Well, that night after skydiving was perhaps the coldest of the trip. The three of us decided that this would be a night for all of us to cram into the van, though it was still quite cold.
Morning arrived and we fell out of Alice, threw on some clothes and made our way to Franz Josef Glacier Guides for our day hike on the glacier (pronounced glassier here). We were given jackets, mittens, boots, and crampons. I thought we'd be given pants, but apparently they only do that in cooler, wet weather, so I was in thin spandex for the trip. Oops. This turned out to be a problem going through our first ice tunnel...more on that in a bit.
We were bussed to the trail head and made our way to the rock field below the glacier. There, we split into groups and chose the middle group so we could take everything in at a leisurely pace and enjoy. When we reached the base of the glacier, our group was split in half again and we donned our crampons and met our guide, Dan, who was pretty cool. He's what some people call a "Half-Pac," which is half pacific islander (Maori) and half Irish (or any nationality from the U.K.). My Maori friend said that it's not considered a derogatory term, although I'm interested to hear multiple opinions on it.
Anyway, Dan led us up a steep ice staircase onto the glacier where we spent the day tracking down blue ice and slipping and sliding our way around. The blue ice, which you can see in some of my pictures is pretty cool. We learned that it's caused by the lack of oxygen in the ice due to the pressure of the glacier, and therefore blue is the only color of the spectrum that is can reach this point in the ice? Something like that.
When we came to our first cave, we had to crawl on our hands and knees through a very narrow hole. Probably reason number one not to wear spandex on the glacier, although some were in shorts and got their knees cut up pretty badly by the jagged ice. The only problem I came across was not being careful with my crampons. I nicked myself pretty well on my calf and there's still a huge bruise and I the cut may or may not scar...oh well, add it to the collection.
After a nice long day on the glacier- we got the only two days of nice weather for doing our outdoor activities at the glaciers!- we drove on toward Wanaka with the oil light on the entire way. That was about 280 km maybe 170 miles? I felt as though I could hear the engine grinding, but Karlee and Tyler said that that happens all the time in their own cars at home and it usually goes off. Well, same, but we were on a road trip all over the South Island and I did NOT want to break down so I said that I didn't want to drive any further the next day unless we got oil somehow first.
That night we camped on the shores of Lake Wanaka. It was crazy windy and the tent spikes wouldn't go down into the ground because of the rocky shoreline. After about an hour of trying to keep the tent in place and having it fall on her numerous times, Karlee came back to the van and told me "It's not working." So we threw the tent into the front seat and all crammed into the van that night. It was kinda funny to see how she'd been sleeping in the tent. The spikes had come out of the front of the tent and it was collapsed in on her. Poor girl.
In Wanaka, I decided to buy a bottle of oil and top up the oil tank. I owe a HUGE thanks to Aly, because she'd taught me how to do this in VT when the oil light was on there. Unfortunately it hadn't worked then, but I found the oil tank, poured the oil in and the light went off! Thank goodness. The car also seemed to run a lot smoother afterward, which Karlee noted as well. I'm really glad I figured out how to do that at that point.
On to Queenstown, Round Two. We arrived at the Happy Hippo Lodge again, puttered around town, signed up for a Milford Sound cruise the next day, and an Easter pub crawl that night, and drove to one of the areas renowned wineries for a tasting. The guy giving us the tasting obviously didn't know what he was talking about and just kept telling everyone that certain wines tasted like gummy bears and pear. Really? Anyway, Karlee, Tyler and I agreed that a one certain dry Reisling was the favorite and moved on back to town for a slice of pizza.
Insert pub crawl and the ensuing Easter egg hunt at midnight.
The next morning we got up at about 6:45 and were on a bus by 7:45 on our way to Milford Sound in the beautiful Fiordland region of the South Island. I forget exactly how many "sounds" there are, but apparently they were all misnamed because they are fiords and I can tell you the difference between a sound and a fiord. A fiord is carved out of the land by a glacier moving out to sea. A sound originates by a river flowing out to sea. There is no liquid water source that creates a fiord.
