New Zealand Part 3

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I leave Taupo having only one week left in New Zealand and thinking i have to spend it in Queenstown, which is known as the "adventure capital of the world". I get a flight from Taupo to Queenstown via Wellington. I check into the smallest airport ive ever seen, its smaller than a bus terminal with one gate, theres no customs or bag scanning you just get straight onto the plane 5 mins before its due to leave. The plane is tiny too, with two propelers and fits about 12 of us onboard.The steward was also the co-pilot. The flight takes off on the same runway i did my skydives so im a bit nervous thinking im gonna be jumping out half way through!

The cool thing about the flight was that the door to the cockpit was left open so you could watch them controlling the plane as it came in to land. I land in Wellington and have a half hour changeover to another small plane flying to Queenstown.
Queentown is situated in the South Island of New Zealand, it's a small town on a lakefront surrounded by mountains. Im here at the end of high season so its quieter and cheaper than normal. Its not as cold as i was expecting but winter is still a month or so away; when everyone goes up the mountains for skiing. I decide not to check into the brand new hostel in the middle of town as ive heard its very noisy, so instead opt for the one at lakefront which is quieter with nice views. I make a few phone calls to organise my week here because i want to do all i can.

The first day i organise to go River Surfing, which is where you go down a fast moving river on a bodyboard wearing flippers. You go over rapids, navigate strong currents, and whirlpools. There is one section where the water flows over some rocks to create a standing wave that, if you paddle hard enough into, you can ride in a static position on the river. This proved to be very difficult and i only managed it for a few seconds before nosediving. Two of the instructors rode the wave side by side while another stood on top of them, this looked pretty cool! There were some calm sections where we floated peacefully along the river and the guide pointed out that some sections were used to film Lord of The Rings. Indeed you could do Lord of the Rings tours to see many of the places they filmed it but i wasnt interested. Anyways back to river surfing, there was one cool section that was a grade 4 rapid with many small standing waves you could use to jump off and try barrell rolling in the air.

The next day i organised to go scuba diving. I organised it with Lance, a local kiwi who acted as a guide rather than an instructor so it was fun based rather than us trying to tick progression boxes. Lance was a bit of a gear geek, he had state-of-the-art wetsuits and kit that was really comfortable to use. The first dive we did was in the lake near my hostel we used underwater scooters (the fastest available on the market) that had seven gears and got up to some serious pace. There really wasnt much to see in the lake just silt and dead trees. At depth the silt was so deep that you could plunge your arm all the way to your armpit and still not touch the bottom. We did find a fishermans knife down at 40 metres before making our ascent. The lake didnt feel very deep at 40 metres because you could see it fall away for up to 200 metres but the recreational dive limit is 40 metres. The dive was a lot of fun zooming around on the scooters, and it gave me many "firsts"- things that i hadnt done before:

-First freshwater dive
-First non boat dive
-First DPV dive (scooter)
-First lake dive
-First dive down to 40 metres

I then got in the car with Lance and we drove back to HQ where we picked up his girlfriend and supplies, and took a further hour long drive to the next dive site- a fast moving river much like the one i had been the day before. This is known as "drift diving" where you get into the river at one point and allow it to take you downstream. At the entry point Lance says occasionally you get Jet Boats carrying tourists overhead so he'l take a dive flag to show that we're here. We enter the water and have to swim quickly into the centre of the river where its deepest and flowing fastest when suddenly i hear a massive bang overhead and look up to see a wake zooming overhead... a bit worrying but Lance says its rare and so i know there wont be any others. Five minutes later "BANG!" another wake goes overhead, Lance is swimming a few metres ahead of me at this point when i see a load of disturbance on the water overhead so i cautiouly pop my head out the water to see a helicopter hovering six feet over the surface and the pilot waving at me franticly. I go underwater to tell Lance and when he comes up, sees the chopper and his sticks his middle finger up at them thinking they are just hassling us. We follow their orders and we swim out to the bank of the river. I sit on the side of the river as no less than 30 high powered, high speed jet boats race past one by one. Lance tells me to stay put and he walks away to investigate. He returns later to say that due to excess rain they have changed the location of a jet boat race from another river to this one. He is baffled why there are no signs about to advertise this. We hide the equipment and find our way to the road to get a phone off someone so as to inform Lance's girlfriend to pick us up. We find a friendly person who stops to help us out and she comes over. At this point half an hour has gone past and the race has ended so Lance decides that following a cuppa tea the dive can go ahead. We take back to the water.

The dive turned out to be great fun too, the river is really fast flowing and you have to keep avoiding large rocks so you dont crash into them. At clear sections you can sit upside down and watch the rocks race by. We stopped at one section below a large rock where there were no currents carrying us so we sat their and watched salmon and trout hanging out. The only bad thing about the dive was the excess amounts of Didymo flowing through the water, its a plant that looks like sheeps wool and really takes away from the visibility.
Lance drove me back to my hostel and said because of the complications of the jet boat race i would only pay for the first dive, bonus! He also gave me some free photos he had taken.

At dinner in the hostel that night i bumped into two of the guys i had met in Paihia two weeks before. So to celebrate we went out drinking which was great fun. As i said before these are english guys who i instantly got along with and so could joke around with them as if we'd been friends for ages. Hopefully im going to meet up with them again in Australia next month.

