The Adventure Capitol of the World: Queenstown

Monday:

So after we left Wanaka we headed towards Queenstown – one of destinations I was most looking forward to.

It is built around an inlet called Queenstown Bay on Lake Wakatipu and is the adventure capital of the world! This. Place. Is. Gorgeous. But lets not get ahead of our selves…

Leaving Wanaka we drove through Otago country – so beautiful. The fall colors, falling leaves and wine country made this drive unforgettable.

vineyards along the mountains

We arrived at the first commercial bungy site AJ Hackett bungy jump on the Kawaru bridge.

“The Kawarau Bridge Bungy (bungee) is the World Home of Bungy Jumping. It was from this site in 1988 that Bungy pioneers AJ Hackett and Henry van Asch launched both themselves and an international phenomenon, which has become renowned as one of the most exhilarating things to do in Queenstown – the adventure capital of the world.

This has been the world’s best known and best loved Bungy Jump for more than 20 years and it continues to set pulses racing amongst the extreme enthusiasts who visit from all corners of the globe, whether young in age or young at heart.”

I was way to scared to do it but lots of my new friends on the bus did it and it was soooo fun to watch! Brittany and Jordan did it and they loved it!

After watching about 9 people from our van jump we piled back into the van and headed off to Queenstown finally!!!

We got to Base our hostel dropped our stuff off and walked around. This town is nothing like I expected. It’s a small ski town that is tucked away in the mountains. There is lots of shopping and restaurants around which was nice. It’s hard to explain Queenstown  - yes it is over priced but it is one of the best towns I have ever been to.

We were really hungry so we headed out for a early dinner – Mexican! It took forever to get it and it was not very delicious – actually it sucked. But we then redeemed the food in Queenstown and went to Winnys, which has some of the best pizza I have ever had in my life. I can’t wait to go back and have it again with Jeff.

We met up with the people from our bus at the hostel bar and there was supposed to have some competitions where you can win cool prizes but it was cancelled – so off we went to a bar called Cowboys.

This place was soooooo western/texas/cowboy like but played 80’s music videos which was hilarious.

They had a mechanical bull so of course all of us took a turn on the bull. It was hilarious but when you fell the ground was pretty hard L I really enjoyed it though.

Tuesday:

So today was THE BEST day of my trip – we went canyoning!  

Brittany and I first walked around town early in the morning. 

At 8 am we headed to the store to sign our waivers J. We then drove about 15 minutes around the lake to the canyon and got our wetsuit, jacket, shoes, life jackets, and harnesses on!

Before 

We then headed up to the canyon to the first adventure – zip lining through the forest – we did 3 of these in total and they were so much fun!!  We went over the canyon and looking down was so frightening because I knew I would be in that water soon enough. So of course what is canyoning with out abseiling which is  another word for repelling. It was so fun! After heading down into the canyon we did slides, jumped off cliffs, slid down waterfalls, went backwards down rapids – it was so cool and something I would never think of doing ever.

helppppp

I actually jumped off a cliff 12-14 meters high (which is really high) into the crazy boulder infested water – that was really frightening and thank goodness for our guides because they dealt with my crazy-ness.

After 4 hours in the water we returned back. Got a quick burger at Fergburger – one of the most famous burger places in NZ. It was huge and good but not AMAZING.

Then Brittany, Jordan, Lauren and our new Swiss friend Lars headed up the gondola in Queenstown.  The view was spectacular! It was so cool to see the town. We then went luging – so.much.fun. We first went down the “practice course” and then the fast one – Lars is very competitive and basically started behind everyone and I think finished first. I on the other hand wanted to see the views so went a little slower J

The track! 

After luging we headed into the bar that was on top of the gondola and had some delicious NZ wine – after the sunset we headed back down.

We then went back had some dinner and I slept like a rock. Off to Mount Cook…until next time J

Journey to Wanaka

I am home safe and sound and cannot wait to share my last half of my holiday with you! So as you probably can tell I am a bit behind but I plan on catching all you up by the end of the week!!

Sunday: We left Franz Josef and headed to Wanaka! On the way we stopped at some pretty beautiful lakes. The first lake we stopped at was Lake Matheson – this lake is called mirror like because it has these interesting minerals that help reflect the mountains (Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman) and it creates stunning views.

With our luck it was raining therefore clouds – no mirror for us. But we did go on a hour walk around the lake to spend some time outdoors. It wasn't our favorite walk - we were kind of over walking in the rain and not seeing the "stunning views."

me not too happy :( 

What the lake should look like.. 

Next stop – Knights Point. This part of the coast has some interesting history I don’t remember much about but it was pretty! Again – it was pouring so we didn’t get to see much of the coast line.

Even though it has been raining those have been some of the most memorable J

So another one of my favorite stops on this crazy trip was at Thunder Creek. We drove through Mount Aspiring National Park and it was an amazing drive (Lots of the LOTR movie scenes were shot here). Since it has been raining like crazy all the mountains had tons of waterfalls along the side. 

view outside the bus window

It was such a beautiful drive spotting all the random waterfalls we could find. We pulled over at Thunder Creek waterfall. It is a 75 meter high waterfall and it was so cool to go down to the water and see it.  

We then drove around Lake Hawea and stopped a couple times. This lake is awesome (and it stopped raining) with all the majestic mountain around it makes it a great sight to see. Driving through Haast Pass was really fun with the lake a mountains on either side.

Haast Pass

finally stopped raining! 

were sooo happy!!! 

Last and final stop of the day was Lake Wanaka – probably one of my favorite spots in NZ. The town is a little ski town, the lake is very blue and has a great mountain backdrop. This town sprouted up after Queenstown became really popular – so more locals go there instead of the tourist and overprices town near by.

The girls and I did some jumping pics, had some fun by the water then had a couple drinks at a bar then headed back to the hostel. It was Karaoke night so lets just say my ears hurt in the morning.  At the bar our driver pulled us over and introduced us to a bartender who was from IU!!!! She left after her second year and came to NZ and now is working in that bar! Such a small world but it was really neat meeting another Hoosier!

Monday morning we woke up – had a delicious breakfast by the water, walked around and then headed out towards Queenstown around noon. 

sign in the bar - very fitting for today