Queenstown!

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Made it to Queenstown! Known as the adventure and party capital of NZ. Such a beautiful place. Nestled in the mountains and surrounded by lakes it reminds me of Banff, but I'd say about twice the size of Banff.

On Wednesday I was in Wanaka and met up with my cousin Heather. It was such a great time. Wanaka is really beautiful - a very small town, relaxed atmosphere, friendly people, beautiful scenery. Would have loved to spend more time there!

Arrived in Queenstown yesterday at around mid day. Queenstown is where bungy jumping was invented, so I decided to do the Nevis Bungy jump. It's a 134m drop and you free fall for 8 seconds. Pretty wicked.

Decided to do it with 2 friends, Harry and Lee. We all agreed we would jump when they counted us down. So they say 3,2,1, bungy! then you go. We checked in, took a bus up to the canyon and started freaking out a bit. When we arrived at the site they said it's been delayed a bit today because it's been pretty windy. They had to let people jump in between gusts and take breaks when the wind is over 40km/hr. Since there was a delay, we waited for about an hour, but got to watch a bunch of other people go.

When we were finally ready to go, they take you out on this rickety little trolley which takes you from land to the platform you bungy jump from. The trolley was the scariest part! You're right over the canyon, swinging in the wind and can see right through the grating floor. We arrive at the platform and get a safety talk, then get ready to go.

They called us up one at a time to put on our boot straps. I was the third person to get my boot straps, so naturally assumed there were 2 more people to go before me. The first guy was walking to the edge and they said "Joel you're next!" and I was like wait, what I'm not ready yet! So it was a bit of a surprise, but off I went.

They sit you into this chair, attach all the ropes, bind your feet together, get you to wave at the camera, then get you to walk out to where you jump from. You have to woddle over like a penguin because your feet are bonded together. This is where the adrenaline kicks in. You have to walk out onto this plank maybe 2 feet by 2 feet, nothing in the way and are looking down into this terrifying canyon. At the end of the plank there is a black strip of tape they use for grip so you don't slip when you jump. The guy said "come on now toes over the black line." I moved forward maybe six inches, so terrified to move closer. He was like come on, all the way to the black line. It seemed like forever, but finally got out to the edge.

Then he said 3,2,1, see you later buddy and I was like well I promised we'd go when he said so here we go! Launched off the platform as hard as I could. The fall was so long, I was screaming the whole way down but had to stop to take a breath, then continue screaming. It was a crazy blur of cliff, trees, mountain, river. I couldn't tell whether I was going up or down. (After I watched the video I realized I was spinning like crazy, but didn't know it at the time).

There's a green rope you have to pull to release your feet (that sounds terrifying to release your feet when you're bungy jumping) but it's so you get pulled up sitting upright, not still upside down. When you forget to pull the rope they call it "catch of the day" cause you get pulled up like a fish.

Such an adrenaline rush and so fun!

There were two more people to go, then Harry. The guy before Harry got out onto the terrifying platform, ready to jump then they stopped him cause it was too windy. He had to come back from the black tape and sit down. We waited for 20 minutes, but it was too windy. They sent back the people who had jumped already across the trolley (still terrifying on the way back).

Still too windy.

Waited for another half an hour, but they decided to close for the day. I was the second last person to go. Harry and Lee were pretty bummed going all that way for nothing. They rescheduled for today.

Queenstown has a burger joint that was ranked the best burger in the world by times magazine. It was the best burger I've had in my life. I might only eat burgers the whole time I'm here. Place is called fergburger.

Supposed to be pretty cloudy today, so just going to walk around the town and explore. Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer so might do a hike or something adventurous. They have downhill louging here, which is like go karting but you take a gondola to the top, then race louge carts down. Probably worth trying.

Going to try to post the video of me bungying soon. Let me know if you want me to email you a link to it.

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