Fush 'n' Chups

2008-07-24T16:54:00.000+12:00

2008-07-24T16:49:00.001+12:00

2005-05-25T19:21:00.001+12:00

Our pool!

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Living in luxury at Kimi Ora Spa

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View from Kia Ora Spa

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Cheers!

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Under the fly in Abel Tasman

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Arty shot by Nige

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Kaiteriteri Beach

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Seagull at the end of the rainbow

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Kite surf's up dude!

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Windy beach2

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Windy beach

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Nige is Turkish Delighted!

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what are the lads up to?

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Nige helps the birthday girl out

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Slippery Nipples and Green frogs

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Birthday cake!

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Crazy kids!

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Birthday dinner 2

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Enough chocolate krispie cakes to feed an army!

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Yummy chocolate krispie cakes

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Sunny evening on Donnelly Flats

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Mmnn...tuna curry!

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Perfect!

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water babies

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the green slopes of the Tararuas

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View from the Tararuas over the Wairapa

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Nige and Mount Holdsworth

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Girls on top!

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What a view!

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Learning to map read with Eug!

Nige and Jen go bush!

2005-03-12T18:57:00.000+13:00

To Nige it was just another of Jen's schemes, which he thought would involve him spending the weekend stuck in the forest with a load of weird beardy trampers! Well, there were certainly beardy trampers involved - see picture! - but the Bushcraft Course was great fun and even Nige admitted to enjoying it!!

The course was run by the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club, and involves a weekend away in the Tararua Forest Park, sleeping under canvas, and learning essential skills to survive in the New Zealand bush, like crossing rivers, packing the right gear, putting up a fly tent, cooking thai tuna curry over a tiny gas stove and many more...

Cosy together under the fly

Cruising through the Wairarapa!

2005-03-05T18:56:00.000+13:00

On Sat 5th March, we went for a day trip to the Wairarapa as there wasn't much going on in Wellington for a change and it was a beautiful sunny day!

We first went to Martinborough Fair, which was a gorgeous collection of stalls selling all kinds of arts and crafts, set around and in Martinborough Square. Jen wanted to buy lots of gorgeous things, but sadly was restrained by Nige :-( It was lovely just to mooch around though, and sample the home-made food and drink!

Afterwards, we went for a cruise around Lake Palliser, so that Jen could have her first try at driving our new car, named The Mighty One after we watched The Motorcycle Diaries! I was cruising along quite happily on a completely deserted road, practising changing gear, and all that hard stuff, when we came round a corner to be confronted with a massive herd of cows in the road!! So at least I got to practise an emergency stop too!!

To round our lovely chillin' day off nicely, we went to Greytown, which is a really cute town full of lovely old wooden buildings, cafe's and antique shops. We went to The White Swan for a drink and a platter and then cruised home, leaving the lovely sunny Wairarapa for rainy Wellington!

Lake Wairarapa (and Jen)

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Lake Wairarapa2

Carnival time!

2005-02-26T23:54:00.000+13:00

On Saturday 26th Feb, Cuba St came alive for its annual Carnival! The parade starts at about 9pm, so we went to join the thousands of other people packing the streets to watch. There were lots of cool floats and marching bands and so on, but we didn't get there early enough for a good spot so we didn't have the best view! We stayed out after the parade to watch a few of the bands on stage including a cool Brazilian drumming band.

Cuba St Carnival

2005-02-26T23:49:00.000+13:00

Beware the dragon!

Round the Bays 2005

2005-02-20T17:18:00.000+13:00

On Sunday 20th Feb, Jen did the 7km Round the Bays run with 8300 other happy punters! The weather was gorgeous, and Wellington's famous wind was behind us for the second half of the run, which helped our tired legs!! At the finish we got a banana and a chocolate bar - yum! but no medal :-( Bring on the Half Marathon in June!!

Kayaking lessons!

2005-02-19T17:23:00.000+13:00

Kayaking is a very popular sport on Wellington Harbour - if the weather's fine you can hire a kayak from Ferg's Kayaks on the waterfront and paddle off round to Oriental Bay and beyond.

On Sat 19th Feb, the Wellington Tramping Club organised a wee introductory kayaking morning so Jen dragged Nige along to learn how to paddle!

