Te Anau to Wanaka with some bungy jumping in between

Today my alarm went off and my thoughts immediately thought “BUNGY DAY!” Then I got a little nervous but still very stoked. Kelly and her dad had already left to go on the cruise that we had done yesterday. But we got up and went straight to the road, no way we were going to be late for bungy day. I was the only one doing it from the group. We all picked one must do activity on the trip and this was mine, so the everyone else was cool to chill in Queenstown while I went and flung myself off a platform. It was a 35 minute drive to the bungy platform and when it came my time to get on the bus the staff told me I was the only person that signed up for this time. So I graciously told them I was wait and go on the next jump...saving them money...and well giving me a few people to watch and talk to and not be so scared. When I got on the bus I was set on making a friend to talk to and share the experience with so I met a guy named Simon. He was irish but lived in Sydney. We talked and sort of eased our nerves. When we got there it was really windy and pretty cold but the excitement was blazing. We had 8 people to jump. We took a gondola over to the cable car suspended above the canyon that we would be jumping from. With the wind it was a little scary in the gondola but we were harnessed in well. There we 4 people ahead of me and after everyone went they were so stoked! I couldn’t wait! I saw a dude at the Auckland bungy tape his camera to his hand so I did the same and put it on video to get some extra footage. Finally they called my name. I already had the full body harness on. As I sat in the launch chair they put the ankle straps and hooked me all in. I was pretty nervous and asked them to made sure everything was all perfect, they just reassured me and I hopped over with my ankles strapped together. The guys told ok we will count down from 3, then you jump. Holy crap, I stood over the edge and had no idea what I was doing. ...3....2.....1. I forgot any sane thoughts just did what I came there to do. I dove off that ledge trying to look as convincing as possible that I was in control and not flailing around like I had seen one guy do. I stretched my arms big and wide and then just let gravity take my body down. It went so fast I couldn’t even think and it was such a rush it completely blew my mind. It was super smooth as I reached the bottom. I really could barely tell once I started going back up. After one bounce my brain finally caught up with my body. I barely remembered I was supposed to unhook my feet on the 2^nd or 3rd bounce. It wasn’t that important, by releasing my feet, I would get pulled up sitting up instead of upside down. On the second bounce I pulled the strap as hard as I could and it would unclip. The 3^rd bounce I wrapped my hand in the cable and pulled as hard as I could. I finally got it but my hands were so cold it hurty really bad and I got a blood blister on my hard so that was not great. As they finally pulled me to the top I saw back in the harness and relaxed and in my chilly was just like “hey guys” and gave them a big smile. Once I was back on my feet “Wow” was all I could say. Every part of me was just shaking and kept shaking for awhile after. Simon had graciously taken more photos of me as I jumped so I have all sorts of coverage. After freaking out for a minute we reboarded the gondola and got back on solid ground. When we got back they showed up videos and photos of our jump. It was pretty much the best video ever so I bought mine J

                After a 30 min drive back into town I met back up with my travel mates and after some celebratory ice cream we headed to Wanaka. They weren’t able to watch me jump because the bungy was like on private property or something lame but I had the video to show them. But we got to Wanaka, which is a true ski town, instead of all touristy like Queenstown so it was pretty chill. Our next adventure was Puzzle World! We saw the illusion museum and a life size maze. It was mind blowing. They had hologram pictures and the “Ames room” that made you look really tall or short depending on where you stood. It was crazy. There was another group of rooms set on a 45 degree angle that made everything look like it was defying gravity, it really messed with your brain as you rolled up or stepped up stuff that looked like it was supposed to go down. After going a little crazy with all the illusions we headed out to tackle the life size maze. It took us an embarrassing long time but we finally made it and were so proud of ourselves J.

  When we finally got to our hostel we were hungry and they had some backpacker specials at the bar in the basement so we went and got some food. While we were eating, they were setting up for a flouro (neon) party. They gave us face paint and glow sticks. So we left and let them finish setting up while we did our laundry then came back and had a neon night dance party. It was pretty fun but a little strange with some weird techno music stuff but we had a good time.

