Queenstown likes to claim that it's the adventure capital of the world (/southern hemisphere). A bold claim for a small town, but it does offer the ability to do all sorts of bungee jumping, canyon swings, downhill mountain biking, sky diving, luging, whitewater rafting/boarding, and so on and so forth. There's definitely plenty of ways to get an adrenaline fix.
It seems many people come to New Zealand intending to do both a bungee jump and a sky dive. While other destinations are more popular for sky diving, Queenstown is definitely the most popular spot for bungee jumping, as there are many different ones to do, and it is home to the original commercial bungee jump (the Kawaru bridge bungee) and to the highest in Australasia (the Nevis bungee) at 134m (~440ft).
I skydived in San Diego this past summer, and while it was an awesome experience, I didn't have any burning desire to do it again, especially given the cost. However, I definitely wanted to do a bungee, and had heard that if I was going to do just one, it should definitely be the Nevis. But I also liked the idea of being able land in the water, which is available at the Kawaru bridge. So I decided to do both, which was available as a combo (and thus at a greater discount). I elected to do the bridge first, because I figured if I did the higher one first, the lower one (43m) would seem a bit disappointing.
About midday Saturday, I headed over to the pickup for the bridge bungee, and out to the bridge. There is a lookout right beside the bridge for spectators. I didn't want to pay $80 for pictures and video, which I thought was absurd, especially given the fact that the bungee jump itself was only a little more than that (~120). So I scoped out the crowd and picked out someone with a decent camera (assuming that meant they would know how to operate one), who spoke english, and who had a friend jumping, so I knew they'd be sticking around for a bit until I jumped. Then I headed up to the bridge and waited my turn and watched several people jump and hit the water. And before each person went, the guy in charge would ask them if they wanted to touch the water. So when I got there and told him I wanted to get as much of my body into the water as possible he said "sorry bro," and went on to explain that because my weight was what it was, I had to use a certain bungee cord, and I was on the light side of the weight range for that cord, and so I wouldn't be able to hit the water and for liability reasons they couldn't let me jump with the cord for the lighter weight group. I had heard before that it was more adjustable than just picking which cord and that they could get most people to hit the water, but this guy didn't seem very concerned. Definitely a little frustrating since that was the whole reason I was doing that jump. But anyway, headed to ledge, which was a bit freaky. Here's the view from the ledge:
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
After a couple of seconds with toes on the edge, I looked over at my chosen camera operator who seemed to have things under control, and then made a nice big swan dive off the edge. It truly is an amazing experience just jumping off a ledge like that and free falling towards the ground. As predicted, I didn't hit the water, but it was still pretty awesome - quite a rush. Headed back to the top, got my camera from the operator, and found...... 1 picture of me mid-air, which may or may not be during the free fall, and about a 3 second video of me hanging at the end of the cord after the jump was over before I got picked up by the boat crew at the bottom. Huh?! Hard to fathom how that was what I ended up with on the camera. I think maybe she got paid off by the bungee company so that I would be more inclined to overpay for their picture and video offering. But I stuck to my guns and left with only this one photo (and a free tshirt) as evidence that I jumped:
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
That night, a bunch of people were doing a bar crawl that included a drink at each of 6 bars, of which one was the Ice Bar, a bar in which virtually everything is made of ice - the bar, the walls, the cups/glasses, the tables, the chairs and it is decorated with various ice sculptures. The bar crawl started and ended at good ol' World Bar. Some pictures:
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
The night ended with one hell of a burger that ranks right up there with the best I've had - definitely safe to say it's the best one I've had after midnight. It was "The Big Al" from Fergburger, which is a bit of a New Zealand icon. I actually stopped at Fergburger 3 different nights while in Queenstown, and didn't have a camera on me any of them, so Google image search to the rescue again. After the setbacks at the bridge bungee, the burger might've been the highlight of the day.
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
Day 35 - Sunday, February 26
Sunday, I was scheduled to do the Nevis bungee. And after the bungee the day before (setbacks and all) and talking to some folks who had already done it, I was pretty excited. The jump point is from a cable car suspended about 140m over the middle of a canyon.
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
Day 36 - Monday, February 27
Monday, I was planning to do the full-day hike up to the Ben Lomond summit, which is accessible from Queenstown. Luckily the weather was gorgeous on Monday, and it was an amazing hike. The first part of the hike was a pretty strenuous hike straight up the hill that doubles as the hill for downhill mountain biking and luging. A view of Queenstown from the top of the hill:
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
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| From New Zealand - Queenstown, Milford Sound & Kaikoura |
Lots more pictures of the views along the hike in the picasa album.
After the hike, the hostel I was staying in was organizing another bar crawl. So about 25 of us went and checked out 4 new bars where we were pretty much the only people there, and eventually ended up at good ol' World Bar. I ended the night at Fergburger again, but this time decided I wasn't hungry enough for the Big Al, so I went with the Bombay Chicken (see menu above), which was also delicious.
Day 37 - Tuesday, February 28
After another late night, I slept in. I had planned to go out to the beach for a bit on Tuesday after someone told me the previous day that the weather was supposed to be even nicer on Tuesday than it had been on Monday. But by the time I woke up, the clouds had settled in. So I spent the day doing laundry instead. I hadn't done laundry since I arrived in New Zealand, so it was much needed.
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