Nearing the End...

New Zealand can be defined in many ways, but I think one of the best is “suicidal”. It seems that those who live here are descendants of mad Brits, Scots and Irish who spend their free time watching rugby, going to the pub and then inventing insanely manic activities that involve laughing in the face of death or severe injury. For example, a more recent addition to the list of crazy fun here is climbing into a huge inflatable ball and then being pushed down a hill, simulating something that could only be described as a snowball. I have never wondered what it would be like to be a snowball, and I can remember that when rolling down a hill, the novelty wears off real fast (mainly as stopping isn’t really an option). However, some chancer out there decided it would be great fun, and low and behold- others pay good money to find out.
We picked a more traditional Kiwi activity to balance out our skydiving adventure, something the Lonely Planet described as the ‘decaf’ of adrenaline rushes (multiple bungy jumps and canyon swings being the ‘espresso’ version): the Jet Boat. The Jet Boat was invented by some dude in Twizel, and it is a boat that has no propellor- it works like a jetski, sucking in water and spitting it out, while moving REALLY fast (like 80 km/h on water fast). We’d seen them cruising around the lake at Queenstown and up gorges around the South Island, with screaming tourists and splashes of water, but hadn’t really grasped the concept. After a few minutes of jetboating with our pilot Brady, we got the screaming (good screams)- these drivers are particularly well-known for their tricks in these highly receptive boats, like heading straight for rockfaces and dodging at the last minute (really, the very last minute), or spinning at really high speeds. It was sooooooo much fun!
After our blood-rushing interlude we realized we were almost at Christchurch, and so we headed on in to the suburbs for our very last night in the camper. We ended up at a campsite resembling a trailer park, with lots of white trash neighbors to keep us entertained (and remind us to stay in school)... Maybe not the most idyllic place to end our camping adventure, but memorable it was. Having said goodbye to the van (so sad... like losing a family member), we are now sitting pretty in our last hostel in NZ- a historic jailhouse, where we are staying in a cell!