Milford Sound is a 4 hr, roundabout drive from Queenstown and there is no direct access to it besides one road that must circumvent an impassable region of the Alps, but the drive is well worth it. Fiordland is an incredible display of wild, rugged terrain, the result of thousands of years of crushing and grinding tectonic plates far below. One can easily see exactly where and how the land was pushed up in a sort of pattern. It's just breathtaking nature at its finest.
Our Sound cruise on the other hand featured low-lying clouds and some rain. We had a good time and at the very end of the tour the sun revealed a tiny bit of the snow capped peaks and glacier surrounding the area. Then, a long drive back to Queenstown, after which we continued on toward Dunedin.
We arrived in the university town of Dunedin midday the next day and visited the Cadbury Factory there. YUM! An enjoyable experience except for our wiseguy tour guide who made it his job to make everyone feel bad about their limited chocolate knowledge. No matter. We drove out to the Otago peninsula that night and saw gigantic sea lions, and wild yellow-eyed penguins. It was pretty neat, I have to say. We watched one come in from sea, waddle up the beach and back into the dunes, where humans were not permitted to trespass. That was a pretty surreal experience to see such a rare creature in its natural habitat.
The next day, we hiked out on the peninsula again through sheep pastures to see Lover's Leap and the Chasm, two points where the land has basically dropped into the sea. Long way down. We actually weren't paying attention to the trail markers and followed a side trail that ran just along the drop off point for Lover's Leap and I was following Karlee and Tyler and looking down so I didn't realize where exactly I was standing until I hear waves crashing below. Yikes. That would've been the ultimate free fall of the trip I suppose...
On our way out of Dunedin, toward Christchurch, Tyler wanted to stop off at the world's steepest residential street. Steep.
Then we visited Maori rock paintings and these things called the Elephant Rocks which were used as a setting in the first Narnia film. I think it was the part where the 'bad guys' are having a pow wow one night and they've captured Azlan. Can't be sure. I need to watch the movie again.
At dusk, we went to see blue penguins returning from sea for the day, which was one of the coolest parts of the trip. I wasn't too keen on spending $20 NZD to watch a bunch of penguins walk across about 60 ft. of gravel, but I ended up learning a lot and watching them waddle in a huge bunch together was pretty cool. We also got to see some that had come home from sea another way, outside of the reserve where we saw the rest.
On to Christchurch! Karlee and I sat in the front seat, Karlee driving, for this leg of the journey. We got to the area outside Christchurch and needed to find a place to pull the camper over and stay for the night, so we figured we'd go out on the peninsula outside the city. Well, after about an hour of winding around neighborhoods, we turned on the navigation system and found out we weren't even on the peninsula yet, but it was a pretty funny tour of a really nice area of town! Finally we pulled over in a parking lot at a trail head next to some very noisy cows.
Well the time came to make our way to the airport. We parted ways with Alice, and cleaned her out! Yuck. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare this time around, which was comforting. Flew back sans Karlee and Tyler because I unknowingly booked the last seat on my flight but they found an itinerary that left 1/2 hr before me and arrived in Auckland about 1/2 behind me. Aaaaand we made it back to Huia for a comfortable nights rest before waking at 7 the next morning to go on a Loyola trip! And I need to include a whole update on that! More to come!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Spring Break in the South Island
Well, I hope you're sitting down. This could take a while...
On April 1, Karlee, Tyler and I set out to catch the shuttle to the Auckland airport to catch our flight to Christchurch on the South Island's (hereafter referred to as S.A.) east coast. After our guide leading us in the wrong direction to the bus stop, and then about a 45 minute wait without a bus, we called a taxi and arrived at the airport just as our flight was boarding. Heart attack no. 1 and a crazy beginning to a crazy two weeks.
