Some of you may recognise MOD from this photo.

I really don’t like heights.

Interesting self confession, given I was just stepping off a 30 or so metre tree ‘house’ onto my first ever zip line.

I was packing my dacks. That may, or may not have been, literally.

MOD loved every second.

I safely reached the end of the first one and realised I hadn’t shaken so much since my bratty middle son had forced me onto that stupid tandem Nevis Swing in Queenstown.

I say, bratty, but that isn’t confined to him.

The three bratty sons had given me the adventure for a Christmas present, thinking I would love it.

I didn’t.

I mean, seriously, who wants to be propelled, I don’t know, maybe 40 metres out into a canyon, unceremoniously dropped for 70 metres, without proper warning I might add, and then swung in the canyon. It’s about a 300 metre arc. 

Middle son was in his element.

I was a bundle of hysterical cackling and shaking. 

I must say though, after that, we did go on to skydive over Queenstown.

An amazing experience, which I would do again.

Not sure how I wasn’t hysterical on that one but I wasn’t.

May have been something to do with the attractive young man I was attached to when I jumped.

But I digress.

The zip line after the first one, ok maybe after the first two, was pretty amazing.

Definitely a tick for the bucket list and a ‘must do’.

After we finished, apparently it was custom to throw axes.

Not at each other, but at a bulls eye.

MOD and I were the only ones who hit the target.

I actually got a bulls eye.

Watch out MOD 😜

Probably best we both hit the target, as we now know our hidden talents and won’t try it on each other when in a heated debate about how we pronounce ‘stuff’.

As we do.

That was our afternoon in Juneau.

We started our morning waiting in a bus queue for 25 minutes. On loading, our bus driver was asked how many passengers she could take. She wasn’t sure, she thought maybe 43, as she clicked through 43 of us with her counter.

I did want to tell her that I thought it may be 48 passenger capacity, given there were 5 empty seats and the number 48 on the last seat. But I held back.

As we drove off I noticed the family of 5 waiting just behind us in the queue.

As it turns out, we could have halved our waiting time by walking the 1km or 4 minute bus ride into town.

Juneau is a quaint little town, the capital of Alaska, with a population of 32,660 (est. 2013).  The only US capital accessible only by boat or plane. 

And the undisputed gold mining capital of the world, founded in 1880 due to the discovery of gold. On Douglas Island, the Treadwell Gold Mining Company operated the largest gold mine in the world between 1882 and 1917. Nearly $70m worth of gold was extracted from the Treadwell properties. 

That’s a lot of gold.

 

Juneau also has a drive up glacier, conveniently located in the Mendenhall Valley, only 22.5km from the city centre. This glacier flows 19km from it’s source and has an 800m wide face. It’s also retreating and thinning, melting faster than it’s advancing. 

Our evening commenced once we returned to ship from our zip lining experience, feeling pretty smug about that achievement (well I was), it was now time to dine in one of the many restaurants on board.

Being Italian night, it actually didn’t matter where we went.

They all served Italian. 

There was limoncello involved. And tiramisu.

Having had our fill of five courses, we headed to the Princess Theatre so MOD could give the ‘Yes/No’ game a try.

You have to answer questions from the host for 3 minutes without using either word.

Unfortunately MOD was unsuccessful. Trouble was, instead of staring straight ahead and not engaging with the host, he engaged. And became interested in the conversation. Not stalling on any questions at all. He only lasted 48 seconds. The man is too nice.

Then of course, Karaoke. 

Not us, we know our limitations, and no one in this world wants to hear us sing. Except us of course.

The night ended with a spectacular view from our balcony. 

Living the dream.

Tomorrow, it’s a sailing day and a glide through Tracy Arm Fjord.