Strapped and drugged up again, we managed to nail both the water activities we had booked in Queenstown. Hurrah!
Firstly the Shotover Jet Ride that I'm sure everyone reading this who has been to NZ will also have done. Basically a half hour speedboat ride at a rate of knots passing terrifyingly close to huge rocks and the cliffs of a narrow waterway. And you pay good money for this insanity! Was actually very good crack and I managed to secure the 'least rocky' seat in the middle at the back of the boat. H therefore scored the 'wettest ride' seat in the back row on the outside, diagonally opposite the driver, so every time he pulled a 360, the water landed on H's head. Happy days..
And then an even better day in that it was long and I was more or less fine (except for the bit where I had to strap on my back support secretly in the changing room UNDER my wetsuit – there's barely room for me in there let alone a 3-4 ft velcro-ed semi-corset… Called the Funyak trip on the Dart River, about an hour from Queenstown. Well worth the early start…
Just managed to download water camera pix here so you can see it was a stunning place, huge valley, clear water, dead quiet, except for the sound of the jet boat we started off on.
Jet boat dropped us off in a quiet river alcove to get into our 'funyaks' – thank god boats that you sit on rather than have to try and squeeze a sore back into – see photo below of me at max 'bendy turn', the mind says yes but the back says 'dream on darling'… Although getting in and out was still a challenge – luckily the guide chappy was kind and helpful.
To us at least, perhaps less so with the many Asian visitors who do rather swamp NZ, and many of whom, well, just aren't that good at the active stuff. (Says the cripple).
So it was vastly entertaining watching the Chinese guests trying valiantly to master paddling the very easy large inflatable sit-on kayaks, and failing in spades. Within minutes our guide let us and the other Western couple paddle off while he tied both the Chinese boats together, and got in the back to steer them. Shortly after, the American bloke in the other kayak snapped his paddle on a rock – so the solution was to remove one from the poor Chinese foursome, making it very clear their water skills didn't merit an actual piece of wood to use…
Anyway here's a bunch of pix, my cap cleverly obscuring my attractive 'she's got a pineapple, on 'er head' look. And one of Mr H braving the jump into bloody cold alpine water. Top day x