Day 6: Queenstown

WOOHOO!

In a country known as the adrenalin rush capital of the world, Queenstown is the heartbeat. When we arrived at the iSite to ask about locations to free camp that evening, we asked what kind of activities they would recommend. The attendant's glib answer was, "This is Queenstown. What can't you do here?" It's so true. When the peaks are snow capped, there are three major ski resorts to hit, and plenty more within an hour drive. You can go on cruises on the lake, jetboating, parasailing, paragliding, bungee jumping, canyon swinging, four-wheeling, and countless other activities which I can't mention in just one sentence.

Our original plans involved driving out to Wanaka, which is supposed to be Queenstown-lite. We figured that it would be less travelled and there was a cool theatre there called Cinema Paradiso which sounded like it would be fun. We never did make it. After a late start in the morning (Milford Sound had us beat), we got to Queenstown around 1 in the afternoon. We decided that Parasailing would be the first thing on our list. Jenny's got some big reservations about hurling herself off a cliff attached by just a rubber band, but she figured that parasailing or paragliding would be fine.

After booking ourselves in for the 3 o'clock cruise, we changed our clothes (just in case the operators dunked us into the lake), threw in our contacts (so we could take in the views), grabbed the throwaway digital camera, and waited for our time slot. It came soon enough and we were off. For those who do not know what parasailing is, it basically involves a gigantic parachute (in our case, with a big smiley face on it), a fast boat, and some wind. The boat takes off at full throttle and the resulting breeze causes the parachute to open. 1 to 3 people are then harnessed in, and the winch is released, allowing the parachute to lift off. At its maximum height, you're about 600 ft above the water, and only one word can describe the feeling: awesome. I loved every moment of it. Jenny...she liked it, but she felt a lot better once we were back on the boat. One amazing thing about being up there is how quiet everything is. You don't hear the sound of the wind whipping past you, you don't hear the water, you only hear your own thoughts and the whimpers of your wife as the metal on the buckles squeaks every so often. During the flight, they slow down the boat enough so you end up dropping to within 50 feet of the water. It's hard to say just how far above the water's surface we were as you have absolutely no point of reference. It could have been 10 feet for all I know. The total flight is 12 minutes but it didn't seem like we were up there that long. While we were in the air, Jenny saw a couple paragliders swinging about in the area, and her first reaction was "I wanted to do THAT?!?!?!?"

Back on the dock, we moved the campervan, got a quick lunch at a fish and chips stand, and then set off for the gondola. At the top of the Skyline gondola, you can take advantage of one of the many A.J. Hackett bungy jumps in the area, go paragliding, or, my choice in activity, go on a luge ride. It reminds me of a go cart with no motor, and handlebars to control your speed and direction. Pull back on the handle bars, you slow down, let up on them and you speed up down the 800m track. I first got the idea from watching departures, a show on OLN with three friends travelling the world and showing their experiences. Justin and Scott, the two on screen hosts, went on the luge after Justin did the second highest bungy jump in the world and it looked like way too much fun to pass up. We booked ourselves in for 3 luge rides and off we went. The first ride has to be on the "Scenic Track", which is another euphemism for the sedate track. I assume this is to make sure that you can handle the vehicle. Jenny and I went down at the same time as another couple. I quickly left Jenny behind and right behind me at the bottom was the other guy who went down with us. Jenny and the other lady met up with us about a half minute later. After the first run, we decided that it was time to step it up and took the advanced track for our next two runs. These were a lot more fun. The advanced track has a couple areas where you take a steep drop in the track and pick up a ton of speed. The banks on the curves are a lot more fun here. On our last run, I got going fast enough to catch a bit of air on the last drop in the track (my ass hurt after that one).

Once we were done with that, we watched the bungy jumpers for a few minutes. One guy's jump involved attempting to catch a frisbee thrown by one of the jumpmasters. Well, that didn't really work out. The frisbee flew outward, he must have thought that he was Wyle E. Coyote and figured that he could run straight out and grab the frisbee. Instead, he dropped like a sack of bricks. It was half funny, half pathetic. Once he started bouncing, all he could do was yell "Where's the frisbee?".

We ended our night in Queenstown by visiting Wine Tastes. This isn't like any other wine tasting that we've done. There is a tasting bar at each for each of the different types of wine (Pinot Gris, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gerwurztraminer, Riesling, etc.). Each of the stations has a push button design so you can select a small tasting (25ml), a half glass (75ml), and a full glass (150ml). You insert a chip card into each of the stations and it automatically puts the appropriate credit on your card based on the wine and the size of the sample. As I was drinking red wine's, most of mine were $3.00 and up for a small tasting. Jenny's white wine's were about a dollar cheaper. In any case, I ended up buying a bottle of a Church Road Reserve Syrah, due to my sampling. We also bought a cheese platter from Whitestone Cheese Co., the cheesery that I wanted to visit in Oamaru, but was closed since it was the holiday.

Finally, we hit the road and freecamped. We ended up not getting any good advice on where to free camp for the evening (you suck Queenstown iSite), so we drove until we couldn't see anymore. We ended up at this one lakeside park next to another RV and quickly fell asleep.

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