Queenstown

10: On our way into Queenstown we stopped at the Puzzling World at Wanaka, I didn't pay to go in but was still able to go to the weird toilets. Then straight on through, everyone checked into the same hostel except for me; partly because it was crap and partly because I found one which had a cheap weekly rate as I knew I would be staying a while. We all met up in the evening and had a big party to celebrate arriving in Queenstown! We knew this would be the last place we were all together...

11: This morning began at 10.30 as the real men amongst us met at the Bungy Centre in preparation for what we were about to undertake... the biggest commercial running bungy jump in the world! 'THE NEVIS'! 134m and 8.5 seconds of freefall. We were taken in a 4x4 minibus out to the middle of nowhere and along a private road through the canyons which led us to the jump site. We put on our harnesses, weighed ourselves to ensure our ropes weren't too long so as that we would hit the ground and were allowed to the view point to see the jump in all its awe... then 5 at a time we were transported in a little cable car type thing along the wires out to the jump pod. This is suspended on 4 long wires stretching the length of the canyon, has a partial see-through floor and seems the equivalent of a needle in a haystack in size comparison to its surroundings! One by one people began to take the leap of faith, nobody chickening out. The jump order is from heaviest to lightest and I was 23rd out of 25 people so had to wait in this suspended pod for almost an hour waiting for my moment to come. It finally did; my name was called and a pad was strapped to each of my legs. I was let through a little gate to the jumping area and laid back in a torture styled chair, my legs resting in two ankle slots. I was all hooked up and attached, swung round in the chair to face the edge and pulled up. I began recording (I jumped holding my camera!) as I waddled to the edge and took a nice big look down. Quick wave goodbye to my friends, "3, 2, 1, BUNGY!" and I had taken the biggest leap of my life! I didn't know what to think, in fact, I didn't have the opportunity to think, I just fell and fell and fell. All the blood in my body rushed to my head, my eyes felt like they were about to pop out, the wind rushed past my ears, the ground got closer and closer... and then suddenly further and further as the rope reached its stretch limit. I flew around a hundred metres back into the air and as I became weightless at the peak of the bounce was given almost a split second to look around before the thrill started all over and I again soared through the air towards almost certain death had I not had 40 pieces of elastic bound together and tied around my legs! As I reached the top of my second bounce I had to pull a release cord which left me in a sitting up position, making the rest of the bounces more comfortable and actually being able to think and look around, taking in the amazing views. I was then hoisted back up to the platform and the ordeal was over.

So that was one of my lifes "to do's" ticked off the list. But who says bungy jumping is a once in a lifetime experience? Not me! After getting back into town, resting and sharing stories pictures and videos, and a quick swim in the lake, I met up with some friends again to go and do another bungy as I had decided that morning. This one was called 'The Ledge' and was at the top of the gondola overlooking the town, giving it the feel of being 430m high when in fact it's only 43m. But the bonus with this one and what made me do it is the fact that you can jump in any way you like. Most people just ran and jumped, one or two tried a backflip but I gave it my all and put myself into a forward spin to see how many times I could somersault. The guy working there told me he had only ever seen 5 and if I made that he would let me jump again for free, but sadly I only made 4 spins! Still, it was pretty intense just spinning and spinning, even after the bounce... I concluded that bungy jumping is definately my kind of sport! We were also told a couple of stories by the guys working there, my favourite being... one of the employees did the nevis jump, but pulling the cord wasn't working so he remained upside down the whole time. He was hoisted up to the top and when we reached the pod, in stead of pulling him in his mates let him fall again so he thought something had gone wrong and he was falling to his death! Not a bad practical joke, if not a little harsh.