We arrived in Christchurch and found the town to be quite quiet, for it was a Wednesday night. We did have a very lively encounter with out hostelmates, however, who returned to the room belligerently drunk very early in the morning. One tripped over his long board, another banged his head into a low-lying ceiling beam. In the light of their flashlight, I saw the silhouette of a very spiky, very tall mohawk. Part of my wanted to laugh hearing these guys fall all over and part of me was terrified of the person sleeping in the bunk just below me!
The next day we had breakfast and walked around Christchurch because our van rental needed a repair. It seemed like a somewhat depressed town. I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. When we finally picked up our Alice, she was sprayed painted bright green with scenes from Alice in Wonderland covering every inch. Our rental van came from a company called Escape (which we pronounced escahpay- like from Nemo- for the duration of the trip). They graffiti all of their vans and we enjoyed seeing our fellow Escapees throughout the trip, although we never found a van as cool as Alice.
Since we'd been delayed in our first day, we had to hightail it up to Able Tasman National Park for the night- about a 7 hour drive. We passed through, and took pictures at, Kaikoura, which is a gorgeous coastal town with snow capped peaks crumbling down into the azure sea. Very stunning.
The next day we were able- ha, in Able- to rent kayaks and take them to Split Apple Rock, which we renamed Apple Bottom Rock, which then had us making up our own version of Flo Rida's "Low." 'Seals with the fur' I believe was the next line...Speaking of which, we ran into a few sea lions, coming within about a yard of one who seemed to be putting on quite the show. From Able Tasman, we continued another 6 hours or so to Goldsborough, the site of an old mining town that now is only the site of a Goldsborough trail head and a free camp ground. I got to camp for the first time on the trip, which was fun. That night I heard Karlee exclaim "A kiwi! I see a kiwi! I'm not kidding!" but I'd already tucked myself into my sleepingbag and was half asleep. The next morning I heard noises all around my tent that slightly sounded like hedgehogs and I figured they were either that or some sort of bird. When I poked my head out of my tent, I saw a bird standing there and ran to the van. I woke a groggy Karlee and had her pass me my camera.
"I see a kiwi, too! I'm getting a picture of a kiwi! You're going to be soooo jealous!" And so I started to photograph the bird, then another one popped out of the woods. Then another...and another...and before we knew it there were about 12 birds surrounding us in broad daylight and we reasoned that these couldn't be kiwis. We later found out that they are wekas, which are very curious birds. That explains one of them trying to run away with Karlee's toe as she put her contacts in.
That day we drove into Arthur's Pass, one of the two passes that crosses directly from the coast to coast in the middle of the South Island. There are no other roads that are as direct as Arthur's and Logan's passes. If you want to get to the north of the west coast you have to go all the way around the periphery of the east and northern coasts. If you want to get to Queenstown, you can drive down to about an hour north of Dunedin, then begin to cut across. This is due to challenging terrain and I would imagine also due in large part to land conservation. There are very few major roads in the South Island. The upside: scenic drives!..like this one.
So, Arthur's Pass. We drove up into the clouds, hiked to Devil's Punchbowl Falls and the Temple Basin track that ended in the bowl of the Temple Basin ski area. The clouds started moving in at this point so we forged on, down to the glaciers!
We arrived at Franz Josef, had a meal at the Speight's Ale house- Speight's by the way is a New Zealand-brewed beer, the "Pride of the South" as they say, and they have a lager called Summit, which tastes exactly like Long Trail. We camped at a campground that night in a mining town called Okarito, which I referred to as Okatiro, Otariki, Otakiri, and many other variations I'm sure. In the morning, we had our first showers of the trip in their $1 showers! Oooo what a luxury to be clean. That was the longest we went without showering- 4 days, I think- and we never went that long again because we learned that cleanliness was not only detrimental to our appearance (this took a back seat to the next reason) but also that it was imperative to the general mood of the car and everyone's disposition. The longest we went after that was 3 days.
We had arrived with the intention of glacier climbing the next day and skydiving the next, yet discovered the forecast to be miserable for the ensuing few days. So we moved climbing to the 11th and figured skydiving wouldn't happen anyway, and continued to the town of Wanaka for two nights.
