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Climbing for Dawn
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The Land of the Long White Cloud
Christmas
Jumping high, jumping higher
My birthday
North to South
7th December 2005 - posted from Queenstown
I awoke to my alarm at 8.30, ready to leave to go sky diving at 9.30. After all the days of beautiful sunshine, wearing sunglasses and t-shirts, I was hoping for a glorious day of fun and sun. As I woke and looked at the gap in the curtains, I could see the rain dripping down and the smell of rain had got into the room. My phone bleeped again with a text message from Andy: “seen the weather?†The plan was for some sky diving in the morning, with some luging in the afternoon.
Taken last week, in Milford. Pooh sticks. Bigger is better, the theory goes...
After breakfast, Andy and I braved our way to the sky dive centre in town and asked what was going to happen. It wasn't going to happen now, so we were booked in for later that day, but we were told not to keep our hopes up.
We went back to the hostel, waited for the others to wake and pottered around town. Andy and I wondered back to the sky dive centre later to see if we were going to go - as it was still pretty clear the weather wasn't going to clear up. While it had stopped raining, the clouds were still too low to contemplate doing it.
After a Subway for lunch (tunafish of course!), we headed up one of the mountains around Queenstown - on a gondola lift, a cable car. At the top is a restaurant, cafe, a bungee jump and a luge track.
This is not luge on ice and not in a tube either. This is on concrete, with a three-wheeled plastic box, essentially. It's the most ridiculous thing, but fantastic fun.
Andy, Lewis, Matt and Luke had bought me a ticket for five goes on the luge. So we all set off down the track. The rain had gone and the clouds were starting to part, things were looking good.
Andy, Lewis and Luke had booked to the bungee jump there - 47 metres. The height is from the jump station (where you jump from) to when you are at full stretch. There's always a gap of 10 metres or so at the bottom, just in case. Andy and Luke, who had done a 43 metres jump off a bridge the day before went first - both in Santa Claus costumes, quite spectacularly, complete with flips and everything. Our pictures soon, but here's an example:
This was Lewis's first bungee, so he just went for it. On this bungee, you are attached around your waist, so your legs are free. The preferred way to do it us a run and jump, which looks flipping scary, as although you only fall 43 metres, you can see the whole of Queenstown and the lake below, as you run and jump into the air.
Just after Andy and Luke had done it again (once just wasn't enough) the rain started again and we made plans to go back again, as they couldn't possibly run the luge in the rain, or could they?
We saw people going up, so we asked if it was still open. Indeed it was! The track was soaking wet, which just meant you could do powerslides and 180 turns. Matt took one a bit too far and fell off, complete with a nice bruise to prove it.
We headed back down the mountain into the city, back into the hostel. We chilled out after an energy-packed afternoon in their lounge, over looking the mountains and the lake. I flicked through a copy of the British version of GQ, complete with an advert in it for New Zealand - you've probably seen a similar one. An awe-inspiring photo with the words "100% New Zealand" written at the bottom.
I looked up in front of me, and there it was in front of me. A perfect lake with a beautiful mountain range behind it. I was actually in New Zealand. The awe, the wonder, the indulgence. On my birthday! The clouds were sitting so low the tops of the mountains were peaking out of the top. Even without jumping out of a plane, or tearing down the mountainside on a bit of plastic, this was without a doubt, the most amazing visual present.
A card had made its way out with Matt from my parents, which I opened at midnight British time. I called home and a spoke with family and a couple of friends. In the evening we went for a Fergburger, the most fantastic burger in the world, a wonderful Queenstown delicacy. We were even recommended it by Americans in California. We went out for some drinks in the evening. An unusual mix, but all of my favourites. Started with the classic Red Bull and Vodka. Then a nice glass of house white, from New Zealand, naturally. A shot of the Italian Sambuca, which has a wonderful anisette taste if you've never had it. Then a Coca-Cola and Malibu, a classic favourite for afternoons laying on the beach in Fiji. After dancing the night away to some of my favourite tunes, we headed back and I went to straight to sleep, after one of the most fantastic birthdays of my life, ready to get up and do the most frightening thing of my life - a bungee jump. Not any old one, oh no, the highest, at 134 metres, you fall the height of the London Eye on Southbank before you bounce. It's called the Nevis. More soon...