Happy Mick: New Zealand Day 7 : Shot Over Jet Boad Ride and Dunedin

4/11/2016 Friday

Rise and shine at 7am as we are going to experience the most exciting boat ride in the world at Queenstown - Shot Over Jet! We sat in a mini bus for about 15 minutes from The Station near to our hotel to this Shotover ~~River~~ Canyon.

Arrived at this beautiful and exciting canyon

Cannot believe what we are going to experience later

peaceful, calm and serene but ...what lies ahead us is really beyond our imagination!

The only jet boat operator permitted in the Shotover Canyons, leaving this area unspoiled and virtually untouched or affected by the thousands of tourists who visit Queenstown each year.

too scared to jump now. save the adrenaline moments for the ride later

Shit is getting real!

Even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate was here to experience the exciting boat ride as well

Wah..customised life jacket !

Let's get to know our driver a little bit more first:

That's Goofy

After being rugged up with waterproof coats and a life jacket, we climbed into the jet boat and got a safety lesson from the boat driver.

Life-sized dumplings ready to rock the world hehehhe

Alright, everyone is in the boat, now say cheese and wave to the camera!

Baiiiii!

From the moment Goofy hits the accelerator, my adrenaline hits the roof as well. We were being sped over 10cm deep water, along the famous Shotover River and deep into the spectacular Shotover River Canyons.

It’s an amazing white water ride, as the Shotover Canyon walls tower over us, our trustworthy Goofy puts his state-of-the-art Big Red Jet Boat through its paces. At 85kph, he skillfully whipped the powerful boat past rocky outcrops, skim around crags and boulders, and sped through the dramatic and narrow canyons. Rock faces blur in our peripheral vision and the water sprays into a myriad of white water crystals with every turn. Hence, you can see why we were wearing goggles here.

spot me. Hints: biggest mouth open!

It was so windy during the whole speeding thing going on, and I forgotten my ear cover. My ears were literally frozen!

The Shot Over Jet claims to be world famous and thanks to Goofy, he make it so much fun by absolutely zooming through these tight spaces, taking us perilously close to the canyon walls and doing 360 degree turns that make our hearts beat out of our chest. There are moments when I felt like almost airborne, skimming across the surface of the water like a stone. It was completely exhilarating and adrenaline-fueled. Fuhh..

The whole ride took about 25 minutes and I was screaming my lungs out and laughing non stop at the same time. It was really so much fun! Strongly recommended for all to experience this exciting jet ride if you are in Queenstown! This was the ONE AND ONLY adrenaline rush activities that Jou and I did in Queenstown. My friend who was travelling at the same time did the sky diving, bungy jump, biggest swing and so on I guess, but not for me. This Shot Over Jet is good enough for me.

After the ride and returned the waterproof coats and life jacket, we went straight to the souvenir shop for toilet break and search for souvenirs and our photos. I got myself this souvenir set. FUN FUN FUN!

A booklet which consist of our photos

We can even download the photos online weee....

that pale face of mine after the most exciting 25 minutes of boat ride in my life so far!

feeling much better with Jou around. She was so scared and excited too hehe

After hundreds of photos here, we were taken back to The Station back in Queenstown. We checked out from our hostel and continued our journey to Dunedin.

Finally gained my energy to jump. Bye Queenstown- I WILL BE BACK!

Jou continued and volunteered to drive from Queenstown to Dunedin which took us about 3.5 hours.

And, we came to this beautiful lake which turns out to be Clyde Dam -New Zealand's third largest hydroelectric dam.

Lake or Dam?

Damn! It's a Dam!

Us with the dam :)

Gaining some lost energy from the earlier shot over jet hehehe

We planned to meet up with our school mate- Sing Ee who is taking her PHD at University of Otago, which is Jou's alma mater as well. (Oh, ok no wonder she volunteered to drive us here).

So, after 3.5 hours of driving, we finally arrived at Dunedin and went straight to University of Otago!

Old friend found- Sing Ee, Me and Jou. I'm the only one who never study in this University. Cry.

No chance to study here,nevermind. Take a photo here and will show to my kids next time, Nah mommy's alma mater heheheh super cheat

Sing Ee brought us around her faculty and around the campus- also to recall back some sweet memories of Jou when she was a student here.

At the main building

Jou and Sing Ee said this tree is very beautiful in the autumn

reminded me of the overly attached PDA couple at Queenstown, remember? hehe

We then went to the famous Botanical Garden to walk walk.

wah..the botanical garden is so nice..

Different types of flowers and plants

Good place for dating

Got mandarin ducks some more..so romantic! Really perfect for dating.

We then went to the nearby grocery at New World (North East Valley at North Dunedin) to grab some snacks and...

Our favourite red wine- Banrock Station Crimson Cabernet- sparkling and sweet. NZD8.00 = RM24 only!! I checked in Malaysia it is RM55!!!! More than double, so must drink kao kao while in NZ.

After groceries shopping, we went to the world steepest residential street, according to the Guinness World Records-*drum roll*...Baldwin Street- steepness at 35% grade.

Baldwin Street. Luckily for us, it was not so many people

Actually, the street's steepness was unintentional.

At a random house along Baldwin Street.

Finally we managed to walk up the 350 metres street..fuhh very tiring.

tired tired..how I wished I can just roll down the street.

Er, by the way, Jou and Sing Ee told me there were people died from rolling down in a wheelie bin before. No joke man. Mission aborted. Just kuai kuai walk down.

imagine yourself rolling down from here

After all the climbing, we went back to University of Otago as Sing Ee needs to pack her stuffs as we asked her to join us in our hotel stay so we can chat the whole night.

So, we continue touring the campus and went into the central library.

Looking at these students really makes me feel so old huhuhu

Cute cubicles for those who prefer to have more privacy

So cool to have your own space while overlooking the whole library

Both Sing Ee and Jou brought me to the Law Faculty's library and they said " Must take a photo there" and I was like "huh, why? so special meh?"

Not until I saw this view from the 6th floor.

Can see the whole of Dunedin, like seriously?

But actually they were talking about this view with the holes in the middle of the book shelves.

Every student's must-have picture here

People ask you to study in the library and not photo session ok..

Cannot cannot, I also want a picture here.

our pose like this ok?

After all the crazy posing in the library and all the embarrassing moments in the library, we headed to Sing Ee's rented place which is about 15 minutes away from the campus.

View from her place wahhhhhh, facing a lake.

Ok, after visiting her place with her stuffs, we checked in to our hotel! Yes, this time we stayed at the best accomodation ever in our trip so far. A real hotel with our own private shower.

After we have done at her house, we checked in to our hotel and we were like WOWed all the way because finally we are in a proper accomodation. After that we took a show quick shower and drove out to the town for dinner. We really don't know what to eat so end up at this Japanese restaurant to fix some asian cravings.