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Published: January 26th 2007
Kia Ora (Hello) and welcome to Queenstown!
Queenstown is without doubt the adreneline capital of the world there is so many amazing thing to do here. I didnt do them all but I did a few and they were awesome!! but more about that later first we had to get there as we left Wanaka we went to a crazy place called Puzzle World that has a massive maze with four towers. The aim is to visit the four towers and then find your way out. This was hard and took me and Jo about 20 mins to find the four towers then another 10 mins to try and find the exit, fail and exit through the escape doors. Really glad we did use the escape doors as there was much more cool stuff inside.
The stuff inside Puzzle world included a crazy hall of legends room with loads of 3D holograms of famous people in history, as you walk round the room the faces follow you and it is pretty weird. Then the best thing there was a room that was slanted at a really strange angle it really felt as if you where being pulled down towards
Crazy Slanted Room
Was So wierd being in herethe wall but it wasnt and felt very weird.
After Puzzle World we headed to Queenstown. Before we got to Queenstown just on the outskirts is the famous Karawua Bridge, its famous because it is the first ever commercial bungy jumping site in the world run by the guys who invented it AJ Hackett. As we got to the bridge Jo was really excited and was deciding wheather to do a jump or not. I really didnt want to do it as I had heard lots of storys about peoples eyes popping out and other crazy things that could happen when you do a jump. After watching a very brainwashing video at the AJ Hackett museum and looking at how the bungy cords are made Jo decided that she was doing one. Not to be outdone and have to listen to Jo saying " Oh you should of done it" for the rest of our trip I nervously decided to do one as well.
Jo thought that when she got up there she might not be able to actually throw herself of the bridge, LJ our driver said that if anyone wanted to do it but wasnt sure
if they could jump then he would do a tandme with them and that he would jump and they would follow wheather they liked it or not. Jo thaught this would be her best option so they got all there harness and gear on and headed for the platform. As they jumped I really couldnt bear to watch as I knew that I would have to go next and if I saw the fall then i might chicken out. However I stupidly watched them plummet form the platform and get dunked in the water as they bounced up and downi could hear the laughter that uncontrolably takes over you after you have done it and felt slightly better about doing it myself (Slightly!!).
After I had got my harness on and been strapped to the bungy cord i got ready for the thrill of a lifetime and started to feel pumped up as the adreneline started going through my body. The worse part about the bungy jump is just before you jump you have to shuffle your feet to the edge of the platform with you toes hanging over the edge and you cannot help but look down 43
Hall Of Legends
Crazy Faces that follow you round the room meters into the river below!! Lots of things go through your head as well like "Why The hell am I doing this", and "Will I survive" but as Jo had just done her jump I really couldnt not do it as I would never of lived it down. The Bungy Jump guys get you to the edge and then you have a photo taken, then the guys said to me "and say hello to those guys" which was Jo and LJ at the bottom waving and cheering me on. This made me fell even worse as i was looking down at where hopefully I would be pretty soon.
With all the Kiwi Bus crew cheering the Bungy guys began the count down 5-4-3-2-1, as they got to three I thaught F**K it Im going now I dont want to wait till 1 i might not jump, so i took a dive of the bridge and fell 43 meters in 3seconds of crazy adreneline fueled madness, it was the biggest rush ever falling all that way down and then being sprung back up nearly as high as i had jumped from, Its really hard to describe the felling and I
Jo getting ready to take the plunge
A nervous looking me watching on top left guess you carnt you will just have to do one yourselves!! After I got to the bottom and gave Jo a big kiss we headed back to the top for a well needed drink!! The best thing about doing it was the feeling after everyone who did it had the biggest smiles on there faces and me and Jo must have been smiling for a good 7 hours after as it was such an amazing thing. Im glad I did it on my own as it is a real personal challenge throwing yourslef of a bridge with an elastic band round your legs. and the moments just before you jump really reveal your character!! I loved it and would do it again and definatly reccommend anyone to do it is an amazing feeling. After this event we started calling oursleves Team Extreme and we have vowed to carry on doing these sorts of Extreme activties for the rest of our trip.
After the crazy day we checked into our hostel and then met up with everyone from the bus and LJ for a wicked night out partying Queenstown style. This involved lots of Jaigger Bombs and Jaigger shots. After
Jo and LJ Flying
43 metre Fall at Karawau Bridge going to a few bars with everyone we headed off with LJ to a hip hop club called the Tardis. Armed with lots of free drink vouches supplied to me by LJ we cained it up got extremly drunk. Me and Jo where the last ones standing at 6am even LJ the local driver left before us as he was so smashed it was a wicked night and an amazing day and i will remember it forever!!
The next day I carried on my extreme activties by signing up for Mad Dog River Boarding, this invloved shooting down a river in a grade 3 rapid on a body board. I thaught it would be really good fun and alot easier than the bungy jump, I couldnt have been more wrong!! With the river boarding there is a low perception of danger as with bungy jumping a high perception in reality it is the other way round as so many more things can go wrong river boarding. We got in the water and had to use our strong arm to hold the board at the back and our weaker arm to hold the top of the board. by the time
Me looking Very Nervous
Am I really going to do this I had finished i thaught both my arms were gonna fall off. The river was crazy and took you where it wanted you to go either under that water and into a whirlpool which you then basically had to hold you breathe and wait for it let you go or into the rocks which where very sharp and painfull (trust me!)
After surviving the first section of the river which was the hardest it got alot easier and alot more fun, the whirlpools dissapered and you could just shoot down the river straight throught the middle away from the rocks. after the next two sections of river we were back at the Mad Dog river boarding site where they have roack jumps (about 10 meters) and slides which where awesome we did about three slides each on our boards face down, kneeling and on our backs it was really cool after jumps and slides the jet ski picked you up at the bottom and took you back and also took us for ride down the river. It was a real challenge and if you where thinking of doing yourself then I say do it if your a good swimmer
and i mean good. but if your not then do it and miss out the first section youll have a much better experience.
When I got back to Queenstown to meet Jo who had been doing a rafting trip she could see on my face that I was knackard and asked if I enjoyed it I just said " I just glad to be alive"!!
After this we had a chilled out afternoon and went up the skyrail to a wicked lookout over Queenstown, they also had a luge thing up there as well and me and Jo had so cool races round the lookout the luge is like a go-cart with no engine and a handle to pull back to brake and puch forward to go faster it was really good fun and a good end to another crazy Team Extreme day. next stop Christchurch to fly on to Oz!!
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