Road to Queenstown

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I think I only updated about four days ago but been doing so much stuff thought I'd do a quick update!

After Nelson we headed down to a sleepy town called Greymouth. As we had been told, pretty much the only thing to do there was the Monteiths brewery tour. A group of about eight of us (all lads) got a quick tour of the place and got to see the beer-making process. Was actually quite interesting, the giant fermenters are basically huge pints! After the tour we got to try a load and then we got let loose on the taps for a bit. Included in the price was a barbeque at a local pub and a 'superpint' which was, as you might guess, a larger than average pint.

Next day we were up early for the trip to Franz Josef. The scenery on the way was great, we stopped off at loads of places along the way. I ended up with so many scenery photos that it was hard to tell where I'd taken them, as they were all basically the standard shot of mountains and water! In Franz Josef most of the people from the bus went on a half day trip up the Franz Josef glacier, but a few of us decided to wait until the next day and do the full day hike. We were supposed to be at the hike office at 8.15 the next morning so there was a bit of a mad rush when me and Josh were woken by our roommate Daniella saying "guy's it's eight o'clock already!". At the glacier we were split into two groups, my group leader was Goose, who had the biggest/best mullet I've ever seen. We spent the next eight hours making our way up to the glacier towards the blue ice and back, Goose carving out steps in the ice as we went. The blue ice was amazing, there were a few narrow passages and little caves that we had to pass through. Unfortunately my camera's not working right so the only photos I got were from generous people lending me their cameras, but it was a really cool day.

Yesterday we took the long ride down to Queenstown "the adventure capital of the world". The route taking us through the Haast pass which had some of the best views I've seen so far. We stopped off at Lake Matheson, which was so still that if you took a photo right, you could turn it upside down and not tell what was real and what was reflection.

Back on the bus, we were sitting watching Shrek 2 about an hour from Queenstown when Bev announced that we'd be stopping off at Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first bungee jump in case anyone wanted to do it. Without thinking about it too much I put my name down and carried on watching Shrek, reasoning that if I thought about it too much I'd chicken out! I signed up for the Thrilogy, which was this jump, a higher one called the ledge and a huge one called Nevis in Queenstown. When we got there it turned out that only me and one other guy off our bus of about forty were doing it. Bev put on 'Eye Of The Tiger' as we left the bus and we were really quickly weighed and taken up to the bridge. I was up first and before I knew it I was being told to sidle up to the edge, wave to the camera and the people from the bus, then jump. I really enjoyed it, after the first bounce it's not scary at all! Last night we went out in Queenstown and drank cocktails out of teapots.

Today I'm going to try to do a Canyon Swing which is basically a giant swing from 109m high. The bungee yesterday was only 43m high, so this one is higher, but not as high as the Nevis which I'm signed up for, which is 134m and has eight seconds of freefall (think I need a few days to psyche myself up for that one!). Most of the people I've been hanging about with are moving on pretty quickly as they don't have much time in NZ, but I think I'll stay here for about a week. Have been really lucky with the weather so far, since Greymouth it has been sunny every day, just waiting for the rain to hit now!

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Photos

Blue Ice Tunnel
You can't see it very well because of the muppet standing in the way, but you'll have to take my word for it that it was like really thick glass

Kawarau Bridge Bungy
One girl got a really cool animation-style series of photos of my jump, but this was the only one I got

Comments

[Rob Gillespie]

Rather you than me!
Like I say Gav, rather you than me with the bungee jumping! I take my hat off to you I would struggle to drop like a stone for 0.8 seconds let alone 8.0 seconds. The trip continues to look great and your blog is a real treat to read - very descriptive and informative - almost as if we're there with you. Keep on soaking everything up and taking every opportunity to experience new things - love from all in Hurstpierpoint. Rob