We had a great time - it was a perfect sunny calm day, and we all paddled over to the beach at Oriental Bay, learnt about paddling techniques, practised capsizing and climbing back in!! and then cruised around the harbour for a while. Jen was hooked!!

Tramping in the Rimutaka Forest Park

2005-02-12T18:52:00.000+13:00

On Saturday 12th Feb, Jen and Nige went tramping again! This time we went up into the Rimutakas, to the Orongorongo Valley. We climbed up onto the Cattle Ridge Track, which was a long hard climb, but once on the tops we had a gorgeous view back over to Wellington Harbour in the distance. We then walked along the top of the ridge for hours, and unfortunately, the track rapidly deteriorated from a lovely grassy open path with gorgeous views, to no path at all! We were reduced to making our way from one orange arrow stuck to a tree, to the next, stepping over tree roots and clambering under fallen tree trunks. Needless to say, it got a bit tedious, and we were very glad when we finally reached the bottom of the ridge, and the Orongorongo River.

We had a brief sit down and dabbled our tired feet in the sparkling water, before a speedy hike back to the car along the valley, beating the time on the signposts by at least an hour, cause we were so desperate to get back!

Distant Harbour Views from the Rimutakas

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Harbour Views 2

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Orongorongo River

Nige goes to Melbourne again!

2005-02-09T20:03:00.000+13:00

Nige went off on another jolly to Melbourne (apparently he works hard there when he's not swanning around in his posh hotel!)

But to make us all feel better, apart from the day these pictures were taken, Melbourne had it's worst February weather for many years, and Nige got wet and cold as he'd left his coat in Wellington!

view from the hotel

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posh gym in a posh hotel

New Zealand International Rugby Sevens

2005-02-05T16:52:00.000+13:00

On Fri 4th and Sat 5th February, Wellington became a mad place full of big blokes in fancy dress!! This was all in aid of the International Rugby Sevens, whose New Zealand tournament is played in Wellington. Over the years, it has become a festival of fancy dress as much as a festival of rugby, and all weekend the streets were full of hawaian shirts, smurfs, cowboys, nurses, tennis players etc etc!

Tickets were like gold dust, but Jen managed to get hold of one two days before the tournament began, so after work on Friday I set off to the stadium in my (last-minute fancy dress!) England T-shirt, St Georges flag and red glittery wig, to see what the England team could do! Unfortunately, not a lot, but that didn't really matter, as I wasn't really there for the rugby! The whole weekend was just one big party, and I spent my time meeting up with various friends, singing, dancing, drinking and talking to a lot of random people!

After getting a lot of hassle for my England costume on the Friday!, I decided to go with the home team on the Saturday, so wore black with silver ferns painted on my cheeks, which turned out to be the way to go, as New Zealand won the final, and as a winning celebration, we were treated to a haka demonstration by the team minus their tops - mmmnn! Nice bods!

Just as the rugby finished, the city was lit up by a huge fireworks display for Chinese New Year, paid for by the Chinese government allegedly, and I joined Nige in town to continue the party among the firework smoke!

Tramping in Kaitoke Regional Park

2005-01-29T20:02:00.000+13:00

On Saturday 29th Jan, we went for a wee tramp in the bush near Wellington. Kaitoke Regional Park is just on the edge of the Rimutakas, and has a beautiful river with pools to swim in and shingle to sunbathe on.

Before we treated ourselves to a chillout by the river though, Jen made Nige climb a big hill to look at the views. The bush was beautiful, and the day was gorgeous, so lots of dappled forest and glimpses of tree-clad hills all around. We took a posh picnic (wine, olives, bread and cheese) and ate it at the top at a lovely viewpoint - someone had put a bench there just for us! and then we climbed back down and paddled in the river until the sandflies drove us home!

On the way back to the car, we visited a LOTR spot - the place where they built/filmed Rivendell! You wouldn't have been able to tell it was the same place, if they hadn't put a handy sign up to tell you! Oh, and there was a cool long rope bridge and we both climbed a big tree!

