Queenstown Fri-Sun 30 January - 1 February

And we're skydiviiiiiiiii.... or not....

Cancelled again - wind and clouds...

Ah well, anyway - another re-scheduling - this time Carol and I are skydiving on Sunday in Queenstown instead (expensive but what the..) - but right now I had my doubts, this was the fourth time I didn't get to skydive, so somewhere in the back of my head a little voice kept telling me - 'It ain't gonna happen, it ain't gonna happen' - so my fear of skydiving was pretty much gone =)

Right before Queenstown we stopped at Kawarau Bridge, a 40 meter bungy jump, where two of our fellow travellers walked the plank - it looked a bit fun actually =) It's weird how I came to NZ completely convinced that I would not do anything like that - nothing up in the air - I'd stay down on the ground, in my hiking boots, or in a kayak or on a horseback - but that's the highest above the ground I'd like to get - and yeah, here I am, trying in vain to get three kilometers up in the air so I can fall right back down, AND I'm also starting to think that bungy jumping looks kinda neat... =D who knows where this'll end...





We also passed the river where they shot the scene with Arwen and Frodo escaping the Dark Riders (Nazgûl) by crossing a river, you know, where Arwen set the river loose on the Nine by turning it to an armé of horses. That was pretty nice to see =) (the place, not the actual scene) =P

But everywhere you look in NZ, you see scenes from Lord of the Rings - it's simply inevitable. A lot of the scenes where also shot in the valley we passed through shortly afterwards - I don't remember the name of the valley but it's frickin' beautiful here too!

In Queenstown I got off at YHA Central, to be picked up by Trish - it's time for some more couchsurfing! =)

Trish and her son Lucas was letting me stay at their place for the weekend, and Friday they also accommodated Miranda (from Germany) - the four of us went straight to a pub in town - here we joined almost ten other couchsurfers and listened to Craig, another CS'er (CouchSurfer) from Christchurch, who had a gig in town. Check it out:




Afterwards we went to Trish's place, and ohmigod! such a nice apartement! It overlooked the Remarkables, an amazing mountain chain, and parts of the lake - it was terrific! =)

Saturday:

I took the bus downtown and spent the whole day Funyaking!

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Funyak Safari - it's organised by the Dart River Safari tours - and basically the idea is for you to go on a funyak trip =) instead of ordinary kayaks, they have funyaks - a lot more fun =) hehe, well they're made of rubber and are inflatable.

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First we got to go on a Dart River Jet Tour - it's a jet boat that goes really fast in really shallow water - and it spins up to 360 degres =D fun! fun! fun! I didn't get a good movie of one of the spins, mainly 'cause I didn't even try, I was pretty busy holding on to the rail and not falling out, but I got some okey shots from when we're cruising around the river.

After getting off the jet, we pumped up our funyaks and paddled down the stream - I got to go with the instructor since everyone else was in even pairs;

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NOTE: This trip was fun, but is mostly designed for couples and families - so if you're going, bring a friend or be prepared to spend the day with people on their honeymoons.

It was still amazing, but not much backpacker style about the people - so it took a while to get contact with them - since backpackers are more likely to be open for conversation at all times (pretty much anyway) - otherwise they'll have no-one to talk to - these folks were more shy, they had each other and were satisfied about that.

Well, I had a great day - and let's face it, floating around in Isengard (yep, that's the one) is quite a nice way to spend the day =)

In the woods on the hill they also shot a lot of scenes for LOTR, among others the scene where Boromir gets killed with like a thousand arrows in his chest. And a lot more.

The Dart River and the area is just behind the Milford Sounds - I didn't have the energy to go to Milford since it would be a 13hour journey all in all - almost five hours there and back, two hours at the Milford Sounds, and one hour lunch on the way there. I would like to go to Milford next time and do it properly - i.e. spend a couple of nights there (one-two) and take a boat ride one day and a hike the next day - who's with me?! =)

So that's how I ended up in Isengard instead - only one hour there and back, and since it's just the backside of the Milford you get the idea anyway =D

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Here's a fur shop in Glenorchy - the small town where you start and finish your Dart River Funyak Safari - the interesting thing about this fur shop is that everything's made from possums =) Here we waste nothing! Good on ya!







Back in Queenstown around five - met up with Carol and hung out at her hostel, before going out!

First we were just us three, Carol, me and one of the girls from Abel Tasman that I don't remember the name of, and we were all quite tired - seems all I do nowadays is complaining about how tired I am... - so we were only out for one-two glasses of wine and then call it a night.

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Well weren't we wrong?... Suddenly we were in the middle of this guy from Christchurch's stag do - and his mates kept bringing bottles of wine to our table - and I don't know how but then we were at a nightclub (Adrenaline?? whoha, I really don't remember much...) dancing the night away! Christian joined us and wieha we had a blast!

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I missed the last bus home to Trish, but once the night was over I took a cab - got off on the highway and got a bit lost before running into some people (Trish's neighbours) who guided me to the door - thank you! really appreciate it!

Sunday:

Slept for a loooong time!

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This was the day for Carol and my skydive - but the weather was still crap, and so were our heads, so after a little bit of texting we decided to call it off - holy macarony, that's the fifth cancellation in five days time... Someone really doesn't want me to skydive.. would that be you mum?

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So I took it easy that morning, and got a lift to town with Trish, together with a new girl from Austria - don't remember her name.. (Miranda left Saturday), and there I don't know what happened to me - all of a sudden I felt like trying to skydive anyway - 'cause now the weather was gorgeous! (off course)

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Carol was off with some people bungy jumping from the highest bungy jump in NZ - the Nevis Bungy Jump - 134 meters high.... Good Luck Carol! - yeah so I knew that she was occupied for the rest of the day, but well I got the idea that I should go skydiving right away!

So I marched in to NZone, and oh yes, they were skydiving that day - what time did I want to go?

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...help...

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To make a long story short - my head was still aching a bit, and the guy in the office were really rude - he said that since we (Carol and I) had cancelled that morning we had cost them around 800 dollars because they had sent people away since they were fully booked right before we turned them down. And yeah, he was not customer friendly at all - I won't bore you with the conversation we had, but I didn't get a good feeling about him, the place and their skydiving-skills at all... so maybe they would have loosened the straps on my harnest and let me freefall the entire way down had I gone up with them....
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So I chickened out...

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(talked to Carol later and they had been extremly rude and mean to her too when she went in and cancelled that morning)
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EVERYBODY - BOYCOTT NZone IN QUEENSTOWN!!
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They're evil, they rip you off and there are better places to jump I'd tell ya (like Franz Josef - that's where I'll be doing it next time I'm in nz).

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Ended up spending the day in the park, listening to live music, Trish and Lucas kept me company for a while, wrote some postcards and did some shopping before cooking dinner for my hosts =) It's so nice to cook in a proper kitchen - those backpacker kitchens are perhaps good to heat some Soup-4-One (sad I know, but sometimes that's all you eat when you're on the road.. alone..), but otherwise, cooking for a real meal, nah, I don't know...

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And that was the weekend in Queenstown folks, hope you had a good reading and see you again tomorrow for the last episode of my NZ-trip! (now nature calls so I have to run..)