Where's Vic?: Queenstown

A bit of a delay on this one as Queenstown has been hectic!

Rolling into the eagerly awaited Queenstown with the sunshing finally was great. It's a bustling town surrounded by snow topped mountains and beautiful lakes. It reminded me of Kotor in Montenegro crossed with some of the northern Italian towns near the alps. It was definitely markedly colder here than the rest of NZ, despite being summer.

We went on an organised pub crawl that evening with the rest of our kiwi bus travellers. QT has loads of interesting bars and restaurants, which is great!

The following day was mainly mooching round the shops (I bought a new hoodie and Tshirt, wahoo!) and trying not to think about my bungy the next day.

The next morning was a big one- England were playing USA and I was doing my jump! Someone in our hostel managed to hook up the projector in the cinema room so all the English crowded in the room in pj's and duvets as it was 8am.

Then the moment arrived to go for my bungy. For some context, last time I was in NZ in 2014, someone in my hostel had shown me their bungy jump. It looked like the scariest thing ever, so I challenged myself to return and do it one day. Not one to break promises, I signed myself up as soon as I got on the Kiwi bus. Having spoken to lots of people about it, I opted for the Kawanakru Bridge Bungy which is the world's first commerce bungy jump site. The scenery seemed a bit nicer than the nearby "Nevis" jump, and at 43 meters it was considered a better jump for first timers. In comparison, the Nevis is 123m and off a gondola into a quarry. You also get winched back up where as on mine, two people in a boat paddle out to you to collect you. Anyway, after a weigh in (the write your weight in kg on the back of your hand in massive letters haha!), a wait and a bus ride, I arrived. And within about 2mins, I was walking out acoss the bridge. I'd "prepped" a lot for the moment, reading up on what to do, visualising myself doing it etc. One thing I read was not to look down and jump as soon as they say to. Obviously all of this went out the window within about 2 seconds. There wasn't a queue when I got there "great" I thought. "I can just go and get it over and done with". They popped me in my harness and tied my feet and lower legs together in about a minute. They could sense I was scared, so coaxed me on to the platform to take some photos. I thought I might have a minute to gather my thoughts, but all too soon, they were counting down from 5. When they got to one, my whole body completely froze in fear! I wanted to jump, but my brain had taken over and was like "what are you doing? I'm not letting you do that". I'm totally fine with roller coasters, but the trouble is with bungy's is that it's just your legs that are tied and your safety harness on your waist. So no lapbar or shoulder straps to hold on to. The instructors were great at this point and held my arms out gently. Apparently my hands had made half a move to grab onto something on the last countdown (natural instinct, duh!) so they were helping me to feel safe and also stopping me from clinging onto anything. They tried another countdown, but I still didn't feel ready. At this point, I wondered if I'd actually not be able to do it, which is not something I'd considered in the lead up. The instructors asked me to talk through what was in my mind- I explained that I wanted to hold on to something while I jumped. They suggested the front loop of my waist harness, I also tried my bra straps, which was suprisingly reasurring. They said that all I needed to do was close my eyes and lean forward. I wasn't particularly worried about the safety aspect, bungying is probably safer than crossing the road statistically. The thing that made me do it was the assurance that the moment my feet left the platform, it would be fun. So I did it! And they were right! It was fun! My arms went from clasped by waist to outstretched within seconds of the jump. And it was like being on a roller coaster. The first bounce feels strange, although you are going up, it feels a bit like you are falling still, then the moment you get used to it, it's time for a quick breath before you are back down a bit. There was a spectating deck with about 30 people on it to the side, and I could hear them clap as I jumped and bounced which was really nice, as I wasn't allowed to bring support on the companies shuttle buses. Bouncing around was really fun and I was able to relax completely and flop around. My only regret is that I had my eyes shut for quite a bit of it- but that tends to be my natural instinct with stuff like this, so difficult to to override. But I saw enough and the main purpose of it (other than fun bouncing around) was to challenge myself to do something terrifying. I would've enjoyed swinging around upside down for a bit longer, but the boat people had arrived and wanted me to grab a pole to dangle me into the boat.

Climbing back up the hill was tough, I was completely out of breath! Then lot's of opportunities to take/look at my photos and a free tshirt. Here's a link if you wanted to watch the video: https://youtu.be/kuEgQl5YK3Q

To celebrate, me, Kate and our friend Ed went to Ferg Burger for lunch. Ferg Burger has been voted the world's best burger and as a result, the queues are always down the street. It was a pretty good burger, but I rate Oowee in Bristol much higher. After lunch it was nap time and then ice cream time with some friends at Patagonia, an amazing chocolate/Gelato shop. The food in QT is an unexpected bonus, it's all soo good and reasonably priced. That evening was lots of beer and pool playing. It was the last night for some of our friends in QT who had been on the bus or two ahead. Most people are doing the trip in less time then us, which is a shame!

The following day, we got up and got a gondola up the mountain to go luging eg. downhill go karting. It was great fun! We also moved hostels to a smaller, calmer one. It was nice to get a good night's sleep- our last hostel was above a nightclub. I also had the BEST pie I'd ever eaten in my life from Ferg's Bakery.

On Monday, I had a nice chilled morning, went for a run, did my washing etc. In the afternoon, I went on a bike ride with a friend, Amy. What started off as a nice gentle ride, slowly turned into some pretty knarly mountain biking around the lake and a very sore bum towards the end! More icecreams were had and second pie.

The next day, we had booked onto the kiwi bus day trip to Milford Sounds. We had to be on the bus at 05:15, which was pretty horrendous, but worth it as it's about 4 hours driving each way. It was raining (of course!) but that meant extra waterfalls which was cool. Milford Sounds is considered the 8th wonder of the world (though I'm pretty sure loads of places claim that) and it's easy to see why. It's been the basis of numerous film locations- and you hop on a boat and travel through a spectacular green valley. We saw seals, penguins and dolphins. It was sooo wet (like maid of the mist at Niagra, but wetter!) but luckily I came prepped with flip flops and borrowed a fishermans jacket they provided so got off quite lightly.

The following day, we got up to watch the football in the hostel lounge. It was raining so just a shortish walk in the afternoon.

Then onto Wanaka!