Kaitoke Regional Park

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Jen climbed her first tree

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Nige up a huge tree

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beautiful spot for a posh picnic

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Jen in Rivendell

Off to Nick's party!

2005-01-22T21:53:00.000+13:00

After the races, we cruised along to Upper Hutt to visit Nick, taking a rather wasted Daniel with us (the madman in the front of the photo!). We had a barbie, played Twister, and laughed at Dan's amusing speech-making, before introducing yet more people to the hilarious but crippling cereal box game!

Off to Nick's BBQ

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Twister

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Twisting...

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Fiona taking it easy

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Girls twisting!

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the cereal box comes out again!

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good on ya mate - da boys on the train home!

The Wellington Races

2005-01-22T19:50:00.000+13:00

On 22nd Jan we went to the Wellington Races - The Oaks, all dressed up in our posh frocks, for a bit of a flutter on the gee gees! It was a gorgeous sunny day and we indulged in a couple of slabs of Export and some delicious hot dogs - New Zealand's finest fast food!

It was a really relaxed atmosphere and we sat on a grassy bank with lots of people with their posh picnics with a great view of the finish, put a bet on every race, and for once in our lives, actually won some money!!

Ladies at the races

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At the Oaks

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chillin in the sun

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You beauty!

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what a beautiful day!

Earthquake hits Wellington!

2005-01-19T08:45:00.000+13:00

Well, we've been here 3 months and we've just felt our first earthquake!! At about 9:30pm last night we were sitting on the sofa when we felt 3 little jolts! How exciting! After wondering for a few seconds whether we should be hiding under the table, we settled down to watch the rest of our film! Apparently it was 5.3 on the Richter Scale and there were loads of others yesterday that we didn't feel at all! Here's the report from www.stuff.co.nz:

Seven quakes in nine hours jolt North Island

Seven earthquakes within nine hours jolted parts of the North Island yesterday, with the biggest reaching 5.3 on the Richter scale.

The first, at 1.38pm, measured 4.4 on the Richter scale and was centred 30km northwest of Porirua at a depth of 50km, the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said.
It was likely to have been widely felt throughout the Wellington region and in the Marlborough Sounds.

The second earthquake, measuring 3.6, hit at 5.19pm and was centred 20km west of Hastings at a depth of 20km.
The next five were centred 40km southeast of Martinborough and were at a depth of 15km to 25km.
The most recent, measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, struck at 10.26pm last night.
GNS said the quake would have been widely felt in the Wairarapa and Wellington regions.

It followed a 5.3 magnitude quake emanating from the same area about 50 minutes earlier.

Earlier quakes from the same area hit at 6.54pm and 7.24pm measuring 3.8 and 3.7 respectively.
Both earthquakes were likely to have been felt on the Wairarapa coast, GNS said.

Mr Miller said earthquakes were common in the Martinborough area, but it was a "little unusual" to have so many of them in such a short period of time.
It was too early to say if the multiple quakes were a "cluster event" or a coincidence, he said.
"Sometimes you can get a cluster of earthquakes, like in Rotorua last year there was a period of about one week where there were lots and lots of earthquakes."

Another possibility was that they were a series of foreshocks, followed by a main event and aftershocks.
Police said there had been no injuries or reports of damage.

Getting Medieval!

2005-01-16T20:35:00.000+13:00

On Sunday, we were lucky enough to attend the International Jousting Championships in sunny Upper Hutt! Competitors came from all over the world - well, Norway, Sweden, Aus and NZ anyway!!

There were lots of people dressed up in amusing 'authentic' medieval costumes, and for the crowd's delectation there was jousting, archery and hand-to-hand sword fighting, as well as a man in stocks that you could throw eggs at!

It was a scorching summer's day, and as we were sheltered from the wind of Wellington, the temperatures climbed to nearly 30 degrees! All the food stalls ran out of drinks and ice-cream - Jen queued for 45 minutes and just managed to get the last couple of 99's!

Eventually we had to leave before we melted, so we drove down to the Hutt River and went paddling to cool down, before driving home.

The jousting was good too!

getting medieval

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just another day in Upper Hutt

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Sir Bruce's victory gallop!

A tramping we will go!

