Queenstown

Day 1: We departed Wanaka and made our way even further south towards Queenstown - the adventure capital of the world.

Before heading into town, Buzz took us to an A.J. Hackett Bungy site at Karawau Bridge, where we could take a look at one of the original Bungy jumps started in New Zealand. A.J. Hackett is something of a Bungy icon in New Zealand as he was the first to set it up over here. He now has 4 jumps available - Auckland Bridge (40m), Karawau Bridge (43m), The Ledge Bungy (47m) and the big one - The Nevis Highwire Bungy (134m).

When we arrived at Karawau Bridge, we were instantly sat down and shown a 10 minute video of various Bungy jumps, including a world record attempt by A.J. Hackett himself, which he did out of a Helicopter. It´s insane!

Before coming to New Zealand, I was pretty adamant that I didn´t want to do a Bungy jump as, quite frankly, the thought of it scares the hell out of me. However, after doing my second Skydive in Taupo, I decided I did want to do it and therefore put my name down for the Nevis Jump the day before we headed to Queenstown. This meant we would be jumping this afternoon! It also meant I had gotten hardly any sleep the night before, because I was that terrified (Nothing to do with the lady snoring).

However, when we got on Buzz´s bus that morning (even more scared), the sleepness night had been pointless because he instantly told us we wouldn´t be able to jump that afternoon. It was locals day in Queenstown, meaning they didn´t have any spaces for us to jump. I´ll be honest, I was more relieved than disappointed.

So we arrived at the site, watched the video and then had the chance to see a Bungy in action as we watched people jumping off the bridge. In comparison to the Nevis, this one is something of a baby at 43 Metres but it certainly doesn´t seem that way when you actually have a look at it. It seems pretty damn high, thus making us even more apprehensive and scared about the Nevis jump. We were all planning on doing it but myself, Sam and Ginge were by far the most petrified by the idea. You might think that 2 Skydives seems scarier than a Bungy but I´m told it´s a completely different experience and that they don´t really act as any sort of preparation for it.

The fact that our jumps were cancelled that afternoon also posed me another problem because I only had 2 days in Queenstown and couldn´t be sure I would have time to do the jump anyway. Therefore, whilst the guys (and Sam VERY reluctantly) signed up to do theirs in 2-days time, I had to wait until I got into town before making my decision. I had to check to see if I could change buses to allow me to get back to Christchurch in time for my flight. Thinking about this, whilst weighing up whether I actually wanted to do it or not - it´s fair to say my mind was doing somersaults.

Anyway, we stayed and watched a few more jumps (which did nothing more to convince me it was a good idea) before heading into Queenstown to check into our hostel. Queenstown is a really nice town, flanked by picturesque Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by lots of other mountain ranges, including The Remarkables. A really nice little spot and I was instantly a bit gutted that I would only have a couple of days there.

Once we had arrived, I did some research and worked out that I could change buses to allow me to do the jump with the lads and still have enough time to get myself back to Christchurch. This meant I just had to decide if I actually wanted to jump.

I´ll be honest - I bottled it. After leaving Taupo, I´d been convinced I would do it but the closer we got to Queenstown, the more doubts I had as to whether I wanted to. I hoped that by the time we got there, I would want to but I eventually decided it wasn´t for me. This was despite mass peer-pressure and the lads telling me I would regret it if I didn´t. In any case, I couldn´t be sure I would have been able to throw myself off from that height anyway and the company don´t offer refunds if you don´t jump. It´s a lot of money to pay for something you´re not actually sure you want to do. I put A LOT of thought into it and decided it wasn´t for me. Would I regret it? Time will tell

After making my decision, myself and the lads headed out to New Zealand´s most famous Burger Bar - Fergburger. This had been highly recommended to all of us for serving the biggest and best Burgers in the country and mine certainly didn´t disappoint. It was well tasty.

Following that, we headed back to the hostel for some drinking games before heading out for a night in Queenstown. First off, we met up with Buzz and everyone else off the bus because this would likely be our last night together. Most people finish their Kiwi Experience pass in Queenstown and this was the case for most of us so it was nice to go out together for some drinks and lots of free Pizza, which Buzz had arranged for us. Despite being a bit moody, Buzz had been a fantastic driver for us and we had a really good laugh with him. He wasn´t quite up to Mangee´s level but he wasn´t far off. A good lad.

After dinner, we headed out to a bar and all got pretty wasted. We must have been because the majority of us ended up wearing nothing but our underwear as part of a competition to get some free drinks and other prizes. This was before challenging each other to a dance-off. Unfortunately, we didn´t win the competition but the night was a good laugh nonetheless and I definately emerged victorious from the dance-off.

A day trip to Milford Sound tomorrow - New Zealand´s main tourist attraction and recently voted one of the world´s most beautiful areas. It´s also been called ´´the eighth wonder of the world´´ apparently. We were looking forward to the trip.