Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter Weekend - Queenstown Adventure Part II

So I survived Queenstown once again! Easter Weekend was a blast as 7 of us went over to a small town called Arrowtown about 15 minutes outside Queenstown. It was one of the clinicians from the PT clinic, his wife, myself, Dan and Emily.

We spent a lot of time NOT doing anything related to the PhD which was a nice change. Ate a LOT of chocolate and by a lot, I mean ridiculous amounts of sheep's milk chocolate! :)

So being the adventure seeker I am, I decided to forego bungee jumping this trip (been there, done that) and decided to take a little trip down the river on a knee board. They call this Mad Dog River Boarding. http://www.riverboarding.co.nz/ Check it out!!

So basically, you get into a wetsuit because this is all glacier water so it's about 10 degrees celsius. Full on wetsuit, wetsuit jacket, booties, life jacket, helmet, and flippers. They are hard core too because when you sign up to go you sign a waiver saying you won't sue them if you experience death...i'm like, ok....sure...when i'm dead I won't sue you! Anyway, you hit the water with your wetsuit, flippers, and knee board and basically you experience white water rafting, but you are in the water vs. in the boat! About grade 3 rapids but when you are in the water and the waves are eating you they seem a bit larger!! It was hilarious...i'm not sure how much of that water I drank, but i have to admit, probably some of the cleanest water ever, very cold and refreshing...great for drinking! At the end of that, they strap you on the back of a jet ski and pull you around, then i jumped off a 7 m rock into the river, followed by a slide down into the river on the knee board and finally a rope swing!

Lasted about 3 hours in total and I had already run about 7 miles in the morning so I seriously wanted to collapse afterward. Huge amounts of fun though and some near crashing into large boulders!

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out around Queenstown, grilling out, running down by the river, playing cricket and some tennis. You know, your typical everyday backyard cricket game!!

Back to work tomorrow with our first patient!!

1 comment:

Kenneth Kirby said...

Sounds like a blast... I am so jealous!!!