Wanaka is not only situated on the beautiful Lake Wanaka, but it also is located in the foothills of Mt. Aspiring National Park, where many "ski fields" are established. The town itself has a "ski village" vibe and is very laid back. We enjoyed hiking the Diamond Lake Trail, visiting an award winning micro brewery, seeing "The Changeling" (sp?) in one of the country's most peculiar theaters (forced inside by rain!) and eating a hearty meal beside an outdoor fire after a chilly hike in the rain. I would love to see Wanaka in the wintertime!
After hearing from our skydiving friends, we were given the go-ahead to continue on to Queenstown, as the weather forecast for the glaciers was still poor. To Q.town we went! The drive was only about an hour and a half from Wanaka and we passed our bungy outfitter on the way in and moved our Thrillogy up a day. What's the Thrillogy you ask? More on that in a bit.
Driving into Queenstown, I felt as though I was entering my utopia. There were mountains everywhere surrounding the massive Lake Wakatipu and in between mountain and lake was nestled the outdoor adventure capital of the world. Walking down the streets, we saw signs for any kind of outdoor activity one could imagine. River luging, heli-biking, bungy jumping of course, skydiving, Lord of the Rings ATV tours, winery tours (okay, not an outdoor activity but an integral part of the New Zealand, and Queenstown in particular, cultural experience. I'm not joking). Everything. We promptly rented bikes while the sun was out, and headed out around the lake. We got to the 8 km mark, when the sun suddenly disappeared and clouds rolled in from Fiordland at the far end of the lake. Uh.oh.
They say that New Zealand can easily experience four seasons in one day. Never was this more true than during this bike ride, when our warm, sunny, day fast became a freezing torrent of rain. Tyler was able to speed off back toward town, but Karlee and I had jeans on. And wet jeans make biking particularly difficult. We finally found our way back to Tyler with mud sprayed across our backs and smiles on our faces- albeit, breaking smiles.
That night we grabbed a bite, returned to our backpackers, the Happy Hippo Lodge, and settled in for a good night's sleep before the THRILLOGY.
I didn't get much sleep, however, thinking about throwing myself off of not one, but 3 platforms the next day attached to nothing but a cord of elastic that would hopefully snap me back from the Earth just as I plummeted to a point within meters of a rocky/ watery/ tree pine needley death. Then the sun rose.
The Thrillogy: a series of three bungy jumps, the first being the world renowned Nevis. This platform, suspended over a gorge by steel cables, allows for a free fall of 8.5 seconds from a height of 134m (440 ft) above the ground before one feels any tension on the rope at all. The three of us realized the magnitude of this jump after we were wheeled out to the platform in a cable car that had a grated bottom that allowed you to see exactly how high up you were. After a long wait because I was the second lightest in the group and had to watch almost everyone go before me, I was strapped up and walked to the plank. The technician began his countdown from 5 but I jumped at 2 because any longer and I might've stood there all day. Weightlessness. My body froze. "Oh my god" escaped as I fell towards the ground and FINALLY felt a gradual tension in the leg bands I was wearing. I had completed the 3rd highest bungy jump in the world!
Number 2 was Karawau Bridge, the original site of commercial bungy jumping. Everything seemed like a piece of cake after the Nevis, that is until I stood on the platform ready to go. I still got nervous but I was ready this time. We were given the option to touch the Karawau River below and instructed to jump outward so that we wouldn't be submerged past our fingertips. Well, I think Karlee and I jumped too far, because neither of us touched the water, but it was still a fun experience.
Number 3 was called the Ledge. It's suspended over Queenstown at the top of the gondola and you're able to jump however you like because your harnessed in from the front of the chest. Tyler flipped, but Karlee and I just ran as fast as we could off the end. By the time we jumped, it was snowing and we were freezing! I have to say this was probably the scariest hang time out of any of the bungies because the Nevis' pully system was very high tech and the at the bridge they just lowered you onto a raft and let you walk back up from the river bed, but for the Ledge you had to take a carabener and latch it onto your harness yourself and when it's snowy and windy and you're being blown in every direction while hanging above Queenstown, it's a little nerve-wracking.
