Jet lag in party town

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The adventure capital of NZ is not the best place to be jet lagged. So after an early night i forced myself to have an early morning look around. Set on the shores of lake Wakatipu, the town is a bustling tourist hub full of activity agencies, clothes shops, restaurants and bars. Along the edge of the lake lay a peaceful wooded park where i was introduced to frisbee golf: a game where you try and hit a pre-specified tree with a frisbee from the lowest number of throws. It also has a beach where the local kids pile down to after school to practice somersaults off the diving platform... i reckon Queenstown would be a very cool place to grow up.

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I spent 3 nights and 2 full days there. To combat my jet lag and the shock of being back in the English speaking world i decided to jump off a platform into a canyon where a river raged 100 and some metres below. In Argentina i'd met a guy who said that something called a Canyon Swing was much better than a bungee jump. I remembered this advice and so booked myself a go. Now, when he said better i should've read scarier, this i didn't consider until the van ride out to the canyon.

Out on the platform, high above the jagged rocks, i'd been shuffled to the front of the group and was confronted by the hyperactive lunatics who operate the jumps. Now i had the choice of 10 or so variaties of jumps, some much scarier than others. Being the indecisive type and because i was trying to detach myself from my body i had neglected to choose a jump. So the over-adrenalised monkeys or workers of the machinery decided to pick a jump for me. They chose the Pin Drop which happened to be 5 out of 5 of the scary pants rating and involved me stepping off the platform sideways with my hands behind my back and my head looking straight down. The freefall was terrifying and my hands quickly went from behind my back to pointlessly clutching the rope. The swing at the bottom brought some relief before i got to thinking how close the canyon wall fast heading toward me would get before i'd be sent swooping over to his granite mate on the other side. After a couple of minutes of this i was winched back up to the platform where i thanked the monkeys for still being alive. After watching a girl do multiple jumps, one with a bin on her head i realised that not everyone thinks of it as an ordeal, but i was relieved to see the guy who went after me tremble for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day i climbed Queenstown Hill to get some great views of the town, lake and surrounding mountains. It was a nice walk and i saw the steamer come across the lake, but the regular noise of jets resulted in me longing for some of the places i'd be to in the Andes, and the remoteness that i'd left behind.

Back in town i ate the best burger of my life (thanks for the tip Elaine and Paul) and decided to hitch a ride to Wanaka the next day.