Queenstown

Me Taking The Plunge On The Nevis Highwire Bungy Jump (134m)

The trip from the icy Franz Josef, down the west coast towards Queenstown is a long but stunning bus ride. Along the way you pass Franz Josef's glacial neighbour - the Fox Glacier, then south along New Zealand's snow peaked Southern Alps, into the Mount Aspiring National Park, past rivers and gorges before cutting inland to find yourself surrounded by the most georgeous mountain lakes, notably the almighty Lake Wanaka. The town of Wanaka on which the lake resides would definately be a place to stop on the backpacker route and for many it is. Unfortunately we were short on time and so we only got to spend half a day staring at this marvel of a location. I can't describe how mind-blowing the scenery is here in the South Island. This country really is Middle Earth. Wanaka is certainly a place for a future return but on this occasion we continued our trip 100km south to the incredibly beautiful, but outrageously monney-sapping Queenstown.

Queenstown sits on the northern shore of serpentine Lake Wakatipu, a place which should in theory be a small, quite relaxing location but in reality is teeming with life day and night. Every traveller will tell you that Queenstown is the place to be and they all correct - in every respect. The town does have a laid back feel to it. Small sidestreets are littered with funky shops, bars and cafe's. The location though is Queenstown's quality. The mountain peaks of the Remarkables which loom over the town are used for serious skiing and snowboarding. There are other nearby slopes too for those who love to shoot down the snowy slopes. The lakes and rivers that surround the town are utilised in a number of ways including jetboat rides, white-water rafting and river surfing. There are great mountain walkways for the intrepid enthusiast and tours to nearby wineries, lake cruises and Lord of The Rings locations. For the adrenaline junkey - there are three bungy jump sites, skydiving, canyon swings and quadbiking. Basically Queenstown is New Zealand's or perhaps the World's activity center and I wasn't going to miss out.

After checking out the town (which can be done in 15 minutes - it's a small place) Darren and I headed straight into AJ Hackett's office and booked ourselves in. If you don't know the man, let me explain. In the beginning there were some tribal blokes on the small island of Vanuatu who using just vines would hurl themselves off of high places and somehow reach the ground alive. Watching videos of this a team in Oxford thought they would take this idea to the next level, practicing and perfecting the art but using better ropey equipment than just vines. However the idea didn't really take off untill one man - Mr AJ Hackett took it to the final level. In 1987 he lept off the Eiffel Tower before setting up in 1988 - the first commercial bungy jump site in the world - The Kawarau Bridge Jump (over the Kawarau River) which is located just outside Queenstown. This wasn't the bungy jump Darren and I had come to do. We decided that one bungy jump is probably enough for any man and if your going to do one - then you might as well do it properly. On the 28th August 2008 (my dad's birthday by the way) we prepared ourselves for The Nevis Highwire.

The Nevis Highwire Bungy is an engineering marvel and takes the title as the world's first gondola jump. What that means is this. Above the Nevis River, a series of wires stretch from one side of the canyon to the other. In the middle sits the gondola jump pod from which scared victims hurl themselves to the ground 134m below. It's 8.5 seconds of freefall and is the highest jump in Australasia (highest in Australia and New Zealand basically). To get to the pod is no quick process. First of all you have to take a 35 minute, 4x4 drive up a rugged dirt track, along a steep path towards the base site. As you curve the ridge to get there, you suddenly see the pod looming ominously over the Nevis River. At this point most faces in the jeep turn white (including Darren's and myself's) and suddenly we all wished we had brought extra underwear.

At the base site, they weigh you again (your weight is very important when it comes to bungy jumping), and you put on your harness. Your then taken to a small secondary pod (holding about 5 people at a time) which acts like a shuttle - taking you along the highwire to the stationary pod in the center of the canyon. We had 18 people jumping in our group so it takes a while to get everyone over. The whole design of the Nevis is deliberately designed to maximise exposure and increase your fear factor. The pod itself is glass bottomed so you can see everyone leaping before you - like you needed to be any more scared!!! The jumps are done by weight - so the heaviest go first. You watch the nervous faces before you and then the jubilation and excitment when they return - alive.

Pretty quickly it comes to my turn. Actually I wasn't that nervous for some unknown reason - at least not as nervous as I should be - especially thinking back on what I actually did. Your sat in what can only be described (and what we described it) as - the dentist chair. You get your photo taken - trying to look happy - and they harness you up. Your given your instructions and then your ready to go. I slowly hobble over to the small platform - a quick look down and you realise how high you are. The Nevis River below looks tiny and suddenly the nerves begin to appear. The instructor puts you in position tells you to hold your arms out straight and look at the mountain straight ahead. Then he says he will count to three and you just leap out as far as you can. I don't actually remember him counting me down - I think I jumped on three subconciously but I did it - no hesitation - I was off and there was no turning back.

After about a second you body has arched down and you are plummeting to the ground head first. The moment can only be described as breathtaking - a complete ground-rush. I think I did actually hold my breath - there is nothing else to do. Your totally free, falling 134m (440ft) in 8.5 seconds - the most thrilling experience I'v ever been through. The rest becomes a bit of a blur - only those first freefalling seconds really stick in my mind. At some point the bungy tightens and your sprung back upwards. This bungy is so high that you actually spring up about 50m so that when you fall on your second bounce - you are actually falling further than the two other bungy jump sites here in Queenstown (which are themselves only 43m (Kawarau Bridge) and 47m (The Ledge Jump)) - essentially your getting two bungy jumps in one. At the top of the bounce, for that split second you feel weightless, then you hurtle back down to the ground.

