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The Journey from Te Anau to Queenstown is pretty spectacular! Its farmland for a while then back to the crazy mountain ranges. Then all of a sudden to the side of the road appears a glorious blue lake, Lake Wakatipu. The road follows the side of the lake all the way into Queenstown, the road was more spectacular than the Great Ocean road!! The tight bends were pretty scary, but the lake would have softened the fall, surely?! Anyway we approached a town, I assumed to be Queenstown, eager to get out of the car to visit the ladies room.. But unfortunately it wasn't Queenstown, but only its neighbouring town, Frankston. But within minutes it merged into Queenstown and we were here!! It's all built up on the side of the lake, and I'd say everyone who lives here have amazing views of the lake and the mountains... It really is a stunning place. We arrived, and without second thought we booked Luke into booking his bungy jump for an hours time!!
I was fortunate enough to be able to go along for the ride to support Luke, so the bus took us about 40 minutes into the mountains, to the bungy jump site, and let me tell you, the ride was a white knuckle ride in itself! The dirt track which led us up the mountain had a not o safe string fence between the road and the fall, I doubt it would have supported a bus in the event of a fall!! Anyway at the top we were all harnessed up (I was too, I was slightly concerned that they had missed the point of me being a 'spectator!') Then we took a cable car sort of thing, out to the bungy station in the middle of the canyon. I was terrified at this point, and it was unbelievable watching people actually jumping on their own accord - rather than being pushed! Insane!! It came to Lukes turn, so he went off to do his thing, and I stood on the side line in fear!! Then in an instant he jumped! It was bloody heartbreaking!! Anyway, I'm going to pass you over to Lunatic Luke to tell you about it himself:
When we were paying for the bungy jump, the realisation just started kicking in of what I was about to do!! After we had booked in we were told that the only slot available, was available in just over an hour, so not much time to mentally prepare.
Before I knew it we were on the coach on our way to the site, but I didn't feel nervous, I was choosing not to really think about it, and chose to just get up there and do it! We finally got to the cliff top and were fitted out in our harnesses, even Jenni got one, because she was coming all the way to the cable car. Immediately after we were waiting on the cliff side to be taken across in the cable car to the suspended jumping station. As we were going across in the cable car, I chose to glance down and got my first idea of how far down it was, I knew from there it was going to be a long way down! The guy next to me mentioned that this was the third highest bungy jump in the world! But I had always wanted to do a scary one for my first ever jump.
When we arrived at the jump station, I was fitted out with the leg straps which the bungy cord is attached to, and then just wait for my name to be called out. There were only about 5 other people who had come across with us, and Jenni was the only observer. I was really hoping I wouldn't be first as I wanted to see someone else doing it first. Luckily an Irish guy had to go first, so it was helpful to see someone do it, as I didn't want to do anything wrong, so it put me at ease a little bit. I was expecting to be scared and nervous, but I never really got either. Finally my name was called, and I approached the crew member who sat me in a dentist style chair with my legs up, and attached the bungy cord to my ankle straps, as soon as I was attached, he stood me up and helped me waddle to the edge.
Seconds after I reached the edge I heard a countdown, 3.......2.........1...... And without thinking, I just Jumped!
Immediately I was just falling head first, unbelievably fast! With no sign of slowing down, or bouncing back up, at the last minute I felt the tension through my feet build, and then I was launched hundreds of feet back up. On the second bounce, I was told to pull a cord attached to my left leg, that would change me from hanging by my feet, to hanging by my waist, so I could be head first when they pulled me back up to the top, rather than feet first.
I eventually reached the top, from where I had jumped, and was pulled back in, and had my feet firmly on the floor. Surprisingly I wasn't scared, which I was expecting to be, and would have done it again, if it wasn't so expensive!
So with Luke's adventure over, we headed back to safe land and bought the DVD of Luke plummeting to the ground!! Then came home!! We had a nice big dinner and some delicious New Zealand wine to celebrate our Adrenalin Junkie statuses!!
The following morning we got up and had a leisurely stroll around town, the sun was shining and it wasn't half as cold as it has been recently! So we were able to venture out with-OUT our ski jackets on!! We mooched around the town, then stopped for a coffee on the water's edge, the town is so peaceful and calm, even though there are a million of crazy activities going on around us!! We watched paragliders and jet boats for a while before continuing for more walking / shopping!
On my sugar sachet it had a funny quote:
'I have my faults, but being wrong isn't one of them!'
Jimmy Hoffa
After we had covered most of Queenstown, it had given us a nice appetite, so we visited the world famous 'Fergburgers' for lunch! It's a tiny little burger bar, but provide you with the biggest burgers you could imagine!! And whenever you visit, people are queuing out of the door, day or night! We luckily found a table to sit at, but most people have to take their food elsewhere, because it is tiny!!
Luke ordered a rather suited burger: "Mr Big Stuff" which was ½ lb of prime New Zealand Beef, with ALL the trimmings, I went for a catchier name of 'Bun Laden!' I only chose this for its comical name, but it's a good job because the menu was too appealing so would have been stood there all day trying to choose something! My Burger was a falafel pattie. It was spectacular and totally amazing, but they defeated us, neither of us managed to finish them, and we hardly dipped into the portion of chips we ordered!!!! So after our hefty lunch, we went out for a stroll, and walked around Queenstown Gardens, we walked on the waters edge for a while, then found a pile of rocks we climbed on, and sat for a while watching the world pass us by! It was a beautiful spot and we probably could have sat there all day, without getting bored, then a huge steam boat cruised past, and caused some big waves, which grew and grew and grew, then the waves reached our bundle of rocks.... and soaked us!! So we squelched home with our tails between our legs!! We soon dried off though, as it is actually sunbathing weather!! I am ever so happy to announce this!
Both Luke & I had a discussion the other day, and Luke claimed that this is perfect temperature for him, being cold, and wearing heaps of layers, I said that this is NOT my perfect temperature, I love to feel the sun on me, and not having to wear layer after layer!! I do like the cold, as long as the sun is shining, but the novelty soon wore off, and I do hate the boiling heat, which we experienced in Sydney, where it was a constant sweat box!! The temperature and humidity in Cairns was perfect, but with it being the tropics, that wouldn't be so fun in the Summer I imagine!!
Anyway I have decided, if I do ever decide to move across the world, away from all of you - You would find me in Queenstown. I absolutely LOVE it!
So tomorrow we will be leaving, to head up the West coast, see some Glaciers, and the rest that the country has to offer, but it will be sad packing up and leaving Queenstown!!
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