it was raining in the morning so we thought that our activities would be cancelled. then it stopped raining for a brief moment when it was time for our activities to begin so we boarded the shuttle bus to the shotover river to ride the shotover jet. you go down the river at top speeds of around 70 km/h, nearly crashing into the rocks or so it gives that impression to the passengers. you do 360 degree spins as well. everyone gets wet and laughs hard. it's a fun ride. the handle bars are heated which is pretty nice because you wouldn't want to grip onto something ice cold.

the shotover jet

after the shotover jet ride was over, we were supposed to board a helicopter over to the luge but due to the bad weather, the rain had started to pick up again while we were on the river, the helicopter ride had been cancelled. we took the shuttle bus instead only to find out that the luge has been closed due to bad weather as well. we went back to where we booked and received a refund. i still had the vouchers for the luge and a short film so i thought that if i was lucky, the weather would get better and we might be able to ride the luge after all. of course, there wasn't enough time for things to dry down even if the sun did come out.

we walked over to get some groceries so we could snack on something before the film and make dinner after. the film is called "kiwi magic" and it's from 1987. it's a 25 minute thing that's for tourists. it basically highlights the landscape and adventure activities of new zealand threaded together with a storyline of an american businessman on vacation.

downtown queenstown

on the walk back to the hostel, we stopped to look in a couple of tourist souvenir shops--gathering mental notes on some more gift-giving ideas. we go on the bottom bus tomorrow so we didn't really have time to check out queenstown. we'll have time for all that when we return from the bottom bus. i was hoping to do some mountain biking somewhere in new zealand. places i was thinking of were rotorua, taupo, arrowtown, queenstown, or along the old railway lines. it might be raining when i get back but if i have the money i might do it then. otherwise it will soon become winter and the mountain bike trails will be ski fields once again.