Thrillogy: complete.
That night, we drove back to Fox Glacier because the forecast for the next day was sun! So we parked on the air field and camped out there. In the morning we had but a short walk to our next day's adventure...
...Which was AWESOME! After camping basically in the middle of town, we rolled up in Alice, donned wind suits (tres chic), strapped into some harnesses and jumped in the plane! Karlee and I rode up together. Our plane first flew out over Fox Glacier, then up to Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, the two tallest peaks in New Zealand. We were able to photograph stunning views of the snow capped Southern Alps, as well as views of the tropical forest and sandy beaches that were but several kilometers away! What incredibly unique landscape!
Then came time for the jump. Lazlo, my instructor, opened the door- heart attack number 4 or 5- and I hung myself outside the plane as I was told to do, and then we just floated away. The free fall was fast and I struggled for my breath a bit. It's an awkward feeling having air rush past you so quickly. I guess I tried to kind of catch it in my mouth. It was pretty funny. When the chute finally opened, the harness yanked me up and then we floated back down to the ground, but not before doing a few spins. Terra firma.
Sore from the previous days' bungy thrills and our nerves shot, we decided to check out the Franz Josef thermal pools, but upon seeing the prices, we figured it would be cheaper to just check into a campground and go in their hot tub, so we did that. We ended up running into a group that was studying in Perth and one guy from Elon actually knew two people that I knew in high school. Small world, indeed.
Well I'm going to leave things here for now and continue in a bit.
On April 1, Karlee, Tyler and I set out to catch the shuttle to the Auckland airport to catch our flight to Christchurch on the South Island's (hereafter referred to as S.A.) east coast. After our guide leading us in the wrong direction to the bus stop, and then about a 45 minute wait without a bus, we called a taxi and arrived at the airport just as our flight was boarding. Heart attack no. 1 and a crazy beginning to a crazy two weeks.
We arrived in Christchurch and found the town to be quite quiet, for it was a Wednesday night. We did have a very lively encounter with out hostelmates, however, who returned to the room belligerently drunk very early in the morning. One tripped over his long board, another banged his head into a low-lying ceiling beam. In the light of their flashlight, I saw the silhouette of a very spiky, very tall mohawk. Part of my wanted to laugh hearing these guys fall all over and part of me was terrified of the person sleeping in the bunk just below me!
The next day we had breakfast and walked around Christchurch because our van rental needed a repair. It seemed like a somewhat depressed town. I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. When we finally picked up our Alice, she was sprayed painted bright green with scenes from Alice in Wonderland covering every inch. Our rental van came from a company called Escape (which we pronounced escahpay- like from Nemo- for the duration of the trip). They graffiti all of their vans and we enjoyed seeing our fellow Escapees throughout the trip, although we never found a van as cool as Alice.
Since we'd been delayed in our first day, we had to hightail it up to Able Tasman National Park for the night- about a 7 hour drive. We passed through, and took pictures at, Kaikoura, which is a gorgeous coastal town with snow capped peaks crumbling down into the azure sea. Very stunning.
The next day we were able- ha, in Able- to rent kayaks and take them to Split Apple Rock, which we renamed Apple Bottom Rock, which then had us making up our own version of Flo Rida's "Low." 'Seals with the fur' I believe was the next line...Speaking of which, we ran into a few sea lions, coming within about a yard of one who seemed to be putting on quite the show. From Able Tasman, we continued another 6 hours or so to Goldsborough, the site of an old mining town that now is only the site of a Goldsborough trail head and a free camp ground. I got to camp for the first time on the trip, which was fun. That night I heard Karlee exclaim "A kiwi! I see a kiwi! I'm not kidding!" but I'd already tucked myself into my sleepingbag and was half asleep. The next morning I heard noises all around my tent that slightly sounded like hedgehogs and I figured they were either that or some sort of bird. When I poked my head out of my tent, I saw a bird standing there and ran to the van. I woke a groggy Karlee and had her pass me my camera.
