Thursday was a completely free day for us, which was a bit weird since we usually have such a packed schedule. After a late wake up, I went down into town to update this and then had lunch with a few of the others on the Flying Kiwi tour. After that, I went to 'The Station', a booking office where my afternoon's activities were checking in.
The first thing I had booked was the Shotover Jet, a jet boat on the Shotover River. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the activity, but then it was recommended by Lisa (our guide) who used to work there. Essentially, you're sat in a powerful jet boat as the driver speeds down the narrow river valley for 25 minutes. They purposefully made sure to drive as close to the rocks as possible and the driver took each bend in the river like a rally driver; sideways. I didn't quite know what to expect from the Shotover Jet, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and good value for money. It was even better since I got the front seat in the boat next to the driver!
From there it was on to a helicopter ride, which took five of us up to The Remarkables, a series of mountains above Queenstown. The views were spectacular as you'd expect and the pilot even landed on top of a mountain to allow us to get off and take photos, which was great. From The Remarkables, we then flew back down to the airport and got a shuttle back into Queenstown.
Queenstown itself is an off place, a pure tourist resort which seems to be growing at a rapid pace. It's only got 10,000 people, but that doubles seasonally and there are plenty of contruction sites wherever you go. Its pedestrian-friendly downtown area almost feels European with cafes having room to put tables out in the streets. Auckland and a lot of other towns have much less of an emphasis on pedestrians. On top of all the adventure activities there are, the scenery is spectacular and it makes a great setting for overpriced bungy jumps and the like.
Anyway, we're off out of Queenstown and up the West Coast today (the 11th), so expect more sporadic updates for the next 10 days or so.
