Mountain Air makes you do crazy things... Queenstown

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So far on our travels whenever we've talked to people about New Zealand & asked them their favourite place they have, without exception, said Queenstown, and so I was obviously excited to go there. So much so that we'd allowed ourselves nearly a week there.

Queenstown sits by the side of Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by giant snow-capped peaks and pine forested hillside that are reflected in its crystal waters. It has every essence of an Alpine town only it is surrounded endless valleys with rich vineyards and it has a cool backpacker vibe. The vast majority of the people we saw there were travelers. The towns official population is 16,000 but that is supplemented by a conglomeration of various nationalities, most young Europeans or Australians who, seemingly had travelled there and decided to stay and work.

I can hardly blame them. When the weather is nice the surrounding vista is a spectacular backdrop to a town that is the adventure capital of the world. On top of that it has a party atmosphere that is hard to find anywhere else in New Zealand. It has an infectious vibe that seems to seep through your skin. I felt it as soon as we turned up. The crisp mountain air; the rows and rows of stylish shops offering ski/board wear; the signs advertising extreme activities from taking a speeding jet boat through tight canyons to throwing yourself off a cable-car suspended 400 feet above a river gorge; and above all the happy and trendy people strolling the pavements with friends. I thought, "I’m going to like this place."

I must have caught the adventure bug that is pandemic in Queenstown because the first thing I did was book myself on to the Nevis Bungee for the next day.

We found a cute little hostel for about 11 pounds a night that offered car parking and exquisite views of the Lake and Mountains. That night my sleep was interrupted by periods of wakefulness. I'm not sure why I woke - I couldn't remember my dreams - but during those periods I felt a growing restlessness about the next day's bungee.

In the morning we were driven to the bungee site across private farmland and along a narrow rutted track adding to the sense of adventure. The journey took 40 minutes and this gave time to contemplate what lay ahead. What did lie ahead was the biggest bungee in New Zealand and one of the biggest bungee jumps in the world. The jumping "pod" is a large cable car which hangs suspended across the middle of a large gorge, about 150 meters above the Nevis River. It is impossible to "not look down", they designed it that way! You have to get another smaller cable car to get to the jump pod and this has a wired metal grate for the floor allowing for views to the bottom of the gorge waaay down below. Once in the pod there is a glass floor you can peer through as they attach your ankle bindings, all of which is adding to the anxiety and titillation I was feeling. I watched other people go & then it was my turn. They sit you in a chair while they attach the bungee cord & run through a small briefing. The guy said I needed to take a huge jump or I'd end up in the river... "great!" I thought sarcastically! I was lined up on the edge, overlooking the precipice. This was it. "3-2-1 BUNGY!!" and, with my heart audibly beating in my ears, I jumped into the void. I remember floating in space for a split second before gravity caught up with me & I was hurtling to the ground. Then I can just remember a sensation of falling and was amazed at the speed with which the ground and the tiny river grew in my field of vision & suddenly became not so tiny. The most eloquent phrase I could muster at the time was "FUUUUCK!" For 4 seconds I fell in freefall. If you count it out it seems a long time to be falling but before I knew it the bungee cord had begun to tense and I felt, for the first time, the resistance of my lifeline. I continued to fall for another 4-5 seconds, bouncing back up some 15m short of the river. The feeling was intense relief and sheer exhilaration and I was whooping like an American frat boy at spring break! They winched me back up & I was physically shaking as I reached the top as the adrenaline surged through my veins, but I was buzzing. It was incredible. I think the biggest emotion was relief that I’d actually gone through with it!

One thing there are plenty of in Queenstown is places to get food, and that night before we went out we ate at a place called Furgburger. Anyone who's been to Queenstown will know about Furgburger & we'd been recommended it by some guys we met in Fiji. It's always rammed, but it's worth the wait. I'd go as far as to say they were the best burgers I’d had. So I’m going to be the next step in the chain and say, if you go to Queenstown, go to Furgburger.

We went out with some girls we'd met at the hostel (one of whom happens to work for Murray Smith, the company that does my company's accounts in Northwich! small world eh?) & played drinking games until the early hours, & ended up in a karaoke bar singing Oasis songs at 3am. It was a good night in the morning my head was banging.
My mood wasn't helped by the weather which was leathering it down, meaning that pretty much nothing was running. But luckily in the afternoon the weather cleared so we took the opportunity to ride the gondola to the top of the surrounding hills, where the panoramic views were spectacular. At the top there's the luge, which is like a downhill gravity powered 3-wheeled go-kart. It was so much fun hurtling round the track, sweeping round tight bends on 2 wheels managing to just keep balance... just!

The next day we did some snowboarding. You can't come to Queenstown and not do skiing or snowboarding. It is recognised as one of the best places in the world with several ski fields within an hour of the town, and rental and transport relatively cheap (I could have had two full days on the slope for the price of my 8 second bungee!!). We wanted to be there early and so had to get up at 7am. The weather was grim again, with dark clouds emptying large sheets of rain onto the streets and obscuring the tops of the mountains, but we'd already booked & paid so had to brave it. As our bus trundled its way up the slope the rain turned to snow & we had to stop so chains could be added to the wheels. Once on the slope visibility was down to a few yards and snow fell in light flurries, covering the floor with a soft white carpet. We took a few runs down the beginners slope & I was a bit shaky because of the low viz and fresh snow but soon got used to the new surroundings. I decided to go up to the intermediate slope & on the lift the clouds cleared illuminating the tops of the mountains and the surrounding area. The sky turned brilliant blue and the sun came out to make the snow shine. This made everything better and I really began to enjoy myself. Jake joined me on the upper slopes and, after a couple of runs where we were weaving in and out of each other like slalom, was buzzing, "Before I liked snowboarding, but now I’m in love with it!" I still, as always took a couple of hits, one in particular where I landed on my neck left my pretty sore for a while afterwards!

On the Thursday, our 4th day, we'd planned to visit Milford Sound, a spectacular fjord & the place Rudyard Kipling classed as the 8th wonder of the world. We'd been told earlier in the week that the only road to Milford was closed due to a massive avalanche & would be cleared for Thursday but on Thursday we were told not until Sunday. We had to be Christchurch for Monday so this was not feasible. I was gutted. It was particularly hard for me to take as this had one of my 'Must Sees' on this trip & now it had been snatched away from me I was pretty downhearted. But that day we decided to go for a trek up one of the lower hills that surrounded town and, after we reached the summit after a fairly arduous 2 hour hike, I took a full 360 degree look around at my surroundings & was cheered by the thought that Milford Sound couldn't be much more spectacular than our current surroundings.

Before we left Queenstown we wanted another sample of the nightlife so we decided to join a bar crawl in the hope of meeting a few new people and seeing a few new bars. We did have second thoughts about this when the first bar we started in was running a Coyote Ugly style night with bar dancing & a wet t-shirt competition but we'd already put our money down for the crawl! Gutted! The crawl consisted of 6 bars with a free shot of something nasty like Jagermeister on entry into each. There were no 18-30s style drinking games (unfortunately!) but we did have a quality time. We left the last bar with a group of Auzzie guys from Brisbane & ended up in a club blasting out heavy dance music until the early hours - we left at 4am & there was no sign of it slowing down! This is Queenstown for you!

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Photos

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I just couldn't get past!

Photo 6
pre-bungee nerves!