October 22nd, 2009

Thursday October 22nd, 2009
Cheers! Good day Mate!
Ok done being a "cheesy" New Zealand tourist. So we got up this morning and went to the Gondola which takes you up to the top of one of the Remarkables mountains and you can see the whole town of Queenstown, the Lake, and all the awesome Remarkables. Got some great souvenirs there as well. We decided to take it easy today and hang out in and around Queenstown. Next was the greatest mother daughter bonding moment on the trip, well as Mom just said so far. We went to the Kawarau Bridge which is the Original site of the FIRST Bungee jump. AJ Hackett made the first bungee jump here and so did Mom and I. It was awesome! It was 143 meters high over looking the water. Mom and I tandem jumped together and it was beautiful. We were hooked up to the bungee together had to hold on to each others sides as we jumped. The workers said 4-3-2-1 and then we jumped. We went down and then bounced up and then down again. We yelled the whole time. Next they handed us a pole to grab and they lowered us down to the inflatable boat and took us to the shore. Our legs were like jello and then we had to climb hundreds of stairs to get back to the top. When we got to the top we were able to see a replay of the drop and we did another touristy thing and bought the pictures. We'll post them later. Both of us even got a free t-shirt for jumping. Next we went back to Arrowtown and got "pies" and if you don't know the pies are different from american pies. They are filled with venison, steak, bacon, eggs, vegetables, ect. We also did some more shopping and ran into one of Dawn's friend who runs a shop there and spent some time looking around. We then went into town to use the computer at Paul and Sandra's which was when we were able to post the last blog. Next the grocery store and we bought groceries for Cveta to make everyone a Bulgarian dish made with lots of vegetables, potatoes, and meat. It was good. Everyone seemed sleepy but of course I wasn't. I was trying to get everyone or even just one person to go to the -5 bar (negative 5). Everyone said no and then Mom said OK I'll go with you. Next thing you know it was Mom, Cveta, Sandra, Sandra's son Richard, Sandra's daughter Gemma, Gemma's boyfriend Angus, Richard's friend Kim, and myself. Sandra was able to hook us up with a "local" discount of $15 NZ dollars. They gave us gloves and really big warm coats to wear. Then they took us across the walkway to the bar where the temperature of the bar was -8 degrees, it was a little colder since not many people had been in that night. It was 15 by 15 and made out of ice. Included in the entrance price was one alcoholic drink or two non-alcoholic drinks. I ordered a "yellow snow" which consisted of vanilla vodka, Midori, Kiwi, and pineapple juice served in a glass made of ice. The place was full of ice sculptures and we were only allowed to stay for about a half an hour. We had a great time and it was a great day! Bungee jumping and an ice bar-how can you beat that? I'm sure with Dawn showing us around and we are about to meet her sister Gail there are more tales to come!
Cristin