Sat, Feb 27th ~ last full day in Queenstown

... and TODAY we had some ADVENTURE!

We were up early, toe wrapped, and downtown by 7:30am.  I know that is not THAT early (Deb Carnsew), but when on vacation??  Anyway, the real question was .... would the weather hold for our already rescheduled Jet Boat Adventure up the Dart River in Glenorchy?   We WERE booked for a 2:00 pm tour on Saturday, but on Friday the 2:00 pm tour was cancelled due to nasty weather.  So we switched to the MORNING tour on Saturday and prayed (and HIGH PRESSURE CHANTED) for clear weather.  And gratefully so .... we got it!

Words can't quite explain the excitement and beauty we witnessed today.  An hour's bus ride northwest of Queenstown into the Mount Inspire National Park ~ just one of four HUGE National Parks in the South Island.  Here was the half-way point ~



But we were so GRATEFUL it wasn't DUMPING RAIN!

Much to our surprise, they put us in a 4 wheel drive BUS, with seatbelts, and drove us through sections of the Dart River to get to the first location which was a walk in the Lord of the Rings forest.  Because of the massive rains from the previous days, we were told the water was higher than they've seen in quite awhile.  And being boaters, we could see that the river was running quite fast.  EXCITING!!





 

We did an easy walk (thank God) through the forest and enjoyed some facts of where Lord of the Rings was filmed, crawled into a 900+ year old tree (oldest known tree in New Zealand), and ate a leaf from a Pepper Tree ...

  

 

 

Then the BIG JET BOAT EXCITEMENT started ... more pictures and video than I could share!

 

 

 

The light and rain and mood continually changed

 

I smiled the ENTIRE time.  I think this IS my bliss.

 

We both finally gave up with keeping our hoods up and just let 'er rip!  It would sprinkle rain at times, we would be sprayed from the boat, and then our driver would do 360 spins.

 

WOO HOO!  WHAT A RIDE!!!

 

We absolutely loved EVERY SECOND!

 

We briefly met a couple from England on the bus, but thought we wouldn't see them again because they were SKY DIVING after this adventure.  But when we got back to Queenstown, they discovered their trip was cancelled due to high winds.  So we ended up having lunch with them and had a splendid time ~ Fiona and Paul.  AMBER .... which rule is this?

 



 

 

And because we STILL hadn't had enough boating for the day, we decided to take a cruise on Queenstown's lake .... Lake Wakatipu.

 

Hard to believe, but this lake is 99% PURE.  One could drink out of it.  It is so absolutely gorgeous. 

 

As this LUCKY day proceeded .... there were only SEVEN passengers on the 4PM sailing!
 

And Captain Wayne maintained an HONOR bar.  Look at the cash box just sitting there!

And he let ME drive the boat?  THAT IS CRAZY!

 

 

By the time we got home at 6PM, we were both DONE.  All that fresh air!

 

Our evening consisted of downloading a ZILLION pictures, doing laundry and Dennis making a FABULOUS dinner from leftovers, and posting this blog. 

 

Time for bed .... and dreaming about the beauty we saw today.

 

Queenstown .... a place where I could easily live.