New Zealand - Day 14 - Queenstown

We completely lucked out with the weather again the next morning and Queenstown was bathed in Sunshine – so we decided to hang around another night at the cool campsite.

Given we weren’t really in the market for extreme sports, or expensive café lunches we ventured about 15kms north of town to check out one of the wineries nearby. The LP reckoned they had some good wines, and it was located at the end of a spectacular driveway, and tasting are usually free so why not. Right near the turnoff for Chard Farm Vineyard was the AJ Hackett Bungy Jump site at Karawau Brige – this is the original spot where the ‘sport’ was born, and I thought was worth a look as they had a public viewing gallery.

You enter at carpark level and then are lead down a winding staircase overlooking the booking office and shop below. They were playing some awful dance music and everyone was super happy wicked awesome excited to see you (forced enthusiasm makes me cringe) so we snuck past to take a look at the jumpers. At this point, in no way did I feel the urge to bungy. Lisa and I discussed it and I said it wouldn’t be as cool doing it alone (we were planning on doing a tandem jump together before Jack’s fucking Blowhole happened).

Once we got outside, you were at bridge level and could see a few nervous backpackers queued up. Then you head down a few stairs to a viewing platform looking at the bridge side on, about 10 metres down and 20 metres across from the jumping spot. The sun was blazing by this point, and the river below was an amazing turquoise colour that doesn’t really seem real the first few times you see it. We didn’t have to wait long for someone to come up to the edge, pose for a few pictures and dive off. They screamed a lot, but seemed to enjoy it. We watched a few more hop off, one little kid even got to the edge and wouldn’t jump – his Mum was on the edge shouting encouragement at first, then calling him a chicken!

It was entertaining, and I already felt myself changing my mind about doing it. First though, we headed to the Chard Farm cellar door to taste some wines! (We picked this one from many because of you Mr Beirne!) The drive up to was spectacular, if not a little death-defying! It was a 2km dirt track that overlooked the river, but was only one lane for 80% of it and had a sheer drop down the valley some 50 metres below. The wines, and the guy doing the tastings were both awesome, so we treated ourselves to a bottle.

With the dutch courage now inside me – I was now fully convinced I wanted to bungy, and we headed back down to sign up. As we got there, a whole bus load of adventure tourists had just finished and were doing some kind of dance up on a stage in front of a big screen being filmed – I instantly regretted my decision! Fortunately, they left soon afterwards, so I went and put my name down and my money up (non-refundable if you chicken out once on the ledge) and headed out to the bridge.

Kindred gingers

After a (hopefully not literally) final kiss goodbye I left Lisa holding the camera and headed to the bridge. All the guys were as you would imagine them to be – taking the piss so you laugh and feel a bit less nervous. The guy doing up my leg bindings asked if I wanted to get wet (apparently if you say yes, they adjust the length a bit – based on your weight – and you dip your top half in the water!). Figuring it’d make a good photo I agreed and soon it was time. They ask you what kind of music you want on in the background (kind of like a last meal I guess), and I think it was Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Higher Ground, but it was all a bit of a blur. Before stepping out on the ledge I felt fine, a tad nervous perhaps but ok as you cant see below yourself at that point.

As the bindings were finished and they gave the go ahead – I shuffled to my feet and REALLY started to wonder what the hell I was doing up there! As I looked down 43 metres to the flowing water below, you can also see a whole lot of rocks and the boat they scoop you up in once the bouncing has stopped. The guy was giving me instructions on how to enter the water properly – should I make it that far (it’s not an exact science apparently and they tend to underestimate for obvious reasons).

Fffffuuuuuuu.....

“Remember to tuck in your chin and point your hands straight down, OK? If you don’t and you faceplant the water – then it’s not good. We’ve had a few broken noses and black eyes…oh and when you jump out, don’t go too far as you’ll end up dragging through the water which isn’t much fun either”.

Suitably reassured, I shuffled forwards right to the edge for a picture and one last look at Lisa. Then he gave a 3…2…1….go! No part of me wanted to jump off, but somehow I managed to twitch enough muscles in my legs to propel forwards, remembered to put my arms out like a bird (Lisa made me promise to make it look good for the camera) and screamed like a girl.

Freefalling only lasted two or three seconds, but it felt both amazing and terrifying at the same time. I remembered to tuck my chin and point my arms but at the point of the stretch came up a metre or so short! I bounced about a few times, and it felt amazing dangling there high on adrenaline. I tried looking up to the platform but was also spinning around and getting dizzy! Finally the boat guys shouted and pointed a pole at me which I grabbed and I was dragged in. I struggled to put one foot in front of the other as I stepped off the boat and walked back up the steep slope to the top.

......uuuuucccccckkk!

As I got to the viewing platform, 5 or 6 people walked past and congratulated me on my jump – they were all in their 50s and 60s, and had apparently been talking to Lisa as I dangled about because she had been whooooping for me. It was a bit weird! We headed to get my free Tshirt and see the professional pictures they’d taken which looked pretty cool, and were good to go with the awesome ones Lisa managed to catch so I bought them too.

Still shaking from the rush – we gingerly drove back towards Queenstown, but diverted to a small gold rush settlement called Arrowtown on the way. We wished we hadn’t, as it actually turned out to be mainly crappy cafés, bars and tacky giftshops – but we did find somewhere serving Cornish pasties and it did help me calm my nerves a bit!

That night we hit another bar or two in town – the Dux de Lux was the best one we saw, with a big outside fireplace and smaller individual ones on their outside tables combined with their own beers an mulled cider was perfect for the chilly evening. We topped that off with onion rings at Fergberger (their famous Burger Bar) before a movie and popcorn in bed back at the van!

We’d decided two days was enough in Queenstown as it was so adventure orientated and busy – so made plans to drive a couple of hours north to Wanaka the next day, as it was meant to be smaller with a more relaxed atmosphere according to most.

Nothing like a Cornish pasty to calm the nerves!