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Published: August 6th 2007
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Moke Lake
If one must fix a bike chain in the middle of nowhere...this might as well be the view to go along with it, eh? The rock band Def Leppard had an album called "Adrenalize"...I can't confirm this, but it must have been inspired by Queenstown.
Since I'm a dorky engineer, I feel compelled to at some point make a lame reference to physics. So just like Sesame Street, this episode of Marc's travels is brought to you by the constant g=9.8m/s^2 (for those of you out there that aren't as lame as me, that's acceleration due to gravity). It's had a profound effect on my activities this week.
In my last post I commented that the battle was on between me and the adventure/adrenaline folks here that were out to convince me to spend lots of cash doing crazy things. In the end, I'd say it's a draw...I spent the cash, but loved every second of it. So this entry doesn't have much about culture...nor does it have too much of the hiking/scenery stuff. Pretty much just a lot about me falling off of things.
Mostly the falling was on purpose, the exception was falling off a mountain bike and tumbling a few times. There are a bunch of really good single track mountain biking trails and some good downhill
tracks, so I figured I'd get on a bike and see if I lived through the experience or not. Other than the bike being the wrong size, a few tumbles, a chain link that insisted on breaking 3 times in the middle of nowhere, and being brutally out of shape, it was a grand experience. Thankfully they had given me a tool kit & I was able to keep repairing the chain, but it was rather frustrating to not be near another living soul and wondering if I'd have to carry the bike all the way back to civilization. After 5 exhausting hours, I managed to make it back with 2 minutes to spare before the shop closed and I went to rest and recover from my wounds and sore bum. I originally thought I'd do another day riding some of the downhill tracks, but decided that it was in my best interests to avoid further certain injury and to spend my time in much safer ways...like falling off platforms.
The next topic is my favorite of the Queenstown experience...strapping myself to an over-sized rubber band and leaping off various platforms.
Good - The Queenstown Ledge Jump: 47m drop
Nevis Crew
Everyone looks surprisingly happy considering that we were yet to jump and several were quite panic-stricken. where the harness is such that I could run and jump off the ledge that overlooks town.
Better - The Kawarau Bridge Jump: 43m drop where I was strapped at the ankles and could plunge into the river. This is the original bungy jump in New Zealand.
Best - The Nevis Jump: 134m drop out of a cable car over a giant canyon. Absolutely wicked.
I originally signed up for just the Nevis and boarded the bus to head out to the jump. For some reason I was quite calm and collected on the way out there - until the road we were on turned into a rather scary winding road on the side of a mountain. The good part of that is that it took everyone's mind off the fact that we were about to launch ourselves off a platform 150m above a small river.
We arrived & got suited up in our harnesses and were carted out to this cable car hanging over the canyon and began to await our fate. I was still pretty comfortable up to the point where I actually had to walk to the edge. If you watch the video link, you'll
Nevis
A view from solid ground. see that I just keep taking baby steps to the edge and am basically leaning backwards and looking generally uneasy. It's somewhat funny to me that here I was about to willingly throw myself off, but I was afraid of accidentally falling off before getting to the edge. Almost like I was fine to go off the edge, but only on purpose. Maybe that's not too funny...I suppose lots of things in life can be that way, eh?
Speaking of "eh", generally people I meet think I sound Canadian, not American. Must be that non-regional diction I have from growing up in the suburban Midwest. Though I am rather proud of myself for convincing an Irish guy that I was from Ireland.
Anyway...back to thrillseeking. After a brief moment of comprehending "yikes, that's a long way down!" the guy starts counting down from 3 and there was nothing left to do but jump and yell...gravity did the rest. There's really no way to describe it other than being a complete sensory overload.
Visually - canyon walls racing past me in the corners of my eyes...a river rushing up towards me at an increasing rate...and my eyes becoming dry
Nevis - Pre-jump
All strapped in and ready to go. from the wind and then eventually feeling like they're popping out of my head
Auditory - rushing wind and my waning scream (i think i forgot to breathe in again for a while)
Nervous - why the hell hasn't the bungy cord caught me yet? Seriously...it still isn't catching. Is it attached?
The good news is that it was attached and did catch and I lived to tell the tale. When I first got back up to the cable car I couldn't really remember what just had happened and then the adrenaline started to kick in and I was a tad shaky. After a couple of minutes it all turned into pure thrill and I felt great. I dug it so much that I decided to sign up for their other 2 jumps as well.
The Kawarau Bridge is the original jumping place in New Zealand. It's not nearly as high, only 43m, but it's really cool to get dunked in the river. I thought I'd have no fear on the edge this time, but it was still quite daunting to stand there and look down and contemplate what I was about to do. As I was nearing
Nevis - Fear
Could I look more uneasy? the river, I started to think that I wasn't going to get to the water...but before i could get too disappointed, next thing I knew I was completely underwater and then getting yanked back out again. (note - if you ever do a jump like this...be prepared for water up your nose). A very different experience than the Nevis Jump, but equally as cool.
The Ledge jump is of a scenic lookout area that's above Queenstown. I took a gondola up to the top and prepped myself for the final leap. I ran and tumbled off the edge for my final gravity thrill of Queenstown. Was good, but I wish that I could have 10 more jumps off that one to try out other styles of jumping. I think that since I was tumbling and couldn't see the ground rushing up towards me, it was a bit less of a rush. Don't get me wrong...it was still "sweet as", but certainly different.
All in all, I'm already trying to figure out how I can make a big enough rubber band back home so I can jump off my roof every night. We'll see...
I also did a
Nevis
Still a long way to go... couple of sweet day hikes here in town for some more stunning views and great outdoorsyness. But somehow the last several days have just turned into me hanging out with all the folks at my hostel. Certainly a different schedule than the trip has been so far, but has been fun to hang out with everyone. I've said "I'm leaving tomorrow" each of the last 5 days, but just can't seem to get away from everything here. But I think I actually am leaving tomorrow this time and heading up to Wanaka for some more hiking.
I think one of the things I didn't properly anticipate about traveling is how hard it could be to leave places and all the new friends I make in those places. There's a great crew of folks here and it's a bummer to walk away from it. They're all here for the ski season (beginning in 3-4 weeks) and I've been temped to stay for part of it. But I didn't leave everything behind for all this time just to go work a crummy job being a ski bum...or did I...?
Anyway, I guess that's all I have this time around and
Kawarau - Wet
Post-jump and feeling good (and cold). it's time to go enjoy my last afternoon in Queenstown.
Cheers,
Marc
There should be links to videos of the jumps on this page...and I paid a lot for them...so watch them over and over and over.
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Marty Plecki
non-member comment
Superlatives for NZ
Hey Marc, I remember some of the great senery there. I only got to the North Island, so missed a lot. Your pictures and details are wonderful. What a kick! I bet it is hard to leave each place, depending on the effort expended and connections made. It may be something one gets used to. See you when we see you. Marty.