Extreme sports and extreme idiots

Kiwi folk are strange folk, lovely  but strange and the ones in Queenstown are even odder, they have discovered hundreds of ways for you to die and they are like "give us your money and we will let you try it."  So maybe they are more smart than odd, after all they must be making lots of money around here. I am sure the saying, "Hold my beer and watch this." originated in New Zealand.  WTF. People pay big bucks to risk their lives here everyday... Normally that would not concern me, it is none of my business, but today it is my baby risking her life and paying them almost $200 for the privilege, what an idiot.  So here I am sat, and here I will stay until I hear one way or the other if she is still breathing, Unbelievable, to think of all the shit I went through all those times to keep her alive... that's gratitude for you... Kidding, her life, her choices, but I don't have to like it, so I shall look at the view and try to think of something else...

After spending the morning, walking around Queenstown and thinking every time I purchased something, "Here you are buying a coke (etc) and your daughter could be dying right now."  It was very disheartening, until I received a message from her telling me she had chickened out and was only doing the Gondola ride and the Luge run... What a woose... lol.  Seriously, I was bloody relieved.

Queenstown is really pretty..

More of the wonderful Queenstown views

Kearie and I left Ben in Queenstown, we will meet up again in Auckland on Saturday.  We headed to Arrowtown, a small historical village, it was kind of cute so we had a walk around before heading to Wanaka for lunch.

Reminded me of the Pioneer Settlement in Swan Hill a little.

At Wanaku we visited Puzzle world.  Quite a place.

 The toilet floor

 The low high room...

Kearie outside

After Wanaka we headed towards Oamaru and stopped to view some Maori cave paintings.

 I loved the cliffs they were on

The paintings themselves, not so much...

It has been a long day of travel but we are back on the east coast.  We drove over mountains and between ranges, concentration needed and a few amazing views.  Although the South Island has some lovely spots, they are far too isolated with way too much nothing in between.   There are not enough roads and too many really barren mountains to navigate around.  I have decided that I far prefer the North Island.  I am sure the south island would be devastated if they knew.

We are staying in our first back packers tonight, not by choice, merely by error.  It is not too bad, but shared bathrooms are a thing of my past and I want them to remain there.  Still it is warm and clean so that is the main thing.  A 5 star backpackers, whoever heard of such a thing.  In my day they were all 1 star but we were young and didn't care.... They also cost about $5, now they are $95, backpackers are way more affluent these days....

It is five am now and I can't sleep,  Wifi is crap here, and I am starving..

Cheers

Lones