              

Queenstown to Milford Sound to Te Anau

It was another early morning as we had a long drive to Milford Sound to catch our cruise. Alyssa and Josh went to the airport and picked up our relocation car. So instead of a rental we did this relocation car thing where if the rental companies need cars moved they give them to you for free and you just have to pick them up and drop them off in certain cities within a certain amount of time. So we got one to pick up in Qtown and drop off in Auckland in 10 days. The car we got was perfect for our travels, a 2010 Black Subaru Legacy. Way nicer than anything we would have rented so we were pretty excited. We really needed the trunk space. We knew we would be in a rush because the rental place didn’t open until 9 and we had to be to Milford Sound by 12:25 to check in for our cruise. We didn’t get on the road until 9:50 after getting the car, getting back to the hostel and loading it all up. We started looking at our maps and realized we were going to be very close on time. The maps always give a high estimate but even then we were going to be pushing it and we had to stop and rent chains because they are required on the milford sound highway. So we hurried as fast as we felt safe. As we got close enough to see milage signs, I did the math and we realized we weren’t going to make it. We called the cruise line and asked them what to do and after talking it over we decided to continue on but if we didn’t make it, the cruise line said we could reschedule and go on the cruise the next day. Which would have been fine but it was the day for me to do the bungy, so I just wouldn’t have been able to do, but we already had paid for the cruise and I hadn’t paid for the bungy so it wouldn’t have been the worst thing but we were hopeful. So we got there about 10 minutes after the boat was set to leave...and well it was gone. But then, we got a taste of New Zealand hospitality. The people working on our cruise went over to another cruise lines office and asked if we could go on their cruise that was pretty much that same and leaving in 15 minutes. They gave us 4 boarding passes and no problem!  No fees or paperwork, it was just like I wish the rest of the world worked. It didn’t matter to the staff what boat we were on, none of them were booked out so it wasn’t a big deal. We were stoked! Thank you Mari from Real Journies Cruise lines! It saved us driving the 2 hours back to the nearest town and then coming back again the next day and me missing the bungy. It was really our bad for not getting a move on and making better arrangements for getting our car but I am stoked it worked out.

The cruise was 2 hours of absolute beauty! We saw cascading waterfalls, penguins, seals, majestic  fjords, and dolphins.  Time flew by as we were almost overwhelmed with the beauty. It was like the enormous red rock cliffs of Lake Powell on steroids. There were dark green trees and mosses against the dark daunting blue ocean with waterfalls stream down the sheer cliffs. It had rained that morning creating even more waterfalls and created snow capped fjords. At one point, Marian and I were standing on the front dock of the boat as the captain moved the front under a huge waterfall. I saw it coming and ran back so I wouldn’t get wet, but Marian I guess didn’t think he would actually go all the way under the waterfall stayed and got soaked! The captain told us about all the formations and I guess Milford Sound isn’t actually a sound but a fjord, so it has been misnamed. It was formed by a glacier over 5 ice ages. The slopes the trees grow on are so steep that if 1 tree falls down it cause an avalanche of all the trees below and around it.

It has been so crazy to be surrounded by so much beauty these last 5 days. I worry I am spoiling my eyes too much and I’m getting jaded by the brilliance and magnitude of beauty all around this land. Sometimes I get too caught up taking photos because I just wish I could really capture it all to show everyone back home and I have to take a step back and soak it all in through my eyeballs instead of behind the camera lens. I really do wish I could wrap it all up in a package and send it home.

After our amazing cruise we were able to take our time driving on the winding road back from then sound. We stopped and did a couple of short hikes. There are so many beautiful features formed from water and rivers and the foliage is always so bright green even in the middle of winter. We stopped at the Chasm and Marian’s River. We walked part of the way to Marian’s lake but it started to get dark so we headed to the closest town, Te Anau. As we were walking into our hostel we saw Kelly and her dad in the kitchen so of course we banged on the windows and tried to give them a scare. The hostel people let us stay in their room, which we were thrilled to have a room to the 6 of us because in Queenstown there were some really stinking Germans in our room and we didn’t want to risk that again. For dinner we made beef tacos with corn and spent the night relaxing and booking future adventures.

Ski Day in Queenstown

The day started out just like your typical ski day, although with a bit earlier start. The resorts aren’t an easy 20 minutes drive away here.  I got ready crazy fast or firefighter style like I like to call it, as it the case with most ski days. Why waste time when you know the routine. It was a little harder though when I was doing it the dark and trying to not wake any of my 10 sleeping roommates. It was a pretty smooth morning as Marian and I had already picked up our rental gear the night before, the only thing we hadn’t been able to reserve was bus tickets. So I called as soon as the office opened to see if there was still room on the hostel ski bus to treble cone, our resort of choice for that day. The bus was already out starting to pick people up but they quite graciously allowed us to give them money to ride on the bus. Basically it wasn’t a big deal because there was plenty of room. We got a free breakfast of toast from the hostel and then stole Josh’s nutella to make PB and nutella sandwiches for lunch, so nutritious!

                Our bus came a few minutes later then the schedule which gave us a few extra minutes to enjoy our breakfast and wrap up our sandwiches. Our bus driver was a lovely chap named Ian. He gave us a little tour of the area as we made the hour and a half drive to the highest ski resort around, TC as they call it here. The drive was beautiful! It was like we were driving past giant postcards except for it was real life! There is a picture below that I got a bit of people on the bus in the foreground or else you wouldn’t believe that I had actually seen such a place.

