i've been in queenstown for a few days now, and what was a 2-day stopover has become a full week, after which we return to christchurch and fly to australia.
queenstown is in flux. one street is bursting with bungee jumping/skydiving/rafting/river surfing/canyon swing/anything adrenalin stores and snowboard gear shops and everything else in that vein. then one street over there are signs in kanji for fine new zealand wines and wool clothing, boutique clothing stores, and whispers about the house that johnny depp bought out here. brand-new ultra hotels are almost side-by-side with NZ$26/night backpacker hostels. maybe this place is becoming (or is) the new Aspen, i don't know, but there is an awful lot of construction going on here. whatever this place is turning into, it isn't done transforming yet.
of the five million "activities" you can do here (as long as you can foot the bill, of course), we went "river surfing" yesterday with serious fun, and ended up surfing on boogie boards through class 2 and 3 rapids clad only in wetsuits and crash helmets. we survived with only a few scratches, and had a generally great time. this was followed by surpisingly expensive thai food and surpisingly cheap drinks, and finally cocktails at the Minus 5 ice bar, when we got a bunch of random pictures.
more stuff to come: hiking, kayaking, and maybe some things a little more pulse-pounding than that. we'll see...
