Queenstown Again

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Arriving back in Queenstown we returned the hire car. Although the hire car company had picked us up from our accomodation when we hired the car, they had neglected to tell us that we had to make our own way back. Which was not what we wanted to hear. After some pleading and negotiating, we managed to get a lift, and checked into Bunji again, this time into our own room, without any French guy there to shout at us for talking in the morning.

We met some Scottish lads in the lounge who were on the vodka early doors, which prompted us to get some more Flame beers in ($14 for 12, bargain) and join them. We all headed out that night about 11, for the 100 free beer giveaways at World bar. Seeing as the Scots had to be up at about 7am, and drive twice the distance we had done the night before, they were pretty hardcore, or crazy. Two of them went out in just kilts too! as it was friday night, and the england friendly against Brazil was on in the morning, Dan and I attempted to pull an all nighter, watch the game and then go to bed. Arriving back in the hostel about 5:30am, we found that the hostel didn't have ESPN! The new plan to get an hours kip and then venture back out to town again failed miserably with both myself and dan sleeping through our alarms the first few times, and shouting at Will to turn his phone off when they went off again and again. Still, without knowing the score, we managed to catch a replay that afternoon, and as with all the decent teams, we managed a draw, and would no doubt have lost on penalties if it wasn't a friendly.

In the evening we headed up to the Ledge bungy via the cable car, 400m above Queenstown. This is the only bungy in NZ that you can do at night, so we thought we'd give it a go. At 47m, only 4m taller that Kawarau Bridge, we thought this jump would be pretty easy, but it was much more of a rush than the Bridge jump. I think it was the fact that you're jumping into blackness that made it worse. Here is a video of my jump, hosted on Will's page:

Ledge

The difference with the ledge and the other bungys that we did is that the ledge harness is tied to your waist, and you can take a running jump, which in the dark is insane.

The rest of our time in Queenstown was spent having another couple of nights out, visiting Monty's again for another Manwich, and visiting the best burger bar in the world, that has to be tasted to be believed. It's called Fergburger, and it's on Shotover St. and it was so awesome that we went there for dinner 2 nights running!

You always save the best till last, and that is exactly what we did with the Nevis bungy, 134m of freefall for over 8 seconds. With most bungy jumps, the jump is over before you realise what you have done. With the Nevis, suspended from a cable car over a canyon, you really know you're falling, and the ground rush is unbelievable.

Myself, Will and Dan can now proudly say that we have completed the Thrillogy, which we will rub in Rob's faces when we get home, as he came here last year and didn't manage a single one!

Our last evening was spent playing a few rounds of pool and visiting the minus 5 degrees ice bar, which is a tenner to get in for half an hour and you get a cocktail. It's basically a big industrial freezer with a few sculptures, and drinking out of an ice glass is a bit of a novelty, but if you're on a budget I'd give it a miss as it wasn't great. Apparently the one in Auckland doesn't let you take photos though, so this one is probably the best bet.

It was then time to head up to the North island via Christchurch, which we spent only one night, and then on to Kaikoura, for some dolphin swimming.

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