The following morning i went Canyonning. This is where you start at the top of a river and get to the bottom by jumping off platforms, sliding down waterfalls, abseiling, climbing and ziplining. Its amazing fun. I still havnt uploaded the pictures of it yet but will do soon. The scenery along the way was stunning; waterfalls surrounded by lush greenery, huge rocks and trees.

The following day I went rock climbing. I turned up to the shop and met Rose, a really pretty girl from York who took me climbing on a mountain overlooking the lake. It was a really beautiful day- sunny with clear blue skies and no wind. From the top i watch a steam boat cross the lake and it was so calm i saw the ripples from the boat all the way to the shore. The climbing itself was pretty tough having only done a bit of indoor climbing back in Liverpool. The rock was quite flaky and kept breaking off in places giving my knees a good grazing. When i returned in the evening i needed to decide what to do on my last two days in Queentown. All week i had been thinking about a bungee jump hearing the Nevis is 143m tall with an 8.5 second freefall time. The problem is i really dont like heights and hate that feeling of looking over the edge of a tall place.

"But Chris" i hear you cry "you just said uve done a load of rock climbing and jumping out of planes, surely thats just the same?". Why yes loyal reader that maybe true but those are both skills that you can be in control of. The purpose of bungee jumping is to leap and hope. It involves no skill other than balls to jump. This soliloquy had been running through my head all week and so i was going to leave the bungee option for the last day if i manned up and booked it.

For my penultimate day i organised to go to Millford Sound which is a Fiord cut out by several glaciers made over the last 6 ice ages. So its like a huge lake surrounded by mountains that are covered by rainforests. It was discovered by a Welshman who called it Millford after his hometown of Millford Haven. The day i went it was pouring with rain which people were really happy about; it rains here about 250 days a year with an average rainfall of 7 metres! There were impressive waterfalls, cascades and rock formations. It was also home to many sea lions and penguins. What was amazing about it was its vastness. Unfortunately i dont have any pictures as my camera deleted them, but please google Millford Sound to see how beautiful it is.

On my way back i decided i would do a bungee jump but not the huge one i'd been thinking of. Theres one called the Kawarau Bridge Bungee which is the first bungee site in the world standing at 43 metres tall above the river where i went River Surfing. The main appeal was the fact that i could splash into the water from the top. I booked it and had a nervous night's sleep.

I caught a bus at 10am to the bungee site and remember feeling scared so i was listening to heavy music to get me to man up. The song "Broken Hands" by Lamb of God came on- although you probably won't appreciate thiese words they really spoke to me as i was heading to the bungee site:

"I can feel your fear and weakness
I see my own in the mirrors of your eyes
Carved into a corner hopeless
There's death ahead and doom behind
There's a bad storm blowing in
And most of us won't make it
The wreckage of your past
Means nothing now, forsake it"

"Well there's those that do
And those that just do talking
We're all going through hell
It's burn or keep on walking
The blackguards sing their shanty
Pure death riding the wind
Right now it's do or die
How will you choose to live?"

These dark words took away all nervousness i was feeling and then i became excited for what i was about to do.

Just before the jump i got talking to a girl from the bus, she caught my eye because she had this really cool bushy blonde hair (like yours Olivia). Her name is Nadi from Israel, shes very pretty and really friendly. But before i could get to know the talent i had a bridge to jump off! I signed in at the desk where they weigh and harness you up, then i walked accross the bridge to the platform (talking about this is making me nervous again!). The guys are really jokey and fun as they strap my legs together by the ankles and ask how much water i want to hit, i ask for loads and then they make me hop over to the edge, i pose for some photos and then he says 3, 2, 1, Bungee! Doing as im told i leap outwards. Its a huge rush diving headfirst 43m into water and the feeling of the chord kicking in, is pretty unnoticable. I splash up to my waist in water and a boat picks me up as i swing above the water. (go onto my facebook to watch the video)

I reach the top and see Nadi standing on the platform about to do her jump. Her hair flies wildly as she
jumps out although she jumps feet first and has the jolt of the chord turning her over. She doesnt quite reach the water probably because she didnt dive out like i did. We catch a bus back to QUeenstown and go out for lunch at Fergburger which is a famous place in Queenstown because it serves enormous burgers with great fillings. I had one of beef, avocado, bacon, lettuce cheese and onion. Its a meal in itself. I invite Neta for a drink that evening as its my last night in QUeenstown so we go to a pool bar. She's a really cool girl and im glad we met; we have organised a possible meet up in Thailand in June.

The following morning i catch a bus from Queenstown to Christchurch and spend the night there before catching my flight over to Melbourne the following day. Im really excited about seeing my friend Kate in Melbourne because i havnt seen her in two months. I wish i was staying longer in New Zealand but never mind Australia awaits!

In a bit folks!

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Comments

[Phil Silver]

Haha, Olivia Hair. Haha, getting in with the "talent" mate, nice. What I want to know is what happened in Part 2 with the girl in the hostel? You just skip straight to "The following morning..." haha. Sounds amazing as usual mate. I know I'd probably get scared nearer the time, but I definitely think we should do a massive bungee jump when you get back. Tandem, haha. that about the helicopter was nuts too! I hope Fergburger wasn't as good as the Font, although I fear the worst. Take care mate.