Queenstown --Nevis Bungy (134m) and New Year's

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New Year’s in Queenstown was a lot of fun. We went out around 9:30pm and did a little bar hopping. Then we moved out to the central waterfront park for the fireworks display, which turned out to be eight minutes of fizzle.


Back to the Buffalo for pool, music and drinks. It was entertaining to see a group of women aged 50 to 60 that were trying to blend in as they chaperoned their teenage daughters/granddaughters. I called it a night around 3:30am only because I had the big bungy jump that morning. No sense trying to jump with no sleep and drinks on the stomach.

I’ve already described my bungy experience in an earlier blog. Let’s just say this jump seemed out of this world. Eight seconds of free fall towards a rocky river valley 134m below. The bus ride up to the jump was more treacherous than the actual jump itself.

Marcos and I jumped 2nd (Donavin 92) and 3rd (Marcos 91). I can now say that I’ve done the third larges jump in the world. I wouldn’t mind going again, but don’t have a desire to specifically seek a future jump. If you want a jumping partner I’ll be more than happy to come along.

By four o’clock we were back in the car heading south for Invercargill, the Southland Region and the bottom end of NZ.

Invercargill deserves a some of my blogging time, however I won’t write about the forlorn place here. After checking into a bland hostel (one of two in town) we continued south to Bluff a postal code that most people consider is the southerliness most point in NZ. The landscape (natural and manmade) was so very dull and dingy it was nearly a depressant. The aluminum smelter dominated the windswept beach environment.

Hunted for old and odiferous shells and added our finds to the ever increasing bulk in the car.

Invercargill was dead (everything was closed after New Year’s). We got lucky and found an Irish Pub with a wood burning fireplace where we plopped down for the evening. I had an excellent seafood chowder.

Night

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Photos

The mighty Nevis
134 metres of free fall.

Marcos and Jen
He jumped and she watched

A long way down
Th last solid surface you see before the long drop (8 sec)

The jump.
Fantastic!!! An addictive rush.

The only colour to be seen was here on the sign.
There seems to be a typo on the sign. It should read "where the Highway ends!" Most New Zealanders when we told them that we were going or had gone to Bluff they gave us a puzzled look. Typically followed by the question what did you go there for?

Irish Pub
The town of Invercargill was shut down for the two days following New Year's. This Irish pub was one of the few places open and we were nearly the only patrons.