                So we took to the slopes....and well it was an adventurous first run. The first surprise was the fact that our rental skis had no edges, the literally would not grad at all. The next surprise made this even worse....it hadn’t snowed in 2 weeks. Now on the rare occasion that I have skied during such a barren time I can still usually find some soft stuff or at least something through the trees, nope. To top it all off there was only 2 chair lifts...and this was one of the best resorts in the entire country. Not to really put it down too much, it is no their fault it hadn’t snowed and my skis were subpar, it just required a little more creativity. The coverage was the equivalent of skiing Snowbird in June, thank goodness for the rentals. First run of the day I hiked over some grass and rocks with my skis on to get a good picture ha ha, don’t worry though I was careful to not do any real damage, but I got some sweet pics! The morning turned out pretty good though. The sun was shining and the view over the lake in front of us was magnificent. Ian said they were expecting a storm in the middle of day and I didn’t want to believe him, it was just too nice of a day. But then about 2 pm, the clouds moved in and it started finally snowing! It was just really a nice dusting of flakes but it was better than nothing. On one of our runs we rode up with an Aussie dude skiing by himself, the next run he kind of followed me, as best an Aussie could. At this point I was trying to turn down a big steep of iced over mogels, because if I wasn’t going to enjoy the snow I figured I would at least try and get my legs burning a bit. We saw him a few runs later at the top and he took some photos for us and then like the friendly skier I am, I invited him to ski with us since he was alone. He was actually alright, I didn’t know there was much skiing in aussieland but he said he used to ski a lot there. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name for the life of me so he will just forever be the aussie dude at Treble Cone. We a took a break for lunch and he left us to go find his friends on the beginner hill.

                Lunch was a good time because you know I had just put my sandwich in my pocket...and it was big bread so well...it was a little smushed. But it was cool because it smushed in the shape of a heart! I was fine with that because I love peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and now I know they love me too.  While we were eating a group of people sat next to us and had just purchased these big hot lunches. After they left I turned to Marian and said “hey how do you feel about being a shameless ski bum? I could use a little something else for lunch” She agreed and I sneakily grabbed the whole thing fries that the people had just left in a pile to be thrown away and we enjoyed a cup of untouched French fries with our sandwiches.

                So skiing over all was a pretty good time, even with 2 lifts it wasn’t very crowded. I was impressed with how much of the mountain they were able to cover with just 2 lifts. You could pretty much access 2 full sides and since there are no trees, it was all wide open terrain. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I did it and can say I skied in Queenstown, New Zealand, but for all you peeps back home, we’ve got it good! So be grateful and made sure it dumps snow here before you plan any ski trips to New Zealand or you’ll probably be a little disappointed.

                Afterwards we got back on the bus, with the bus driver that had been skiing all day too. This lucky guy has the best job ever. He just picks people up on a bus and drives them to the resort, skis all day then brings everyone back and gets paid to do it! I want his job. Basically ever single person on the bus fell asleep it was pretty funny to see everyone stretched out over the seats with all their gear, good thing it was a fairly empty bus.

                After we got back we were starving so we hurried and dropped our gear off. On our way to the gear rental shop we walked past the CookieTime shop and they were giving out free samples so we got some free little cookies. We also discovered it was happy hour which meant it was cookietime! On our way back we realized we should probably be good friends and get Josh and Alyssa first. So we hurried home and told them is cookietime. We took wicked fast showers and ran down to be in time for happy hour. So before dinner we enjoyed some fresh scrumptious chocolate chip cookies. Cookietime is pretty big here, it like Krispy Kreme of cookies and in New Zealand.

                Now that we had dessert out of the way, it was time for dinner. We had previously decided to go to an Italian restaurant called The Cow. Alyssa and I shared spaghetti bolognese and had a romatic lady and the trap moment. After dinner with so much skiing and running around I was dead. So I retired to my bed for a late nap. But of course this was Queenstown and we had to go out. So just after 10 I got back up and got ready. We couldn’t find anywhere with live music so just found another place. My travel mates all got some drinks and I just chilled as we relaxed, until some more Aussie started talking to us so we hung out with them for a bit. There was a little dance floor but not a lot of people on it, before we left we decided the four of us would go dance for a bit. It was fun for a few songs but we didn’t last long and I was pretty beat from the day. 

Ski Bus

Postcard

TC-look at that coverage!

Pretty sure there was a LOTR scene there

Rental Skis :)

Open? hmmm...

Southern Alps

View as we skied, we were really on cloud nine!

I <3 PB and Nutella

Another shot of the view

Action photo!

Twinners!

The Cow!