is a sled thing with 3 wheels and a steering wheel like a bike. We had to take a chairlift to get to the luge. The luge track is like a race track. There are two tracks, the scenic track and the advanced track. I like the advanced track way more than the scenic track. The scenic track is boring, even though I crashed into the fence on it the first time I went. You have to wear a helmet.

There was a miniature gondola that we took up the mountain. It protected you, but you could roll down the windows.

We also went on a zip line all the way down the mountain. There were six zip lines. I did all sorts of tricks on it. We went through the forest. I went upside down, I did the cannonball, and the "fall of faith", where you fall backwards with your eyes closed. You had to weigh 30kilos to do all six lines. I did all six. Kai was not 30 kilos, so he could only do four lines. I went with my dad. Kai went with my mom, my grandma and my grampa.

The last zip line my dad and I did is the steepest zipline in the world.

All of it was my favorite part.

Duck delight

Our favorite restaurant name so far.

Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown a couple days ago. We have a home exchange for the week we are here. The owners are the nicest people in the world. They met us at the airport and we followed their car back to the apartment. Thank GOD they met us. As we walked up to our rental car with bags and surfboards in tow, Kai exclaimed with excitement, "it's a mini-cooper, awesome!". It's not a mini-cooper, just the worlds smallest car. The owners of the exchange promptly offered to take our surfboards to the apartment. We then clambered into the clown car and followed them back. I was transfixed by the stunning beauty of the mountains while Rob was white knuckled, driving on the left side of the road. I'm pretty sure we would have crashed into someone, if we hadn't been following our guardian home exchange angels. The whole, go left, stay left, concept is so confusing, especially when driving a matchbox. Their apartment is stunning, by the way.

Photos below are: our car, view from the home exchange, view of our place