New Zealand, 16th June 2005
I'm having a great time in Queenstown. There is so much you can do here from skiing to skydiving.
I went out last night with Will, Gareth and Steve to a place called the World Bar. I am going to be sitting next to Will and Gareth at the rugby game in Dunedin on the 18th. They are nice guys out for a good time. I've been drinking a good pint called Monteith's Black by the Monteith's Brewing company. Actually, it's just under a pint as they have strange size glasses here like in Oz. Monteith's also do a beer called Celtic Red, which is an Irish type of beer - not a real bitter but that style. This is the best beer I have found so far in New Zealand. Monteith's have a great saying: "The mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer".
There were lots of people at the bar wearing Lions shirts for the rugby game. I have a replica of the players shirt as one of the shops in town was doing a deal. I got it for $152 (£60) and most places were selling them for $160. There was also a voucher in a local free paper: spend over $99 on Adidas clothes you get a free cap. I got the cap with half Lions and half All Blacks worth $40. So a big winner.
After the bar we went to a place called Fergburger. They have great chips and big burgers with great names. I had one called Sweet Bambi. It was fab but you had to stand around the outdoor seating area as the heaters were on the walls and it is below freezing at night.
The other day I went, with a couple of guys, up the Skyline Gondola to the top of one of the mountains. We went down the Luge Runs on a plastic sledge. It had a wheel at the front and two at the back. The bicycle handle bars were for steering and braking. The first time you go down the easy run to get used to the sledge. Then you can go down the fast run and this is when we got very competitive. Mark was a bit slow to start with whilst Captain Jack and I were about even. We started to go a bit mad and tried to run each other of the track. I side-swiped Captain Jack and he went off the track onto the grass. I overturned my sledge and had to get out of the way before Mark came around the corner. On one run we all went at the same time so we would be next to each other at the first corner. Unfortunately, the girl running the track gave me a big push off causing me to lead by miles but I slowed down so we could race. We had five runs and the last race was the best with all the ramming and bumping. All of us went off the track at some point. There was a lovely steep bit with a double bump then a hard left turn and by the last run the track had started to freeze and we were skidding sideways to slow down enough to get round the corners. It was so funny - you have to go with friends as it is much better.
I have emailed out photos of the Canyon Swing in Queenstown. It is the biggest swing in the world. You jump off the platform and freefall 60 metres before going into the 200 metre arc swing. This is very smooth and is a big rush. It is like a bungee without the bounce back up. I thought I would find it easy to jump off as I have done a number of bungee jumps. However, the last one was over six years ago. Now I am older I found my mind saying, "What are you doing ?". I felt very strange, so I did it the easy way. They rig you up as if you are sitting down and swing you out over the edge. Then they pull a cord which lets you drop like a stone and go into the swing. It's amazing and I felt so relaxed when control was given over to someone else. It's a rush and even better in the winter as the air was so cold when I tried to breathe in on the way down. I got a t-shirt and four photos. On the back of the t-shirt it says "Even my sh*t was scared".
