forget about the dates, i can't remember

• so after kayaking half the day, i was exhausted - the next day was sunday, so i went to a flea market and then to church at the anglican cathedral in nelson - a gorgeous building on a hill overlooking the city and surrounded by gardens. the service felt very familiar, though it's been years since i attended the anglican church in northern ireland.
• i wasn't feeling very well, so i lay low for most of the day, did a little grocery shopping, and read for most of the afternoon. in the evening i had dinner at the stingray cafe, a place recommended by the kayaking guide - quiet, dim, low-key, off the main restaurant/cafe strip and not too crowded. the bartender was quite friendly (i was the first customer of the night) and a couple of kiwis came in after me - we joked about charging to each others' tabs. i was so comfortable and cozy there, i didn't want to leave, but i had to catch a flight at 6.50 the next morning - somehow i've convinced myself on this trip that i'm a morning person, but i don't expect it to last. next stop: queenstown!
• i should have reversed my plans for the south island, because you can't fly directly from nelson to queenstown - you have to go through christchurch, which i was planning to visit anyway. i don't remember why i decided to stick with my nelson-to-queenstown plan, but anyway, it was still a lot quicker than taking the bus: three hours versus two days. when i arrived in queenstown, i booked myself a few activities: gondola, luge, haka show, canyoning, and - the best part - a trip to doubtful sound. i was running around pretty much the whole two and a half days i was there.
• when i got to the backpackers where i was staying, i rooted through my luggage to find my contact lenses (i always wear glasses when i fly) - and i didn't find them. i tore through everything twice, and then i realized i must have left them in nelson. what i had to say about that is not the sort of thing i can record here for public viewing. the guy at the reception desk was really nice about the whole thing, helped me call the place i stayed in nelson, and was very sympathetic when they said they looked around but couldn't find them. he even found an optometrist for me in queenstown, though i decided it would be too expensive and time consuming to try to replace my contact lenses in nz. so any pictures of me from this point forward - i'll be squinting through my glasses, or awkwardly wearing my sunglasses OVER my glasses . . . good thing i got a small frame.

• monday afternoon, i took the gondola to the top of the hill overlooking queenstown and lake wakatipu - gorgeous views of the remarkable mountains (that's the name of the mountain range, the remarkable mountains - and they are, too) and the deep blue lake. the gondola is kind of like a ski lift, but with enclosed cars that look a bit like space-age bubbles. it's a steep ride; i tried not to think about what it would be like if the cable broke! at the top, they have this luge track - like a sort of go-cart ride. i figured i'd give it a try, and it was heaps of fun: you get in this little three-wheeled cart and hurtle around the track, controlling speed and direction by pulling on or turning the bicycle-style handle bars. i went five times - it was a short track, once just wasn't enough. then i went to the kiwi haka show, a short maori cultural presentation - hard to describe, really, not like anything i've ever seen before. there were five people presenting, traditionally dressed and tatooed (or made up to look as if they were tattooed) and chanting examples of maori challenges, music and story telling.
• tuesday i went canyoning - i really didn't know what i was getting into, because i'd only read a short description in a tourist brochure about queenstown. the brochure mentioned abseiling (rappeling) and swimming and climbing, all of which sounded like fun to me . . . either it wasn't mentioned or i missed the part about jumping . . . anyway, there were seven of us, three germans and four americans, plus two guides and a photographer. after driving about an hour, we wriggled into wet suits and diving boots and hiked twenty minutes or so across a stream, through the forest, and into routeburne canyon. the forest was beautiful: green and lush, with both pine and deciduous trees - it looked just like that part in lord of the rings where the elves are leaving middle earth, walking single-file through the forest to the grey havens.
• i enjoyed the day quite a bit, initially, but then we got to the canyoning part . . . sliding backwards down a fifteen or twenty foot natural rock chute into an icy river pool wasn't so bad (we wore helmets), but then we were supposed to jump a good twenty feet or so into another pool (land on your bum in that narrow spot between the white water and that big rock or you'll break something, was what the guide said) . . . i didn't jump, i went down on a rope, but i knew i was in trouble at that point. i'm afraid of heights! i had no idea what i was getting into! i should have known, queenstown is the adrenalin capital of new zealand, probably the adrenalin capital of the world (did i mention the numerous bungy, sky-diving and hang-gliding options in town?).
• the rest of the canyoning trip was partly fun - rappeling, climbing, sliding, and one short zip line (they call it a 'flying fox' here in nz) and also partly awful - i felt like a real pansy. i just couldn't make myself jump farther than four or five feet, but a couple times i didn't have much choice (no rope option - or they let you down part way on a rope, but drop you a good ten or fifteen feet above the water). luckily there was one other woman who was almost as chicken as i was (i take it she didn't know what she was getting into, either - she did the first jump, which i refused, but she was shaking like a leaf for a good half hour afterwards, and she protested all the others). the german guys (three of them, all about 21) went twice off some of the jumps. crazy kids. i think i'm just too old for that sort of thing. 'course i wouldn't have done it at 21, either, so . . . maybe i'm just a pansy by nature.
• i survived the canyoning trip in spite of my embarrassment, but i wish i'd caught the bus out there and gone hiking instead. it was hard to enjoy the gorgeous surroundings while trying not to wet my wet suit. but, now i know - i don't like canyoning.
• i was really glad to get back to my room that night . . . unfortunately, the population had shifted, and it was now occupied by me, an english woman, a young dutch guy, and a middle-aged man of unknown nationality who went to bed at 8.30 and snored like a freight train going through a tunnel all night long. i'm pretty sure he was the only one who got any sleep - in the morning, the other woman and i compared notes as we were leaving for the day, and she said he'd kept her awake even through her ear plugs. i could hear him loud and clear over U2 and the cranberries on my i-pod, which i played for five hours till the battery burned out. i was never so glad for morning to come - and it was an early one, i got up at 5.45 for my doubtful sound trip.
• well, you're probably getting bored with my long post, so i'll leave doubtful sound for the next one . . . i'm still having a good time, in spite of having lost the most expensive thing i brought with me, scared/embarrassed myself silly, and lost a whole night's sleep.