Queenstown

I've been here in Queenstown (South Island) for a few days now. It's my last stop in New Zeland; it has been great. The snow-capped Southern Alps and Lake Wakatipu provide an awesome backdrop. The first day here we took a 9 hour kayak trip down the Dart River which was absolutely breathtaking. We were able to go through some caves where the water was so clear you could see down 30 meters or so to the bottom.
The next day we headed to another river for "Mad Dog River Boarding" aka White Water Surfing. The basicaly give you a boogie board and put you in class 3 rapids. By the way, the water was freezing cold. I don't know why I keep putting myself in cold water as we are approaching winter. It was a pretty intense ride down the river (about 5km of rapids and 2km of calm water). After the hard-core section of the river, the guides pulled us behind a jet ski and then let us go down a really huge slide into the river.
From Queenstown, we took a trip to Milford Sound, via Te Anau, where we spent the night on a boat. Some of the best scenery I've seen was from there in the sound.
I'll be heading back to Sydney for a few days this weekend before returning to the USA!