Day 25. Queenstown. A day of extremes.

Ostensibly, Queenstown is an upmarket ski resort, sitting as it does in among some of the South island's most challenging slopes. Yet although the winter season has just finished the place still manages to retain a buzz, cleverly re-inventing itself for the warmer weather as a mecca for extreme sports enthusiasts.

Rad types can stoke themselves by taking part in extreme river boarding, extreme shotover jetting (whatever the hell that is) extreme bungyjumping, extreme caving or extreme heli-scending.

Having neither the inclination or the bank balance to bother with any of this stuff we tried our hand at some extreme loafing.

As with most of these pastimes it's all about building up one's self confidence. So once we'd plucked up the courage to park our bums on a nice bench next to the lake, we'd pretty much mastered it. Dude.