Calm cruise followed by the thrill of hang gliding - yes really

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Wednesday, 10th April - Day Seven: 09:15 a walk down to the wharf in Queenstown for a cruise on a 1912 coal-fired steam boat, the TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu. The water was calm, the sky blue and the sun shining as we chugged across the lake to Walter Peak High Country Farm where the farm tour included a sheep shearing demonstration, watching a fully trained sheep dog rounding up his flock and a very good BBQ lunch on the patio overlooking the lake.

Although we had the rest of the day free, Queenstown is renowned for its many high adventure activities, so Howard and I recklessly opted to buy tickets for the tandem hang gliding/paragliding experience. We had no idea what it entailed until we arrived at the launching site after a fast trip around the hair-pin bends of Coronet Peak and realized exactly what we'd signed up to do! That afternoon, with our very experienced pilots, we each launched ourselves off the edge of a mountain, from a height of 3,800 ft. This involved three strides, and then running and I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I last ran! I’m not even sure now how it actually happened, but I was psyched up for the launch once we began.

Howard para glided down on a seat attached to his pilot, Tony, soon after we arrived, while I had to wait for about 40 minutes ready to run down to the edge of this mountain hanging on to the harness of my pilot, Pablo, for enough wind to catch the hang glider. The view across the valley to the Remarkables was stunning. It was a sensational experience to fly horizontally hanging on for dear life while Pablo guided us down, made a few acrobatic moves then landed inches from the grass on two small wheels so that the toes of my sneakers aided the abrupt stop. Sadly, the video, which was attached to his glider ran out of power so there is no proof that this happened except for the cute picture below.

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Photos

TSS Earnslaw
one of the oldest coal fired steam engines still working, built in 1912

Walter Peak Walter Peak High Country Farm
a beautiful building in a wonderful setting

On the Queenstown Wharf
L to R: Howard and Melita , Ellen and Tim

Through the porthole
inside looking out

Hot down below
stoking one of the four coal furnaces to build up steam for the boilers

coffee on the cruise
Bruce Cousens looking into the engine room

On the bow
TSS Earnslaw with low lying clouds on the mountains

Preparing to shear
Nigel holding her comfortably

sheep herding demonstration
rounding up the flock

feeding the sheep
Mel

Lavender and Roses
view of the garden down to the lake's edge

Paragliding over Lake Wakatipu
this is not one of our group

Pablo and his hang glider
waiting for the next person - me

View from Coronet Peak
stunning views across the valley

This is paragliding
Howard with Tony, his pilot

Not for the faint-hearted
Howard's first (and probably last) paragliding experience

My Dutch pilot, Pablo
At the end of our trip, safely down.

Comments

[Berry]

Fabulous pictures! What a wonderful day that must have been! You are really brave (or something!) to hang glide. Do you think Oscar could learn to herd sheep - I asked him but he just yawned, scratched and flopped down - so maybe not? Keep enjoying! Miss you. Much love, B&G

[Mel and Howard]

Hang gliding
Yes, I think the "or something" is probably correct.