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Published: March 5th 2009
As you can tell from the title, we arrived in Queenstown quite some time ago now, Christmas Eve to be precise. Queenstown is a stunning place in the South of NZ, and due to its natural beauty and the number of activities on offer is a tourist mecca all year round, be it for skiing in winter of sightseeing in summer. One thing it was not however, is 'Christmassy' - Christmas felt more like a day off for most Queenstown folk than it did a big celebration of meaningful event. However we couldnt complain as we were camping on the lake overlooking the Remarkable mountain range, whilst having a Christmas BBQ (to make a change for once!).
Queenstown is a lovely town, buildt overlooking a large lake in the surrounds of numerous mountains, but the reason most people visit is as its known as the 'addrenaline capital of world', as if there is any crazy sport you want to try, you can probably do it in Queenstown. As a result we decide we would have an addrenaline fuelled Boxing Day, and kicked the day off with some early morning Jet Boating. This involved racing down a gorge in about 20inches
Bungy
Luckily you cant hear what was being shouted!of water, missing the walls of the canyon by centremetres! It was great fun and we really enjoyed it.
The afternoon however was a slightlier scarier experience for myself, as I decided to do a bungy jump, and being money concious decided that if I was going to pay all the money to do it, then I might as well pay a little extra to do the biggest one - and after the skydive was feeling like it wouldnt be a big deal anyway! How wrong I was. The Nevis Bungy is the biggest in Australasia and about the 3 biggest in the world at 134 metres, and its HUGE! The place you jump from is suspended above a gorge on a wire, and to reach the cabin you need to take a cableout, and the cabin itself has a glass floor, and trust me when i say 134 looks very high when you are looking through a piece of glass. After being kitted up the big moment came, and as they keep reminding you 'dont look down', I kept my eyes on the horizon.....until the "5-4-3-2-1......BUNGY!!" Which was quickly followed by screams of "Oh Sh*t!", it was a
Queenstown
Old and the new - Steampowered TSS Earnslaw alongside a jetboat! looooooooong way down, and a very scary experience, but it was a huge rush and I was glad I did it, although it wasnt quite the same experience as skydiving.
We spent the next few days in and arround Queenstown, visiting different places and sights, including the cable car up to the luge, which was great fun (think mario kart!), a visit out to Glenorchy - where they filmed numerous scenes from LOTR, and Arrowtown - a small and bizarre place that boomed during the gold rush, which is fullof tiny houses and old Chinese settlements.
After around a week in Queenstown we headed down to Te Anau, the launching point for exploring the Fiordland......
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