Dolphins, bungy jumps and broken bones

So Damian has a pretty badly banged up elbow. After much delays he was operated on in Invercargill this morning, not sure exactly what the latest is, but he was in good form afterwards. The problem is that the elbow was chipped, rather than a simple break, but fingers crossed all will be ok and he can get his flight with Sue on the 12th.

After Milford we dropped him in Invercargil and headed up to Queenstown for a quick visit and some Jetboating on the shotover river, which I found quite good but the others didnt think much of it - to be hoinest, it was the most commercial and impersonal activity so far, but I found speeding through the narrow canyons at high speed and narrowly avoiding the rocks on boat sides pretty cool.




I've now completed 2 of the 3 parts of the AJ Hackett bungy thrilogy, having done the "ledge" yesterday - reportably its the one most people chicken out of, but to be honest I thought it was pretty easy. Maybe I'm becoming immune:) On the long drive out of Queenstown (to Kaikora) a few days ago, we hadnt planned on any bungy related activities, but made a quick stop at the Kawarua bridge site just for a look. As tends to be the way of these things, Carl and I decided to do it, but had to wait for 30 mins for some "safety tests" which helped greatly in building the anticipation. It was a blast again to do, and we got nice dunkings in the river.



We made it to Kaikora around 1am and parked outside the Dolphin encounter center for our 8:30 swim. The experience was amazing, we were in a pod of 4 or 5 hundred dolphins, so we were all constantly surrounded by numerous curious playful (and 100% wild) dolphins, I really hadnt expected such close interaction. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far. For the afternoon we rented some surfboards but the rocky beach conditions meant I was the only one silly enough to go in for any length of time, and I only managed to catch a couple of waves on my 6' 10" board before giving up, but it was still a good laugh.

Next day we headed to Christchurch, and parted company with Betsy, a very sad affair, we had all become quite attached after the 2 weeks. We stopped off at Gore beach for a (pretty cold) swim en route. Damian's op had been postponed so he got sick of waiting in Invercargill and took a flight to Christchurch to meet us, and we all had a great Thai meal, I must admit the food here has improved greatly since 12 years ago.

Next morning we said goodbye to Coley Julie and Carl (who are now back home) and headed to the airport for our flights back to Queenstown - which promptly got cancelled due to fog, so we were on the road again in a rented ford - the 6 hour trip down felt like a breeze after driving the truck, what with cruise control and decent acceleration. We had a great night out in Queenstown, and spent yesterday up the mountain for the ledge and also some go-karting/lugeing.

Take care,
Sean.