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After a few promotional videos on the bus of all the activities you could do in Queenstown, we got bombarded with a plethora of clip-boards to put our names on. The Nevis bungy was obviously a definite, and there was the Canyon Swing which we had heard loads about and were considering. It's basically where you swing through a big canyon in a harness after a brief freefall and it's meant to be good because the guys who work there mess with your head loads and you can go off in all sorts of ways like cartwheeling, backwards or in a chair. But over at the Nevis bungy they had a similar swing through the canyon there which was actually bigger and worked out way cheaper if you did it as a combo with the bungy, so me and Ben signed up for that. Funnily enough we had been told by loads of people to get to Queenstown quickly and spend as much time there as possible, but because we had already done pretty much all of our planned activities, with only the Nevis bungy left, we actually found ourselves with a week in Queenstown with not much to do. So of course we went out pretty much every night, as a new bus of people would arrive each day meaning there was always something going on, and spent our days recovering from a hang over by mooching about the outdoor and souvenir shops. The first night was obviously the big `arrival in Queenstown' party for our bus which was pretty messy. In the hostel bar there was a competition (you know why I am mentioning this) whereby you get to be the DJ and pick 4 songs to play and then after the crowd cheers and they recorded the decibel level. Of course me and Ben absolutely walked it with some classics and won a free bar tab, rapidly expended on a fair few tequila shots. Seriously can we lose anything? After that it was off to World Bar, frequented on numerous occasions during the week, which has these signature t-pot drinks where you drink cocktails out of a t-pot. Unbelievably overpriced gimmick, there was a World Bar in Kings Cross in Sydney with the same thing, so I wasn't falling for that one again, but of course it amused the filthy backpackers. On that first night some class-A douchbags on our bus got into a scrap with one of the Kiwi-Ex drivers of all people, and there was a typical overdone kerfuffle with the bouncers which all kicked off again a few nights later. I mean it was hilariously lame, and the lads from the bus were giving it the whole `your dad works for my dad' and `read a book' chat which is so goddamn pathetic, but you couldn't help but laugh when they were trying to impress the girls with their war stories afterwards. Anyway so we went out loads, getting our fill of the beer with a lime twist called Raddlers that had become our staple drink of NZ, and of course, the Fergburgers! This Fergberger place was no MacDonald's I can tell you. It had an unbelievable selection of these absolutely massive burgers with all kinds fillings, they were quite simply amazing. We made it our mission to get through as much of the menu as possible before we left, and did pretty well too leaving very few untasted by the end. Not the healthiest option but they were f***ing delicious and addictive. One day we even saw a newly wed couple go in there for a cheeky bite after the ceremony, suits and white dress and all, just to give you an idea of the legendary status of this place. Anyway boozing and Fergburger aside, of course there was the small matter of the Nevis Bungy to attend to. In the bus on the way over I got my adrenalin pumping with the heaviest music I could find on my i-pod, but that did little to calm the nerves. But when we got there and got all strapped up and watched the people go off from the pod over the valley, it really didn´t look so bad. Of course the cable over to the pod and waiting around in there whilst other people jumped was nerveracking. The turn-around was quite quick though so before I knew it, Rich was standing on the edge. After a bit of flailing of the arms and his token tarzan cry he was off. Seeing him go off first and smiling his ass off when he got back up pretty much vanquished all my jitters, but just in case, I let out a Spartan war cry (from 300) to pump me up when I was on the edge. Then off I went. The fall happened really quickly before I bounced back almost as high as what I´d dropped. I got the brief vertigo of free-falling that I got on the skydive, then the rush you get when you´ve done something stupid and dangerous and survived. Then before I knew it I was back in the pod and for some reason, they wanted me and Ben to do the swing asap, so literally the second he got back up from his jump, we were whisked off to another plaftorm, strapped together and dangled over the canyon upside down before we really had time to get our heads around the bungy we´d just done. Obviousley looking back though it was freakin awsome! Although not as bad as everyone makes out. Anyway so the swing was actually pretty scary, probably more so than the bungy to be honest because you don´t know when he´s going to release you so you can´t prepare for it. After a few poncy whimpers the guy sent us off and f*** me I absolutely bricked it in the first few seconds because we plummeted towards these rocks, only to be swung away through the canyon as we were seemingly about to nose-dive into them. After that it was a fairly casual swinging around admiring the views, but my heart was still racing as that was probably the closest i´d come to thinking I was going to die in all of our activities. Of course moments like that make you feel alive so I was pretty stoked afterwards, and after admiring all our photos and videos (and paying a small fortune for them), we cruised around the rest of the day in the free t-shirt and hat that you get after, just like other people we had seen in them and thought were losers the previous days. Naturally that night we celebrated in style, I don´t really remember it, but no doubt 2 for 1 Raddlers, World Bar and a late night Fergburger was involved. So the week came and went fairly slowly after that, because like I said we didn´t do much during the days, and after partying ourselves out and spending all our money, the NZ leg starting coming to an end. We spent a day in Christchurch (nothing to report, apart from the hostel we stayed in was an unbelievable s***hole and I lost my temper with some more stupid young backpackers who ruined the end of a movie we were watching) before flying back to Auckland for our flight to Argentina and Rich´s flight home sadly. So all in all New Zealand was an adrenalin ride of activities, big scenery and many a nights out. Definitely the best part of the trip so far, but South America would subsequently have to be a bit more cultural having tipped the balance heftily in the past month.
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