Queenstown

Queenstown is in an amazing area of the South Island. It sits at the base of many jagged peaks next to a decent sized lakes. The town is billed as the "Adventure Capital of the World," and it has been the only place I have visited here that really seemed like a tourist town. I guess it's not a horrible thing; most countries have at least one I imagine. The biggest thrill attractions are the various bungy jumps run by AJ Hackett, the innovator of commercial bungy. I never thought I would be interested in something like this. I remember sitting on our orientation bus listening to people talk about wanting to bungy jump and thinking they were crazy. So the day we arrived we booked the bungy for the next day. The next day we realized making the booking is easy when you are standing in an inviting little store in the middle of town, but a little nauseating when you arrive at the large gorge you have paid to plummet down.

Forcing a smile before

This is the gondola that takes people out to the jumping platform.

We jumped from heaviest to lightest, so I thought I was up first. Luckily there was a college football player with us who had me beat by a slim margin. When he came back up, my legs really started shaking, partly from the cold temperature with my rugby shorts on, and mainly from anticipation. A Western European girl I had difficulty understanding strapped a rope around my ankles as a safety precaution and then led me to the edge of the platform. If you watch the video, you can see she really has to prod me to move forward. When I got the countdown, I surprised myself and jumped. The first few seconds I couldn't feel the rope pulling at me yet, and it was the most unique sensation of my life. An amazing experience for sure.

Hopefully this video works...


A good thing about Queenstown's large tourism industry was the presence of a Mexican restauraunt. I had a craving for it, and the food was excellent. They also had a map of the US where various visitors had placed a dollar over their hometown. I had to do some cheap advertising for Pana.We also did a jetboat ride that seemed tame after our rubber band jump. There are many hiking opportunities around, and we went to the top of Queenstown hill where we got some good views over the town and experienced the first snow of the season.

As you can see, the town isn't very big. About the size of Pana probably. I have been told it was a bizarre scene when President Clinton came to visit years ago.