Oh my, I forget what hostels are like but an all boy dorm in
the morning isn’t the best when they had kept us up from 3-4 am drinking
outside our window. Sadly, whitewater rafting had to be cancelled. I was asked
if I wanted to do it, but it was on the quick river, I’d have to be a very competent
swimmer and it hadn’t been rafted yet…I don’t think so. This morning, the third
of my sandfly bites have swelled, so much so that I can’t bend my forth finger
which isn’t great. They love me, I’m feeding the sandfly population. Trouble
is, it doesn’t hurt for 24 hours, then swells for 24 hours, then goes down to a
red painful bubble. I have a conveyor belt system of them at the moment.
So instead of rafting, I joined Ali on her heritage 4 wheel
drive trip into skippers canyon with our guide Dale. It was great, but I’m glad
he was driving. There were sheer drops beside us, and it was apparently a 2 way
road! People live in the canyon, and expect to be cut off from civilisation throughout
the winter months until they get into town again. The views were spectacular,
apparently one of the most scariest road drives, we saw the pipe bungee, old
gold mines, went over a suspension bridge and had tea in the village of
skipper, now restored by the Department of Conservation. I do love the New
Zealand tradition of morning tea. After tea, we went panning for our own gold
but all we found was dust and I got a very wet foot. A great trip.
In the afternoon, we visited the kiwi birdlife park and saw
kiwi’s for the first time. Thank you to Snowy owl, Sally, Olivia, Caitlin,
Grandad and Norma. We saw lots of birds, and the feeding of the kiwi which was
fantastic. As they are nocturnal, the keepers have changed their day cycle, so
we saw the kiwi foraging around. They are much bigger than I thought they would
be. We then went on the skyline gondola for a great view over Queenstown, many
thanks Jermiane! We watched the luge, were amazed at the view of the lake, then
took the skyline gondola back.
Sadly, the steamship had to be cancelled due to the flooding
so instead we drove to the motel. However, I fell asleep on apparently one of
the best drives in New Zealand…
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