"I see a kiwi, too! I'm getting a picture of a kiwi! You're going to be soooo jealous!" And so I started to photograph the bird, then another one popped out of the woods. Then another...and another...and before we knew it there were about 12 birds surrounding us in broad daylight and we reasoned that these couldn't be kiwis. We later found out that they are wekas, which are very curious birds. That explains one of them trying to run away with Karlee's toe as she put her contacts in.
That day we drove into Arthur's Pass, one of the two passes that crosses directly from the coast to coast in the middle of the South Island. There are no other roads that are as direct as Arthur's and Logan's passes. If you want to get to the north of the west coast you have to go all the way around the periphery of the east and northern coasts. If you want to get to Queenstown, you can drive down to about an hour north of Dunedin, then begin to cut across. This is due to challenging terrain and I would imagine also due in large part to land conservation. There are very few major roads in the South Island. The upside: scenic drives!..like this one.
So, Arthur's Pass. We drove up into the clouds, hiked to Devil's Punchbowl Falls and the Temple Basin track that ended in the bowl of the Temple Basin ski area. The clouds started moving in at this point so we forged on, down to the glaciers!
We arrived at Franz Josef, had a meal at the Speight's Ale house- Speight's by the way is a New Zealand-brewed beer, the "Pride of the South" as they say, and they have a lager called Summit, which tastes exactly like Long Trail. We camped at a campground that night in a mining town called Okarito, which I referred to as Okatiro, Otariki, Otakiri, and many other variations I'm sure. In the morning, we had our first showers of the trip in their $1 showers! Oooo what a luxury to be clean. That was the longest we went without showering- 4 days, I think- and we never went that long again because we learned that cleanliness was not only detrimental to our appearance (this took a back seat to the next reason) but also that it was imperative to the general mood of the car and everyone's disposition. The longest we went after that was 3 days.
We had arrived with the intention of glacier climbing the next day and skydiving the next, yet discovered the forecast to be miserable for the ensuing few days. So we moved climbing to the 11th and figured skydiving wouldn't happen anyway, and continued to the town of Wanaka for two nights.
Wanaka is not only situated on the beautiful Lake Wanaka, but it also is located in the foothills of Mt. Aspiring National Park, where many "ski fields" are established. The town itself has a "ski village" vibe and is very laid back. We enjoyed hiking the Diamond Lake Trail, visiting an award winning micro brewery, seeing "The Changeling" (sp?) in one of the country's most peculiar theaters (forced inside by rain!) and eating a hearty meal beside an outdoor fire after a chilly hike in the rain. I would love to see Wanaka in the wintertime!
After hearing from our skydiving friends, we were given the go-ahead to continue on to Queenstown, as the weather forecast for the glaciers was still poor. To Q.town we went! The drive was only about an hour and a half from Wanaka and we passed our bungy outfitter on the way in and moved our Thrillogy up a day. What's the Thrillogy you ask? More on that in a bit.
Driving into Queenstown, I felt as though I was entering my utopia. There were mountains everywhere surrounding the massive Lake Wakatipu and in between mountain and lake was nestled the outdoor adventure capital of the world. Walking down the streets, we saw signs for any kind of outdoor activity one could imagine. River luging, heli-biking, bungy jumping of course, skydiving, Lord of the Rings ATV tours, winery tours (okay, not an outdoor activity but an integral part of the New Zealand, and Queenstown in particular, cultural experience. I'm not joking). Everything. We promptly rented bikes while the sun was out, and headed out around the lake. We got to the 8 km mark, when the sun suddenly disappeared and clouds rolled in from Fiordland at the far end of the lake. Uh.oh.
