Our hilltop hotel is a bit high and far from the main commercial area to walk to, so we each got a bus pass loaded for two round trips. Today, we headed there and started by locating the ship where we will have our farewell dinner tomorrow night. Rod showed us the area and advised us on options for our morning and where and when to meet for our jet boat ride this afternoon.
We ended at a botanical garden, but instead of exploring it, Pam and I had talked about getting a massage. The options online didn't look great, so we headed to a recommended one we had passed hoping to be more successful in person. Unfortunately, though it was now 10am and the shop sign and website said they opened at 9, it was still closed. I headed off to look for jade and Sandy. I learned later that Pam was more persistent and did get an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.
Sandy and I linked up and looked at 2 jade shops, both of which were much higher priced than I anticipated and the second was double the first. Apparently the reasonably priced options are not New Zealand made and/or the jade is not sourced here. There were a few possibilities (which will look more reasonably priced when I do the math since one US dollar is worth 1.65 NZ dollars). I decided to wait until after our trip to Arrowtown tomorrow. If I don't find something there, I will have time in the afternoon to look again here.
Sandy had read about a legendary burger shop called Ferg's before we left on our trip and it is enormously popular here. When we drove past the shop on the way to the hotel last evening, there was a LONG line waiting to get in.Since our boat trip started at 12:45, we went for lunch at 11. The line wasn't horrible, but it still took almost 30 minutes to order and get our food. I was able to snare an outside table near the door (VERY few tables here considering the popularity) and Sandy got a burger and fries to share. What I didn't expect was that the meat would be something other than beef. I have finally eaten Bambi. He actually tasted pretty good.
We got to the boat meeting place early and donned our water pants. We hopped on a bus for a half hour ride to the Dart River and got into waterproof and warm gear and a heavy duty life jacket. The jet boat trip was a blast. The river we went up is a 'braided' river because it is in a wide space and the rains and snow melt can take several intertwining paths through the gravel and sand river bed. The boat can handle water as shallow as 4 inches. It actually felt like it skidded through the turns and the drivers try to maintain a speed around 90 kph (about 56 mph). Their main claim to fame is apparently doing a spin. It was all quite a bit of fun and not as wet as I thought. We had a couple opportunities to stop and walk around on the gravel banks. Our boat driver also pointed out where various scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies were shot. I guess I will have to go back and watch the movies again to see what I can recognize.
After our long drive back, we were dropped off at the hotel and both of us have concentrated on updating our blogs. I also discovered where my missing photos went and will see if I can add them to my posts tomorrow. For now, I will just publish everything to get current.
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