Alcademics

[This is one of many posts submitted live from the 42Below Vodka Cocktail World Cup international cocktail competition. For official event photos, go here. For my photos, go here.]

I am trying to upload pictures and videos from New Zealand today but the internet is awful slow and I have only an hour, so we'll see what we can see. 

After 20 hours of traveling I arrived in New Zealand for the 42Below Vodka Cocktail World Cup yesterday. Instead of checking in to the hotel and showering, we went to jump off a bridge. I've never been bungee jumping before, mainly because I value not dying. But I did it anyway and have the video to prove it- I jumped with the camera in my hand. That should finish uploading in approximately four days at this rate.

After that we went to dinner that began with a Maori greeting/challenge, and  bunch of bartenders getting goofy and rolling down hills nearly naked. Good times.

Today is the second day and I'm on a short break between events. This morning the bartenders had the first challenge of the week: the non-alcoholic cocktail. They prepared their drinks on land then loaded into speedboats. 

Well, not so much speedboats as speed rafts- at the Shotover Jet these rafts shoot down through a river ravine at incredible speeds, narrowly avoiding the canyon walls on either side and doing high-speed turns and 360 spins. During the trip the bartenders were required to shake and pour their drinks for the judges to sample. I wasn't able to taste the drinks, but the team from Australia won the day. 

They'll join us tonight at the second contest, but instead of taking the bus with the rest of us, they'll ride there on Harley's. More later...