They say that New Zealand can easily experience four seasons in one day. Never was this more true than during this bike ride, when our warm, sunny, day fast became a freezing torrent of rain. Tyler was able to speed off back toward town, but Karlee and I had jeans on. And wet jeans make biking particularly difficult. We finally found our way back to Tyler with mud sprayed across our backs and smiles on our faces- albeit, breaking smiles.
That night we grabbed a bite, returned to our backpackers, the Happy Hippo Lodge, and settled in for a good night's sleep before the THRILLOGY.
I didn't get much sleep, however, thinking about throwing myself off of not one, but 3 platforms the next day attached to nothing but a cord of elastic that would hopefully snap me back from the Earth just as I plummeted to a point within meters of a rocky/ watery/ tree pine needley death. Then the sun rose.
The Thrillogy: a series of three bungy jumps, the first being the world renowned Nevis. This platform, suspended over a gorge by steel cables, allows for a free fall of 8.5 seconds from a height of 134m (440 ft) above the ground before one feels any tension on the rope at all. The three of us realized the magnitude of this jump after we were wheeled out to the platform in a cable car that had a grated bottom that allowed you to see exactly how high up you were. After a long wait because I was the second lightest in the group and had to watch almost everyone go before me, I was strapped up and walked to the plank. The technician began his countdown from 5 but I jumped at 2 because any longer and I might've stood there all day. Weightlessness. My body froze. "Oh my god" escaped as I fell towards the ground and FINALLY felt a gradual tension in the leg bands I was wearing. I had completed the 3rd highest bungy jump in the world!
Number 2 was Karawau Bridge, the original site of commercial bungy jumping. Everything seemed like a piece of cake after the Nevis, that is until I stood on the platform ready to go. I still got nervous but I was ready this time. We were given the option to touch the Karawau River below and instructed to jump outward so that we wouldn't be submerged past our fingertips. Well, I think Karlee and I jumped too far, because neither of us touched the water, but it was still a fun experience.
Number 3 was called the Ledge. It's suspended over Queenstown at the top of the gondola and you're able to jump however you like because your harnessed in from the front of the chest. Tyler flipped, but Karlee and I just ran as fast as we could off the end. By the time we jumped, it was snowing and we were freezing! I have to say this was probably the scariest hang time out of any of the bungies because the Nevis' pully system was very high tech and the at the bridge they just lowered you onto a raft and let you walk back up from the river bed, but for the Ledge you had to take a carabener and latch it onto your harness yourself and when it's snowy and windy and you're being blown in every direction while hanging above Queenstown, it's a little nerve-wracking.
Thrillogy: complete.
That night, we drove back to Fox Glacier because the forecast for the next day was sun! So we parked on the air field and camped out there. In the morning we had but a short walk to our next day's adventure...
...Which was AWESOME! After camping basically in the middle of town, we rolled up in Alice, donned wind suits (tres chic), strapped into some harnesses and jumped in the plane! Karlee and I rode up together. Our plane first flew out over Fox Glacier, then up to Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman, the two tallest peaks in New Zealand. We were able to photograph stunning views of the snow capped Southern Alps, as well as views of the tropical forest and sandy beaches that were but several kilometers away! What incredibly unique landscape!
Then came time for the jump. Lazlo, my instructor, opened the door- heart attack number 4 or 5- and I hung myself outside the plane as I was told to do, and then we just floated away. The free fall was fast and I struggled for my breath a bit. It's an awkward feeling having air rush past you so quickly. I guess I tried to kind of catch it in my mouth. It was pretty funny. When the chute finally opened, the harness yanked me up and then we floated back down to the ground, but not before doing a few spins. Terra firma.
Sore from the previous days' bungy thrills and our nerves shot, we decided to check out the Franz Josef thermal pools, but upon seeing the prices, we figured it would be cheaper to just check into a campground and go in their hot tub, so we did that. We ended up running into a group that was studying in Perth and one guy from Elon actually knew two people that I knew in high school. Small world, indeed.
Well I'm going to leave things here for now and continue in a bit.
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