At the top of the second bounce there is a cord attached to your leg. You have to pull it. At first mine wouldn't pull and it actually took me both hands to get that cord moving. Once it clicks, the cord automatically detaches from your feet, you swing round and your suddenly set in a sitting position from the cord attached to your stomach (this clever invention now has 30 international patents). From here, after you have stopped bouncing around, you can enjoy the view as a mechanism comes down to meet you, clips in and winches you back up to the pod. From there I was in a state of buzzing which continued for the rest of the day - plus I also still had the joy of watching my slightly lighter friend Darren have his turn.

Once Darren had jumped we returned via the shuttle pod back to solid ground. On the way back we watched a girl do her bungy jump - she was the only person however not to pull her leg cord (we never found out why) and so she was winched up to the top, upside-down which aparently is a good reason for everyone to take the mickey out of her plus she must have had the worst headache. When everyone had returned we all watched our DVD's and photos (of course purchased) and collected our hat and AJ Hackett t-shirt, followed by a well deserved cup of tea. The whole experience was immense and I would recommend anyone in the Queenstown area to fight your fear and take the Nevis leap of faith!!! Thank you AJ.

On our third day in Queenstown, Darren and I were booked on a day trip to Cadrona Ski Field where we had two lessons learning how to snowboard. The whole day was so much fun and seriously hard work. I never quite realised how tiring or difficult sliding down some snow on a board would be but it was. On our two two-hour lessons we essentially learnt the basics, which involved getting on our borads, attempting to stay up on them and then heading down some slopes. Actually you can pick it up pretty quickly especially if you are prepared to push yourself and the two of us were cruising by the end and even managing to stop at the bottom. Admittedly I did end up also on my bottom most of the time but with our instructor (seriously named Henry Mountain) we were destined to succeed - and I think we did. Apart from the odd collision, the bruises and sore muscles, it was a fun and enjoyable day and I would definately like to get back on the slopes in the near future. I think i'll attempt the half-pipe next!!!

On day 4, we headed up the famous Queenstown skyline gondola. It takes you 400m above the town and provides unbelievable views over the surrounding area. At the top there are restaurants and cafe's - oh and there is also lugeing. Basically you take another rail-car even higher up the mountain and then on cafefully crafted tracks you race back down in what is like a go-kart except they have no motors - they run purely on gravity. They are so easy to control and require no training whatsoever. There are two tracks - scenic and fast and both are great fun. People of all ages were attempting a hand at this and we were not going to miss out. Darren and myself went up and down 6 times in all - and it was serious driving fun.

Ok, so I said that I was going to do one bungy jump. Well I was, that is until - on the way down the lugeing, right next to the top of the gondola is AJ Hackett's 'The Ledge' bungy jump. It's only 47m high (nothing on the Nevis) but set at 400m over Queenstown above tree's and dangerously spikey rocks it just had to be done. We went in to enquire - and when we came out we were booked on to do the jump at 6pm that evening. We returned for our second bungy jump. It's the only bungy in the area that you can do at night but we wanted to do it at 6pm because thats when the sun sets over the incredible view below you. The whole event was over so quickly but it still didn't distract from the incredible freefall fun. There was no waiting - I was harnessed up, but this time by only the stomach. This means your legs are free and you can take a run and jump for this one. Thats what I did. It wasn't as thrilling as The Nevis but running and leaping off gave a totally different feel to the whole experience. Darren jumped after and again we buzzed for the rest of the day. The pics on this jump too are pretty special - purely for the scenery below me.

After a few days resting up, we had one more thing on our to-do list before leaving Queenstown. We took a day trip to Milford Sound. It's about a four hour drive to get to Milford (this was a long day trip) but it was well worth it. One of New Zealand's top tourist spots, Milford Sound is not actually a Sound (an area formed by flooded water) but is instead a fiord (an area carved out by glaciers which have now melted). On reaching Milford Sound we passed some great scenic locations, most of which were avalanche hazard zones. We passed the famous Mirror Lakes, and continued along the Milford Track , eventually reaching our destination.

At Milford Sound we took a two hour Catamaran boat trip on the Sound, passing U-shaped (glacier carved) valleys, and large meltwater waterfalls. We headed out as far as the Tasman Sea before u-turning back. We passed a colony of seals resting on a rock outcrop and before heading back, stopped off at a floating underwater observatory. Wildlife under Milford Sound is quite unique. Because sediment filled meltwater gushes down into the sea here, a layer of murky freshwater sits above the oceans saltwater. This layer blocks out sunlight, tricking deepwater fish into thinking that they are deeper underwater than they actually are. They head up, close to the surface and from the underwater observatory - we can easily view them all. It's a great way to see some amazing fish. Afterwards we returned to shore for our long drive back to Queenstown.

We had had a fantastic time here. Among our day adventures, the night-life is awesome here too. We did two organised pub crawls, made a heap of new friends - most of which I still remember their names and even happily filled our bellies on Fergburger's - arguably the best burgers in the world. We loved the place so much that we even postponed our bus to spend an extra day here. The reason for this was because Darren and I had talked ourselves into doing the third and final bungy jump - the first commercial bungy jump site in the world - The Kawarau Bridge Jump. We had become hooked on leaping off things with just a rope attached and we were all planned to do the jump until the night before when we both checked our bank accounts and realised we both had no money left. In the end I tossed a coin on whether to do the jump but fate followed my bank balance and in the end we just spent the day chilling. We had had enough extreme sports for now, we had to move on and so we left the beloved Queenstown after a week and headed to the east coast - and the town of Dunedin.............