Kearneys NZ trip: last days in Queenstown, Jan 27 to 29

We were completely shagged after our 13 hour bus/ boat/bus/boat adventure to doubtful sound but that meant nothing to Sinead – she had more craziness lined up for us on friday when we were taken out to the stunning Dart river for a jet boating wilderness safari. Of course none of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for and when we were given life jackets and full length waterproof ponchos we started to wonder... Stunning blue skies with high clouds over the mountains – there was snow on the tops to complete the magic backdrop. We climbed aboard the jet boat and spent the next “best two hours of my life” (quote nan) being jet boated bout 30 miles up the Dart river, into ever more beautiful and dramatic scenery. Jet boating is another crazy kiwi activity. The boats have extremely shallow hulls and powerful jet engines (70,000l of water pumped out every minute I think he said) which propels them at insane speeds across shallow water – at its deepest the river is at most 3ft. Its a braided river which means that when you look across this wide valley (a mile at the widest) you mostly see dry river beds except for the one or two parts where the river is currently running. All of us enjoyed the ride including the kids who were enthralled. We were then dropped at the riverbank upstream to take a walk through a beech forest with a fantastic nature guide. He showed us a plant with spicy leaves which when you chew them, the more you chew the spicier they get. The Maoris boil them six at a time and drink the juice, especially for their motions. (Gave two glasses to Norrie as she wouldnt let me have an extra Jamieson last night!!). The guide then took us back to base over country roads in a safari bus. This valley is where the Orc battle and many other scenes in the Lord of the Rings was filmed. Huge beef and sheep farms here and tourism is a major part of the economy also. Back to QT for another great night out and our last day – saturday. We rode the skyline gondola (its like a skiing cablecar) up a steep incline to an incredble viewing platform, and then spent a couple of hours Luge-ing. In case you havent tried it – its like down hill go-carting. Very thrilling and a good laugh especially with the kids. Nan and Rick then played a windy round of golf at QT golf course – on a peninsula jutting out into the lake which we could see from the gondola, absolutely stunning. They even took a water taxi back home afterwards. Sunday we said a sad goodbye to wonderful QT and set off at 9am for our arduous journey north – the distances in NZ are far greater than you can envisage from a map and we had 660lm to cover before our next bed in Kaikoura on the north east coast of the South Island. Well the trip took over 10 hours – including a much needed two hour stop to soak in the hot pools by Lake Tekapo. More stunning scenery – this time with lakes the colour of turquoise; bizarre. The road north after that was pretty boring scenery compared to what we had seen before and we were glad to get past quake-ridden Christchurch and see the end of the journey nearing – towards the end there were a lot of funny games and singing to keep everyone awake and happy. A good old fashioned road trip. Kaikoura is our next stop – specifically for the purpose of watching some whales.