New Zealand

New Zealand isn't known for old castles so people don't come here for history of the islands. People come to New Zealand for thrills and excitement. The things crazy people that have no stomach can do are bungee jumping, sky diving or a canyon swing. None of us got that brave but we did get brave enough to do a jet boat and white water raft in Queenstown.
Mom, Jeff, Tim and I spent three days in Queenstown. Day one was taking the gondola up a hill that was over looking the town and the lake Queenstown over looks called Lake Wakstipu. At the top we all raced on a luge track. That was so much fun! Tim and I got to go up two more time and race down. The first face the two of us had Tim got a head start and left without me, but the second time i beat him by a mile. There were pictures to prove it. The luge is pretty much go carts with three wheels and no motor. They were cool. Our second day was a little more exciting, we took a jet boat up a river and canoed back down. The jet boat is a New Zealand invention and their motor works by sucking up the water and blowing it back out. I thought it was cool when the driver of the boat told us that they can still move in up to 4 inches of water. The boats go really fast, i think the driver said up to 120 mph but we probably went 90 to 100 mph. Canoeing back down wasn't as exciting but it was still pretty. The river we were on was surrounded by mountains, some with snow some without. There were glaciers and green hills and rocky beaches. The river water was glacier water so it was really cold and a pretty blue with a mirky tint from the mountain "dust" that circles around in the water. Have you ever seen those kids bouncy balls that have sparkles in them? You know how it doesn't really fill the water when you shake them it just makes the water mirky? If anyone has any idea what I'm talking about then you now know what the water looks like. Anyways, the third day was the most intense day. White water rafting. White water rafting was fun, it wasn't as scary as i thought it would be, but it was still fun. I think the reason it wasn't scary was because we didn't flip. Thank god. That's what I was most afraid of, so I'm happy we didn't. One boat that was behind us did flip and some of the girls on that boat were not so happy about it. The Shotover river was a grade 3/4 when we went on it but it can get up to a 5. Grade 4 was perfect for mine and Tim's first time rafting.
After that we went hiking for four days and it was beautiful. Tim and I walked ahead of everyone and I loved having time to myself. For my birthday we went black water rafting and that was so much fun. My birthday dinner was at a japanese restaurant. Woohoo 17. Tomorrow morning we're headed to Australia for some hot weather. We've heard its in the hundreds everyday. It was 114 degrees last week there so this should be fun. Lots and lots of sun screen.