Jet boat and Rafting

Tuesday was certainly a busy day. Our first adventure was the mountain descent from our motel into Queenstowns. The descent wasnt too bad - it was the ascent that I wasnt looking forward to. Queenstown is absolutely freezing - the sun shines brightly but the wind blows strongly. It has an icy feel to it. The gondola was fun - when you look at it from the ground it looks like it goes at a snails pace and goes up very steeply but in reality it goes quite fast and the incline is not at all scary. It only took 15 minutes round trip. The most difficult part was getting into the car - which kept moving all the time.

We had to check in by 12 o clock for the jet boating - we were in plenty of time. A bus collected us at about 12.15 and we were delivered to the jet boating location. It only took a few minutes. As soon as we arrived we were given a waterproof jacket and life jacket - pics were then taken and we hopped into the boat. Inky was very brave and jumped in no problem. We choice the seat behind the driver - an after thought it was probably going to be the driest place. There probably was 8 - 10 people on the boat. Mike was our driver. After more photos we were on our way. It was fun - speeding down the river spinning around in 360 degrees on the spot - getting wet from the river spray. The river was a milkly blue and the water was really cold. My face was really cold too after driving around for a few minutes at 50km per hour. Spadracially Mike would stop the boat and tell us abit about the place. Like a nugget of gold (sold for $30k) was found in the last 5 years in the river. The miners build a tunnel in order to divert water so that they could look for gold in a particular place. He showed us the end of the tunnel - the rafters (thats me) come out of the tunnel at the end of the trip. I know Inky will describe it better than me - am feeling inarticulate today - bit brain dead!!! It must be too much relaxing.
At the trip we went into the shop an our photo packs were ready - we got one each. There are cool. We also came across a wall of fame - it pics of the famous and other note worthy people who took part in the trip. My favourite was George, a man in his 90's who took the trip. He looked old and frail but you could see his spirit was alive in the way he stood determinely. ( it brings back memories of Dadas spirit and determination). I am so inspired by George - what a man - please God i will have spirit till the end to live life to the full and try out new experiences. OVerall i would rate this activity with 8/10. I loved it.

Inky got the bus back into town and i wandered over to the rafting place. It was in the same location. After a while everyone was gathered together and given a brief briefing. I felt like billie no mates coz i was on my own anyway i cant let that stop me from doing what i want to do. We were all given wet suits and rubber shoes to put on. Off we went to the dressing rooms. While i was struggling into the figure hugging rubber suit i started talking to a girl called Mary from Kilkenny. She was really nice and was on holidays with her boyfriend Rob. They were travelling around for three weeks in a campervan. I hung around with them - it was great. Once changed we were given an outer rubber jacket to wear, a red waterproof to, helmet and life jacket. We all got onto buses and off we went. The guide on my bus was called Clive. He is american, reminded me of Bruce Campbell and told the stupidest jokes ever, however he was very nice. The road upto the start of the rafting was really bad - one side was rock face anad the other side was sheer cliff. The road was dusty and narrow. ( Docpot and Hoofpot- it was worse than the road in Crete to the Samarian Gorge). Some people were having canaries on the bus but i wasnt. If it was that dangerous they wouldnt drive us up. When we got to the top we were split into groups. Each boat took 8 people - so 7 tourists and a guide. Our guide was Clive. There were two australians at the front of the boat, then two dutch, then Rob and me and finally Mary and Clive at the back. We had paddles - photos were taken and off we went. I had visions of paddling continously for a couple of hours however that wasnt needed. We paddled when we needed to correct the direction of the boat or went we were going over the rapids. Each person sits on the sides of the boat and secures feet under the inflated tubes in front and behind. Clive was a very chatty guide and talked constantly. He also was excellent at instruction. The rapids started small and got bigger. We travelled 15km and it went in a flash. Just before the final rapid - the biggest and called Jaws - we found a little Paradise duckling swimming on its own in the water - heading towards Jaws. We managed to get it - if hadnt it would have died. Mary had responsility to look after it. It was so beautiful and chirped all the time. I promised a mass for the Holy Souls if I didnt fall out of the boat. It is a risk given the activity we were doing. I didnt mind falling out - it was getting back in that i was worried about. We made it through Jaws and our final trick was going through the tunnel and then the final rapid. We made it through without any mishaps. After that Mary let me hold the duckling - soooo cute. It struggled to be free and chirped all the time. Several other ducklings have been rescued over the years and have done well. All in all this was a fantastic trip - 10 out of 10. The rapids were a bit tame - would have loved if they had been bigger.

I got back into town about 5.30 and met up with Inky. We went into an Italian restuarant for dinner. The owner was totally cat mad and had surrounded the entire place with cat pictures, cat books, cat toys etc. The food was nice and we enjoyed it. While we were still drinking our coffees she gave us the bill - i dont know why she wanted us to leave - there were only two other people in the restuarant.

We went back to the motel and more or fell asleep.