2005-01-15T20:43:00.000+13:00

In order to find a few more people willing to scale mountains with her, Jen has joined the Wellington Tramping Club! Nige refused, based on the fact that it sounded way too middle-aged! So Jen went along to the meeting, met lots of lovely people, and on Saturday, went off on her first tramp with them.

The Wellington Tramping Club has about 400 members, all aged between about 20 and 40, and each weekend they have lots of different tramps organised, ranging from easy to hard fitness levels, and including kayaking and mountain-biking trips.

Jen started off with an easy day tramp, and had a brilliant time exploring the Makara Coast near Wellington, walking along wind-swept beaches and over grassy cliff-tops in the sunshine, with views right across to the South Island. Everyone was really friendly, and she's already made a new pal :-)

Nige has now expressed an interest in coming along on the next tramp as Jen seems to be having too much fun without him! Nige, we'll make a Barker of you yet!!

The lady is a tramp..er

2005-01-15T20:33:00.000+13:00

Sowf Island la,la,la

Summer's here at last!

2005-01-14T20:37:00.000+13:00

To celebrate the fact that the weather has remembered it's supposed to be summer, we christened our new BBQ with a few burgers and steaks on Friday night! We even sat outside to eat - miracle!!

Nige enjoyed the ease of cooking on a gas barbie - so much more civilised - no more struggling to light it and then waiting hours for the charcoal to heat up! Gas is definitely the new charcoal!!

I am man, hear me roar

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Our esteemed guests, Jack and Heather, eating al fresco

Thank you to the Hemingways!

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We'd just like to say Thank You so much to Katie and all her family: Sally and Andy, Bill and Elaine, Trigger, Priscilla and all the sheep, for showing us such a good time in Queenstown and making us so welcome! Wish we could have stayed longer and we hope to see you all again soon.

Grub's up!

Canyon Swinging

2005-01-05T21:41:00.000+13:00

On our last day in Queenstown, Jen decided that she couldn't leave town without throwing herself off a cliff!

So she was booked in for an 11am Canyon Swing! This involves jumping off a cliff into a canyon attached to a harness and a long rope. It's a bit like bungy jumping except 3 times the free-fall (60m) and then with a huge swing across the canyon once you're down. Also, as you are attached in a harness instead of having your feet tied, you can jump any way you like, although Jen chose the conventional 'Forwards' position for the first jump and then only slightly less conventional 'Backwards' position for the second, and that was scary enough!

It was such a mental feeling jumping into nothingness and the rush was amazing! Then, once you're over the first bit, it's lovely swinging away in the canyon in the sunshine looking at the views!! The first time Jen was so nervous she thought she was going to be sick and once she'd jumped and was safely swinging, she was crying with relief and adrenalin - such an amazing feeling!!! She could barely stand up when she got back up! The Canyon Swing guys are so funny and really jolly you along but also try to get you really scared before you jump by saying things like "Mate, do you think this rope is going to hold?" "Yeah, it'll probably be OK for just one more, eh?" etc etc!!

So, with 2 jumps safely under Jen's belt and a massive grin on her face, we said sad goodbyes to Katie's family, Trigger and Queenstown and set off for home!

Do I dare?

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First jump - Going..going..

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Gone...

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and gone...

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Swinging!

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Shaky legs - nearly back on planet Earth!

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I did it!

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Second jump - backwards!

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OMG! View this one up close to see Jen's funny face!

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Aaaaah!

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See it is fun really!

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The Shotover River - a lovely place to jump!

River-surfing...

2005-01-04T23:59:00.000+13:00

Next day we slept through our alarms and so were woken up at 8:45am by Andy telling us we had 5 minutes to get ready and get in the Serious Fun River-Surfing van! Andy bought the Serious Fun business from someone in a pub on New Year's Eve 1999 ie Millenium Eve and business is booming. So we quickly donned our swimmers and set off down the Kawarau Gorge in a van with 15 other slightly scared looking people.

We stopped in a sand-fly-ridden layby, struggled into most attractive wetsuits, booties, life-jackets, flippers and helmets, grabbed bodyboards and set off down a steep path to the river. As there had been a lot of rain a few days before, the river was running quite fast and high and it was all pretty scary. We were quickly shown how to get into and out of an 'eddy', how to change direction, do barrel rolls, and how to hold the board in 'rapid position'! And then off we went into the centre of river and were swept off downstream!

