Fit for a Queen

After feeling rough the day after the night before of drinking cans of Bourbon and coke, I like neither but they go together in a can alright, we flew down to Queenstown. Turns out the weather was too bad to land at Queenstown so we got redirected to Invercargill right near the southern most point of New Zealand. I thought this was a bonus as we got a 3 hour bus ride back up to Queenstown with a chance to see a bit more of the country.

You can see the snow covered mountains around Queenstown a couple of hours away and when you do finally get to the lake which Queenstown is beside the views are stunning.

Queenstown itself is a nice little place and quite alpine looking. Most things here are based around adventure sports and spending wads of cash. It's the home of comercial bungee, bungy, bungi(no-one seems to spell it the same) jumping and is one of those must-do things I suppose. Two guys started the whole craze of bungee off when they jumped off the Eiffel Tower in the 80's. Since then over 400,000 people have jumped from the original commerical bungee site at Kawarau Bridge. This is a miserly 43meters of freefall, enough for me, but compared to the newer 'high-wire' bungee at 132metres it's nothing, apparently.
You can jet boat, skydive, bungee, sort of dry bobsleigh thingy, ping yourself from a huge swing, ski, snowboard, and even fly this odd plane with a huge fan on the back all attached to a rope if you like that kind of thing.

A gorgeous setting surrounds the place, large mountains on one side, called the Remarkables, and a vast blue lake at the forefront.

We finally arrived at our hostel, a cracking place overlooking the whole town, lake and mountains(although it was a bit of a steep climb up there everyday). Picture the scene, every morning we awake and twitch open the curtains to view a large pine covered mountain, sometimes with a sprinkling of snow. We then go into the kitchen and eat cereal overlooking the town and the pristine blue lake beneath the large snow covered mountains. This is easily one of the best hostels we've stopped in.

After consulting the friendly English guy running the place we headed into town for one of the best burgers I've ever had in my life. A Fergburger. Odd name and expensive but worth it!

Right, we had two days before we picked up the van and then had 9 days to drive all the way back up through the South and North islands to drop it off in Auckland. This was clearly badly planned. More time was needed really but we thought we'd give it a go.

First up, the bungee. I'm scared of heights so for me this wasn't the best thing I've ever done. It was an experience but throwing yourself off a bridge into a ravine full of freezing cold water isn't exactly my idea of a grand day out. That 2 or 3 seconds of freefall is what most people get a buzz off, I just got a headache. It reminded me of the dream you sometimes get when you're falling and all of a sudden you wake up with a shock. Except all the blood hasn't rushed to your head and your eyeballs don't feel like they're going to fall out. Not for me. The views were excellent though and everybody kept banging on about all the Lord of the Rings locations that were filmed around here. It's no surprise though because it's a beautiful place.

Next day snowboarding. It's hard to believe that only 6 days ago I was strolling around in flip flops absolutely roasting and now we're on a bus heading up to huge mountain ranges with thick clothing on. It was only 2 days to the end of the ski season but the day before we arrived there was a 82cm dump of snow on the mountain. Local reports described it as winter all over again. We saw a few snow covered abandoned cars on the way too, many people didn't expect such a large snowfall this late in the season. Classic timing for us. We got 2 lessons, board and gear hire for the day. Snowboarding seemed pretty difficult at first but after a few hours I was gettting the hang of it. It seemed easier than surfing too. I like. I did however fall flat on my face and thought I'd broken a rib! It hurt everytime I sneezed for the next 2 weeks.
The views from atop the Remarkables were amazing, the sun was shining and it turned out to be a beautifully clear day. Mountain after mountain in the distance and what felt like a giant playground of snow above town. Cracking.
On the way down in the bus many a car overtook us and the exceedingly windy route. One pick-up truck overtook us with a young lad and his snowboard sat in the back. I thought he must've been freezing. Further on down the road about 10 minutes later we saw the same truck again on it's roof. The 3 lads from the van were scattered about the road looking dazed but alright. The guy sat in the open topped back must've had the fright of his life being flung from that. Thankfully no-one seemed hurt and the bus carried on back into town.
I was really liking Queenstown and would go back in a shot, but with a huge wad of cash.
Back when this town was founded the location coupled with the fantastic scenery made the founder, I forget his name, declare the town 'fit for a queen'. The Queen never did visit, she probably didn't fancy bungee jumping much.