Brrr, it's cold in here...

...there must be some some Toros in the atmosphere. So today was a cold one. It's about 55F here, pouring rain in Queenstown and we are totally NOT dressed for the weather. We are packed more appropriately for Uluru or Cairns, Australia where it's about 90F currently. After a mix-up this morning, we went with our second choice activity and took the gondola up to the peak which overlooks Queenstown and the look, the views were incredible. It's hard to describe just how picturesque the lake looks nestled into the mountains, it almost makes Lake Tahoe look like a pond. But what everybody says is true, you can't really appreciate it until you get here. We rode the luge at the top of the gondola and had a fun time flying around the curves while getting drenched in the rain. After a quick lunch back at the hotel, we headed off to go river boarding. The rain got heavier, the sun got more scarce, and we were informed that the snowmelt water temperature in the river was 50F today, flowing at 350 tons/second. River boarding is similiar to river rafting....that is river rafting when are thrown out of the raft and forced to fend for yourself, but add a boogie board. We had our layers of wetsuit, our helmets and our boards and they let us loose on a high flowing class III-IV river. This was a pretty intense, exhilarating, literally breath losing scary experience. You literally get pounded by waves all while trying to stay on your board, breathe and not get sucked into a whirlpool. Within 5 seconds of being out there I was more tired than I was when I did my triathlon. Luckily neither John nor I got sucked down into a whirlpool - but others were not so lucky. I think we can say it was a fun time...and it was...however it was probably one of the most challenging things both mentally and physically we have ever done. We're off to the Minus-5 bar tonight, a bar made entirely of ice...the walls, the bar, even the glasses! So yeah, it's been a cold day.