7.5.06

Queenstown

Holy balls it’s cold out. First thing this morning, we went out to the Shotover River Valley and went on a Shotover Jet ride. Ok, what is a Shotover Jet? It’s a speed boat that goes about 50mph in 4-6” of water and does spins and crazy turns. It was about -1 C out, and with the windchill on the boat it was -5 C, which ends up being about 20 F. On top of it being below freezing, we were being splashed by water and in constant fear of smashing into giant, jagged rocks. It was awesome. At the end, my mom’s hair was frozen to her poncho and my eyelashes were frozen to my eyelids; good times.

The rest of the day mom and I went walking around town and shopped a bit, while dad lazed about in the room and Nate went snowboarding. It was very cold out, but I got pretty much exactly what I was looking for at the first shop we stopped at, and we found some other amazing things during the day.

Whenever I eat out of town with my parents, we happen upon the best Indian food place, and there’s some kind of best-of Bollywood montage playing on a large screen. Well, two times: here, and in Little Five in Atlanta. I tried to get online to post this, but it was too cold to walk to the internet café. Hopefully I’ll get to it tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are off to Christchurch, which is the last stop before I head home.