12: (See photo's below for todays trip.) Today a group of about 10 of us went on a day trip to Milford. Although I'm glad I went and I did enjoy it's beauty, the trip was a big crappy in that it's a round trip of 10 hours on the bus for a 2 hour boat ride through Milford. There were several photo opportunity stops on the way including at the Mirror Lakes, a stream to fill up our water bottles with the freshest water around and some waterfalls. A funny moment was when going through a really long and dark tunnel the driver turned on some green lights and started playing Star Wars music though you had to be there! The views from the boat were quite spectacular, lots of waterfalls, a group of seals and surrounding mountains. On the way back we stopped off at an underwater observatory which was a a complete rip-off! We all gathered at the lake in the evening for our last night together as a complete group. After drinking there for a couple of hours we all heading to the bars and signed Steve's recently discovered broken foot (after trying to jump a fence at the Poo Pub party. He was told at the time it wasn't broken and found out a week later after we made him go back for a double check; he also had to have 28 stitches in his hand!)

13: Saturday was the day of the Downhill MTB Championships, held at Coronet Peak. I went with a guy from my room at 1pm and stayed until 4pm when it began to rain. We took the bus up to the peak then climbed up alongside the track finding a few good spots to spectate from. To save money getting home we managed to hitch a ride with someone he vaguely knew through a friend of a friend which was handy! Had an early night after some movies tonight to catch up on some well needed rest.

14: Sunday, the final day of the National 7's rugby... a pretty relaxed day on the whole with a long lie in till lunch, then all meeting and going to watch the semi's. There was a couple of hours gap before the final at 6pm in which we went back to a hostel for some beers and a movie. Then we went back to watch the fancy dress presentation (Borat impersonator came 2nd!) and the final where Auckland pretty much thrashed Canterbury, taking the win for the second year in a row.

15: Another Queenstown style activity filled day today, jet boating and heli-rafting! Pick up was 12.30pm and we were driven out to the mighty Shotover River where we got off the bus, put our lifejackets on and within a matter of minutes were awaiting the arrival of our jet boat. Then we heard it coming through the canyon, it got closer and closer to the boarding deck without showing any signs of stopping or even slowing and at the last minute did a 360 spin, pulling up inch perfect from the deck ready for us to step aboard. Once we were all in the driver began the whole "This is my first time taking out customers, I've only been driving these boats for 3 days" and "I've only clipped the canyon walls a couple of times, I haven't flipped the boat yet so we should be alright" scenario. Despite the obvious mistruths it still un-nerved a few people. The ride was awesoooome, we sped through 10cm deep water at 80kmph, did numerous 360 spins, and most enjoyably of all passed through narrow canyons narrowly missing hitting the walls and to finish even did a 360 in the canyon, another inch perfect manouvere. Mum, you would have wet yourself. In fact I thought of you because the lady next to me reminded me of you, she kept shouting "Will you PLEASE stop filming and hold onto the BLOODY rail!"

Once back on dry land we were driven to a helicopter landing area where we were picked up (believe it or not) in a helicopter and taken over the mountains and again through the canyons. It was really cool, we dropped toward the ground a couple of times and went horizontally round the corners. Once dropped in the river (the copter actually landed in shallow water!) we were set up and briefed for our white water rafting. I was put in a raft with a group of Swedish people with an average age of about 60 so was a bit concerned but it turned out they were good paddlers and keen for the rapids! We were taught and practiced the different commands including "duck and hold" for when we went through the most extreme rapids. It was such good fun and we managed to stay upright the whole time. We went through about 5 main rapids up to grade 4-5, passed through a 130m long tunnel, and jump out of the boat and went through one of the smaller grade 2 rapids floating on our backs!

16: Today not too much happened; had a nice lie in then met up with about 10 others to go luging for the second time. Just as the first time it was carnage, the luge's go really fast and there's a mixture of straights, long windy corners, sharp corners, chicanes, drops... perfect for group races really! I won 3 out of the 5 races and crashed in the other 2! In the evening we went for drinks by lake, watching the sunset before going out. We didn't get back till really late and I fell asleep at some friends hostel and when I woke up it was 6am so I walked back down to the lake and watched the sunrise which I'm so glad I got to see.

17: So for the rest of the day I caught up on sleep and watched a movie or two with friends. Then again we went for drinks by the lake (it really is a great spot) but decided to also have a BBQ. It went quite well with the helpful provision of firestarters from some other BBQers and again we went out into town after, celebrating my last night in Queenstown!