Queenstown pt 2

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After we got back from the Milford Sound trip (still feeling pretty groggy, it has to be said ), I went back up to my room, and found a note on the door from Crystal and Megan saying they'd booked the 'Minus 5' ice bar up for that night, and that there was space for me to come. Before we headed out for some drinks there, we went for a nice meal in a restaurant just down the road. I had some lamb shanks, which were delicious.

After we got back from the meal, I had a quick shower and went off to find this ice bar. After a little while (the hostel bloke never mentioned an archway, in retrospect a pertinent piece of information). We all got dressed up in these big coats, and went into the bar (which was like a room-size walk-in freezer), where they give you a big ice cup about half a cm thick, and you have a cocktail. Despite being beset upon by a plague of far-eastern students shortly after we arrived, it was good fun, with plenty of photo opportunities of the ice sculptures in there.

Nevis, Canyon swing, Ice Bar, Luging

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The next day, I had managed to organise a group to go luging first thing in the morning (I had a bungie jump in the afternoon). This is basically go-kart racing, but you're powered by gravity, instead of petrol, in a little plastic go-kart. We had a good group together, and had some pretty close races, especially on the 'advanced' track. One particularly memorable moment was when Will, Ritchie, and I were neck and neck going into a tunnel which was only two cars wide ! This was awesome fun.

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This was all a lead-up to the big event of Queenstown, the Nevis bungie jump. This is a 134m bungie jump from a pod suspended in the middle of a canyon, and is the highest in New Zealand. After my previous Kawarua bridge jump (43m), I thought it was time to man up, and try something a bit bigger ;-). The other guys on the bus who were also doing it were Will, Stuart, and Paul. We all got on the bungie bus, with a load of Brazilian students, and set off up the sketchy private roads which led to the bungie.

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When we arrived, the sheer lunacy of the whole setup made itself apparent. There is just a small pod held on cables in the middle of a huge canyon, with a rickety little cable car thing to take you out there (slats cut in the floor so you can see how far down it is). The pod itself has a glass floor too, so you can see people falling below.

I went out to the pod with Will (who was jumping first as he was heaviest), Stuart, and Paul. We got there and the guys put on some Rage Against the Machine to get us all in the mood, and one-by-one everyone was set up with the kit to do the jump. Just before the jump, the guy sits you in a chair, and attaches the bungie to your legs. He happened to be called Tim, so I got my own personalised name badge for this part !

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The next bit is the worst, as you shuffle over to the tiny ledge out onto the 134m drop. Your feet are pretty much tied together by the bungie, and I had a weird feeling like I was about to trip at any minute. Once you're out there at the ledge, he throws the bungie over the edge (which actually pulls a bit on your feet), and then gives you the countdown. I was really worried by this stage. After a countdown, I jumped out into the nothing below the pod, and was free-falling for what felt like an age. Eventually the bungie started to pull, and I could feel blood rushing to the end of my hands as it slowed me down.

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Once I'd bounced a couple of times, I pulled a little rip-cord, which let me swing back upright, and then clung onto the rope for dear life as I was pulled back up to the top. I was still completely shaking from the adrenaline, and couldn't believe what I'd just done. Once Paul and Stuart had done their jumps, the little cable car took us back out to the main hut, and we ordered DVDs and photos, while waiting for the others to finish their jumps.

We went back to town, and I had a Ferg-burger, which was basically a huge steak posing as a burger. I had no room left for chips at all ! While I was waiting in the queue, Emer and Aoife turned up, as they had just arrived on the bus behind our one. They had a pretty wacky driver, who had all kinds of rules on the bus (10 pushups if you say the word 'mine', or forget to stroke the furry dice on the bus).

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After all of this adrenaline, it was only fitting that we went for a few shandies, and after a karaoke night in the hostel (I bottled it, and didn't sing anything, only to witness Wonderwall being completely murdered by another bloke), we went off to the World pub. They've got this gimmick where they fill a teapot with some shots and then a mixer, and you tip them out into shot glasses back at the table. After we'd been there a little while, Lucy, Martha, and Jay went home as they were off on the bottom bus.

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After all that drinking, I had a bit of a lie-in (until 9:30AM anyway!), and checked out of the Discovery Lodge, to move to a hostel down the road so I could empty my bag out and sort things out. The room was pretty nasty, luckily we were only there for a day.

In the afternoon of that day, I went to do a canyon swing. This is basically a 109m freefall, followed by swinging out over a 200m arc across the bottom of a canyon. This was great fun, I went twice on it ! The first jump I did, I was strapped to a chair, and just lent backwards over the edge, and on the second I hooked my legs around the rope, and dropped downwards like superman next to the rock face ! It was brilliant fun, somehow not as scary as the Nevis the previous day.