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Published: August 3rd 2008
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After a night I Wanaka and taking on the Steep 5/6 hour return hike to Roy’s Peak for a great view over Wanaka and its nearby lake I made a move for Queenstown! The sun was just setting on the way there providing some awesome views to photograph at the North by lakes Wanaka and Hayes. I finally arrived in Queesntown in the dark down some very steep winding roads and followed directions to my chosen hostel. Once I stepped out of the car first thing I noticed was the strangely high up yet very close lit up building with the morning revealing it to be the Skyline Gondola.
If you’re not lazy you can walk up the hill where the Gondola is situated for great views, a cafe and the Luge (a kind of sit down skateboard thing) and then come down using the Gondola or even paraglide down if you’re not taking on one of the further long hiking trails beyond. There are loads of great walking tracks in the area provided by the incredible setting of this town; ‘tramping’ as New Zealanders call it is their favourite outdoor activity.
I didn’t spend too long in this
hostel, didn’t like the vibe so moved down the road the following day to Southern Laughter, which was a great place and I must have been there for at least a week until I rented a room temporarily. A great crowd of people (a few of which became good friends for my stay in Queenstown), colourful decor, spa pool and free soup at 6pm! We were soon to hit the town visiting just a couple of its many bars. Queenstown has a buzzing nightlife nearly all of the time with a range of bars, some offering drinks promotions to backpackers such as the Buffalo bar, while other classier cocktail bars charge you a premium for being there. There is also a few small clubs with hip hop and drum and bass acts passing through and New Zealanders love their Drum and Bass! This was pre ski season and apparently the place is heaving during the peak periods!
This Lovely English girl Laura and I checked out this comedy club at Revolver, which turned out to be a right laugh especially being given front centre seats so we became the butt of a few jokes. The place was rammed to
see the three comedians, one crazy Australian, one long ginger haired English Man and the inevitably hilarious Irishman who we had a drink with after and knows the Father Ted cast. The show was on over a number of nights and is on every so often with different comedians, highly recommended!
Just over an hour’s drive away you reach Glenorchy and from there is the start of the Routeburn track heading toward Milford Sound, unfortunately you can’t drive to Milford this way though that is a much longer trip. We only took on this track for a day perhaps making our way 1/3 through to one of the huts before retuning back to the car. I was simply stunned by the beauty of what I saw along the way with some of the best alpine views and turquoise waters as you cross these purpose made rope bridges.
Queenstown is sometimes called ‘The Adrenalin Capital of The World’ and I left it until the last week to find out why. First of all was the Skippers Canyon Jet boat with my friend Victoria who finally caught up with me from back home. This boat is the same price as
the others but turns out to be a far better deal as it takes you deep in to the Canyon above the Shotover River (which you can pay for as a tour itself) and perhaps gives you a little longer on the boat. Along this stunning scenery there are relics from the gold-mining days and while on the boat the driver stopped and pointed out the only part used in the Lord of The Rings which I recognised so far (where Liv Tyler washes away the Dark Riders with a spell).
Next up was time for me to challenge the fear of sudden drops from a high for the first time with the highest swing in the world, the 109m high Canyon Swing! On arrival we watched others jump and it really is massive, starting with a 60m freefall and the total arc of the swing is 200m! It featured in Jack Ozbourne’s Adrenalin Junkie. Never the less we got harnessed up and waited in line. This is one of those things that you just do, it’s a personal challenge and next it was my turn! The guys here are well funny and love to play with your fear
Bungy
Bungy: the original commercial bungy site! but you should have no doubt about the safety procedures here with the cable being able to hold 4 cars. After my second count I just jumped and can’t quite remember much of the freefall, I think you may call it sensory overload - it’s just too much for your brain to handle the first time you jump until you start swinging outward. You get a cheaper second go then and this time I decided to depart the platform by tipping over backwards in a few garden chairs. You have to psyche yourself up to do this and the freefall is just the most insane thing, it ain’t right really! The humorous and well made DVDs you get from this place are priceless souvenirs.
Then it was on to the world’s original bungy site, AJ Hackett’s Kawarau Bridge. For a few weeks I was living with one of the AJ Hackett crew who was responsible for seeing me off this one, he had been winding me up all week about how wet I was going get in the river. I arrived confidently after conquering the Canyon Swing and despite this being a shorter way down when I got to
the platform I really didn’t like it. Perhaps seeing the surface closer and knowing I was going to just go straight down and hit it is what made me just hop off to get it done with, not dive. Doing this I didn’t stretch the cord at all so it flipped me around and got me soaked at the bottom of the fall head first, kind of a double shock. They let me down into the awaiting dingy below and I made my way back up to the cafe to dry off, not the most enjoyable of experiences although you can choose not to get drenched.
On the last day I was booked to do a 12,000 ft Tandem Skydive to see Queenstown off with so despite a few drinking games the night before back in a hostel, as the weather was so good I boarded the minibus and headed toward the airfield. I couldn’t resist doing it here by Queenstown as it is probably one of the best places in the world scenery wise. On arrival at the airfield I watched others go up and jump out of the perfectly good aeroplane with their chutes opening after the best part of a minute freefalling, all a bit strange really but I was up for it! After being harnessed up and a quick briefing we jumped aboard the purpose built aircraft and made our way up alongside the snow capped mountains. The view out of the window was awesome. Suddenly the plane levelled off, the light went green and the door opened before the first few left the plane. I wasn’t particularly scared for some reason as the blokes are so experienced and you just have to enjoy the ride. I then moved forward and was hanging outside of the plane before letting go and leaving it all to the one who knows what he’s doing. I kind of liked this as it’s totally mental if you think about it just hanging off a plane! Then he let go and it felt like we went into warp speed. I managed to keep my eyes open and take it all in before you adjust and loose the falling sensation leaving just a hell of a lot of wind, which can make it tricky to breathe. After a while the chute opened along with the sudden deceleration and we floated back down to the ground. What a rush, job done, Queenstown loved it!
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