The idea is to swim down the centre of the river, holding onto your board and riding the rapid's waves but it's a whole lot more tiring than that! The 2 guides with our group seemed to find it all so easy, but we found it really hard to change direction and have any control whatsoever - everyone was constantly bumping into each other and getting swept past each other! Going through the rapids was really good fun, probably cause you couldn't think about anything else but taking a big breath after each wave has battered you, but the rest of the time Jen spent far too long panicking about crashing into the rocks at the side!

Anyways, it was all very exciting but very tiring and when everyone else headed off up the river for a second go, we stayed with Baa Baa, the driver, and watched from the top of the cliff as everyone tackled the rapids again! It's a whole lot more relaxing as a spectator sport! And Jen is still aching 3 days later from gripping the board for dear life!!

Jetboating...

2005-01-04T22:32:00.000+13:00

Once safely back from the river, and after a well-deserved sandwich and hot shower, we set off once again, this time to tackle Jet-Boating! This involves being driven in a very fast speedboat down a canyon very close to large overhanging rocks! There are several jet-boating companies, but we chose to do the Shotover Jet as this is the one we could see shooting along the river below Sally and Andy's house.

We again donned life-jackets and took our seats in the high speed jet boat for the 'ride of our lives'! It was really good fun, more like a ride at Alton Towers (without the huge safety belt!), so you could relax and enjoy the thrills, compared to the surfing which felt more like taking your life into your own hands! We must be such wimps! Anyway, we sped up and down the river, doing 360 degree spins, screaming, laughing and getting soaked - well Nige did cause he was on the edge! Great fun!!

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Shotover Jet

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Sexy outfits!

And fond farewells to Katie!

2005-01-04T11:05:00.000+13:00

At 4pm we had to say fond farewells to Katie as she was flying off up to Auckland to catch an early flight the next day back to the UK. It was really lovely to see her and catch up with all the news from Attenda and London town! I'll miss you darlin!

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What a beauty!

Ferg Burgers and the Ice Bar

2005-01-03T18:55:00.000+13:00

On Monday we had a pretty chilled day, spending the morning cruising round the shops in Queenstown to buy a few souvenirs (bungy-jumping sheep etc!) and then meeting up with Katie, Sally and Andy to experience the famous Ferg Burgers at lunchtime. Ferg Burgers are located on a tiny alleyway with no signposts and they don't advertise, but they are nevertheless famous throughout Queenstown cause they're so gorgeous!

In the afternoon, Katie and Sally did some sisterly bonding at the mini-golf as it was Katie's last day before she left for the UK, so we took Trigger off for a walk by the Shotover River. We walked up to the Oxenbridge Tunnel which was built by some guys during the gold rush who tried unsuccessfully to divert the Shotover River through the tunnel so they could get to the gold on the riverbed! When we were up there loads of rafts came out of the tunnel - it's the last rapid on the whitewater rafting trip - must be a bit freaky in the dark! One of the rafts overturned at the exit of the tunnel while we were watching! Trigger was fascinated by all the rafts and jetboats going past - he didn't know where to look next!

After a couple of hours of throwing sticks in the river for Trigger, and watching him dig up the beach, we went back to the lodge to get ready for a big night out in Queenstown to say bye to Katie.

First stop was the Ice Bar, called Minus5, which, as the name suggests, is a bar made of ice where the temperature is kept at a constant -6 to -8 degrees!! They give you a massive parka and furry boots to wear and the seats, bar and glasses are all made of ice! You pay $25 for half an hour in there including a scrummy cocktail.

We then sampled a few more of Queentown's cool bars, including one with an opening roof, until it was time to call our taxi, Katie's Dad, to take us home!

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Nige and Trigger watching the jet boats

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Hey trigger!

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Rafters coming down the last rapid

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Trigger wants the camera

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Dig Trigger Dig!

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A very wet bedraggled dog!

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The kids in the Ice Bar

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Jen, Katie and a bear

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Katie at the bar

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Minus5!