Celsius, Kilos, what the heck??

I am here now in Queenstown, NZ. New Zealand is amazing. I'm talking take-my-breath-away-oh-now-I'm-choking beautiful! Picture this cool little town perched at the edge of a brilliantly blue lake that is nestled among 14,000 ft. mountains (or 4500 meters). It is known as the "adventure capital of the world" and is absolutely full of insane things to do. So of course the people who live here are very cool. They love to explore the creation and there is are at least two outdoor stores on every block (I'm really not kidding). So obviously, it's my kind of place! There is a thriving downtown area on the waterfront and even a little gravel beach. Right in the middle of the town there is a park extending on a penisula out into the lake that I'm getting ready to go explore. I was actually booked to go hanggliding right now but the clouds are really low so up on the mountain it is socked in- maybe later. I was also hoping to do the world's 2nd highest bungy jump (140M (Paul already has the highest!)) off of a gondola but they hang you by your ankles and I sprained mine recently, when they said it wouldn't be a good idea as I was going hiking tomorrow I decided on the hanggliding. Speaking of hiking, tomorrow I'll start on the Kepler Track, which the locals say is the best one in NZ. It's a four day trek, so you won't hear from me till the 12th. But I'm sure I'll have much to talk about and some great pictures to show later. And by the way, I rented a digital underwater camera on the reef so I've got 100 great pictures of it too!
Here's something that I'm rather confused about: the friggin' Metric system! They told me it would be about 9 degrees Celsius or so in the mountains. But I thought that was a lot warmer than it is (I just bought a sweatshirt and gloves). I was thinking that the conversion was about 3.5 X Celius + 32, but now I'm thinking its more like 1.8 x Cel + 32. Anybody know? All I know is that 25 degrees feels pretty good and 15 is chilly with a 140 KM wind (that's what they clocked the wind at yesterday!!) Let's get some Metric conversions coming this way...
And just make a note that I personally think we should switch to the Metric system as frankly it makes much more sense and we are the only country left on the Earth that is clinging to the traditional system. If you want to feel like a New Zealander go around and tell everybody you meet this week, "Cheers, mate"
I'll talk to you in five or six days,
Cheers mates!