Hills, spills, luges and cruises

I'm not sure if you have ever heard about Queenstown, but it is the adrenaline activity capitol of the world..and we all know what that means...thrills for Al and spills for Mel. Not sure why that is, as I can kind of vaguely recall myself and quite a daring child and youth, but those days are dwindling down to a nub I'm afraid. Alex on the other hand, has been daring and risk taking her whole life...a true adrenalin junkie, but I must admit, it is so special to be travelling with someone who pushes me and motivates me to try new and bolder, if you will, challenges...blah blah blah! So before we made our way to Queenstown, we spent some time in Dunedin and what a lovely place it is, but leave it to Alex to find something daring/challenging for us to engage in...this time it was the World's Steepest Street, Baldwin Street (yes, it is in the Guinness Book of World Records as such...just Google it if you don't believe me). I thought, stupidly, that we would just drive to it...maybe even up it...and take a few snaps and talk about its' greatness and steepness over a nice cuppa, but this is Alex Hewett we're talking about so I should have known better! So, we got there and I saw that ever familiar glint in her eye...she sort of gets this high when we are about to do anything that is a) life threatening or b) involves exercise and sweat. "I know," she said with a hint of unabashed excitement and eagerness in her voice. "Why don't we run up it?" Pause for a moment of silence from Mel...and we're back. I just nodded, what else could I do...looked up at the hill and then just thought to myself...it is just a stupid hill, 1 stupid hill and anyone can run up 1 stupid hill! Well, Alex thought we should do a bit of a warm up run first, you know to get the blood pumping so we feel 'energized' for the steep hill sprint, as she called it. Off we went on our 30 minute warm up run and when we turned that corner down Baldwin Street and I saw the monster in all its' glory, I almost pooped myself! Alex was already half way up by the time I broke the hypnosis and began my joggish, walk-like hoppy skip run up the f*$&#r! She literally, and I kid you not, did not stop the whole way up...not once. And, to add pain to some already tender bits, once you reach the top, it is actually an optical illusion due to its' steepness and there is ANOTHER part of the hill that is even at more of an incline than the first bit. I had a moment, these is picture documenting that moment as well, but Alex, ever the cheerleader, urged me up the rest of the way...They put a nice bench and a water fountain at the top as a kind of reward...we sat...I heaved...we drank...I cursed...we chatted...I heavy breathed and off we were again to the bottom. Going down was so much more fun that going up and honestly, our poor little Jucy girl might not have made it up that hill, and we wouldn't want to put her through that anyway! Showers and a lovely salad lunch awaited us at the end and off we scooted to Te Anau and Milford Sound for a cruise. Now, I don't want to be negative and Alex always tells me that I am sooooooooo hard to impress, but Milford Sound...hmmm...what can I say about it...well...honestly, it was alright! We had to drive a long way out of the way to get there, but after seeing such amazing beauty and really experiencing it, like in Hooker Valley near Mt Cook on our 3 1/2 hour hike and being so close to fur seals that you can actually reach out and touch them in Kaikoura, it was just a it disappointing to sit on a boat and ride for 1 1/2 hours through the sound, which is actually a fiordland, seeing a lot of the same thing over and over again. Of course, it wasn't thrilling enough for Al, as the top speed this ferry hit was no more than about 30km/hour, perhaps. There were three highlights I would like to point out though, 1) we got a buy one get one free coupon with our Jucy rental so that was a real perk, as these ferry rides are pricey, 2) you get free tea and coffee on the ferry, and I am talking all the free tea and coffee you want...I was high as a kite on caffeine by the end of it and poor old Alex just kept asking, "why don't they offer hot chocolate for free for those who don't like tea or coffee, or what about some juice?" bless her and 3) towards the end, the boat captain drove the ferry right into a giant waterfall so we could feel the power and truly understand just how massive and intense these waterfalls are, as they appear dwarfed by the gigantic mountains that surround them in the sound and that was very cool! An honourable mention perk was that we were able to charge up our camera battery and our mobile phone battery while riding on the ferry as well.

After our cruise, we raced to Queenstown for what I thought would be a lovely walk around with the Lonely Planet walking tour and perhaps a trip to the Underwater Observatory to see some lake life. Oh, how wrong I was, as Alex got a hold of the Lonely Planet and decided that we were heading straight up the side of the mountain on the gondola to the top to try out a few of the range of stressful and somewhat life threatening activities. Honestly, I thought it was kind of cool to ride up the side of a mountain in a gondala...awesome...but of course, this is how I get myself into problems...I forget that I enjoy the idea of something like that better than the actual doing of it. So, we agreed to do the walking tour first, as it led to the gondola ride and we also took a tiny pit stop in the Underwater Observatory and saw New Zealand's only diving ducks...it was so amazing to see these guys dive so deep and then scurry back to the top...they are so fast! After this, it was gondola time and while in the cue Alex observed the sign for the bungy jump and the luge ride...I agreed, reluctantly I might add, to the luge ride, but refused the bungy, as I am just not ready and we talked to a Canadian girl just a few moments before our gondola ride who did the Nevis jump that morning. This is the highest bungy jump one can do and it is 143m...that is like over 400ft with a 9 second free fall. She gave us the gory details and I have now set myself back a few more days or weeks even with the bungy jump. So, the gondola...I know people think it is a sweet little thing riding up the side of a mountain, but it bounces a bit and blows in the wind too...and they don't tell you that at the counter. I did quite enjoy the views and Alex was so excited to be doing something that is a bit daring so we were thrilled, then out of the corner of her eye, she saw it...the mountain biking tracks that have just opened up in which you ride the gondola up the side of the mountain and speed bike down...it takes 10 minutes and is "a total rush," as quoted from the attendant at the counter. She wanted to do it so badly, but after my mountain biking experience in Bali, Indonesia, I was not interested. Luckily, we had already purchased our luge tickets so she was satisfied with that...she is a very good sport after all! I thought that once we reached the top of the mountain in the gondola, that we would just luge around from there, but oh I was so wrong. You then have to get on a swing like chair lift that takes you a further 10 minutes up the side of the mountain to where the luge track starts. There is a safety bar that you pull down over yourselves, but I was shaking man. Of course, unbeknownst to me and Alex my cardigan got caught in the back where the bar hinges so when it was time to quickly get off the chair lift and make your way to the left, I was stuck on the chair...and it kept moving...Alex did help me, but she was laughing too, as this is just so my life. I was just stuck and was panicked trying to rip my cardigan out of the greasy hinge and it just would not budge...so I am ever closer to riding the thing again back down, as I am stuck. We managed to rip a large hole in the cardigan and I was free. I think the sheer excitement of being free from my shackles got to me because I had a little tumble out of the chair and onto the floor before it was all said and done. But, I just got up and brushed myself off and thought, well, this is just how I roll...and headed to the luge...this is a 3-wheeled contraption that races down the side of a mountain on a track and you regulate your speed with the handle bars. The closer they bars are to your lap the slower you go...yes my bar was on my lap, yes many many people passed me, but I did leave a crying 9-year0old in my dust...score 1 for Mel! Awesome! Alex finished her ride in about 5 minutes and was eagerly awaiting my culmination that took another 10 minutes so she was a bit worried. She went another round, but this time on the advanced track, while I just relaxed and took in the views all around us...crystally blue water, not a cloud in the sky and mountains for as far as the eye could see...a dream world really.

So, a few days have passed and we've had our hills, spills, luges and cruises...who knows what the next dew days will unleash upon us...maybe dips, trips, bumps and jumps, bungy that is...just maybe.