It has been a wee bit since our last post, which is purely the result of 1: Very dodgy internet coverage and costs in Z-Land and 2: We have been in the backcountry most of the time!  We will have a post up about New Zealand and the South Island specifically with some pictures soon.

In the meantime we have put together a video of some of the activities we have engaged in over the past 12 days in New Zealand below.  More specifically, the video features 3 activities we did in 5 days  in and around Queenstown .-

Day 1.     Down Hill Mountain Biking – Skyline Queenstown features 500 vertical metres, 12 world class trails, 30 km of tracks with the longest being 6km.  This was my first time doing downhill mountain biking, Marcin quickly assured me it was “Fine” and off we went.  After one “Green Run” Marcin decided I could do a “Blue Run” and right after that we met a fellow Canuck and both of them decided I needed to upgrade to a “Black, double diamond run”.  I promptly flew off my bike into the bush, but quickly dusted myself off and proceeded.  It was a great day!

Day 2.      White Water Rafting – Queenstown Rafting – The drive to the river itself would have been adventure enough.  They squeezed us all into a bus wearing our gear and headed off up a mountain.  The road was a single track dirt road that hugged a mountain high atop a valley…basically we drove in a bus pulling a large trailer of rafts with our wheels about 50cm from the edge the entire time… I guess it is good they give out the helmets first.  After 45 minutes of a blood pressure raising ride, we decended down into a valley to Shotover river.  After a quick “how to” into the rafts we went.  It was a fantastic day.

Day 3.      Trekking – Routeburn Track – 32 Km Alpine Trek, one of the great walks in New Zealand – Most normal people walk it one way and then take a shuttle back….not us…we wanted to save the $119 each it would have cost to take the shuttle…so how did we save this money….ohhhh by hiking the trail one way and then hiking back the way we already came….so essentially we did it twice….in the same time it takes people to do it one way….Our first night there was freezing rain and snow, followed by an avalanche risk.  In the morning, the weather cleared and the avalanche risk was lifted and up the mountain we went.  The trek winds though the alpine in one of the most spectacular settings we have ever seen!

Enjoy……