I landed and grabbed a bus to the hostel. It was a really nice place and the owner was super friendly and helpful. I basically booked my week - Monday would be Jet Boating, Tuesday was canyoning and then the big bungy jump on Wednesday!
The first night was a roast dinner where I got meet and hang out with some of the patrons of the hostel. There were people from Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Canada and a few fellow yankees. After dinner we went for a walk and explored a bit of Queenstown.
Monday was the Skippers Canyon Jet Boat. A friend said it was a must do in Queenstown so I was excited! We took an hour bus ride to Skippers Canyon, which was gorgeous!
The jet boating was awesome! The guide zipped us through the canyon, doing spins and going pretty fast. It was raining but it was still an awesome ride!
The next day, my friend and I went hiking up the Queensland Trail. Luckily it wasn't raining and was nice and cool, enabling us to have a pretty picturesque walk.
Then it was Canyoning which included dressing up in a full wet suit, helmet and harness and going through a canyon. There were zip lining (so much fun), abseiling which was basically propelling down a mountain/rock using a rope. I had never done it before so it was a bit tough! Then we went in the water - swam and did some slides and jumps. There was a big jump fairly high up into the water. Only a few of the guys in our group were going to do it. I figured if I couldn't do that jump I'd have some issues bungee jumping the next day. One of the girls that went up before me freaked out and had to come back down. That didn't help...but I climbed up and just jumped when our guide counted to 3! It was awesome! No pics cause we couldn't really take any and the ones that were taken weren't great and would have had to buy them!
So the next day was the Nevis Bungy Jump. It wasn't scheduled until 2:40PM so I had a whole half day to freak out. In the morning I went for a run to calm my nerves and then spoke with one of the hostel employees who had done every single jump and she said it was awesome. Got some good advice - don't look down and just jump when the guy counts to 3, no hesitation! So that's what I did!
Went to the meeting place and checked in. Waited another 30 minutes for the bus to depart. Drove another 30 minutes to the place. We then weighed in and got our harnesses strapped on. The suspense was killing me and I really just wanted to get it over with. The first group got sent over, more waiting.... Finally the girl called our group and we took a little contraption over to the jump. This girl in front of me looked a bit nervous so we started chatting. Her name was Sophie and she was from the UK. Found out that we both had done sky diving but were both more freaked out about this. So we reassured each other and she gave me a hug before she went. She had no fear and jumped straight away. As I got my foot gear strapped on, the guy made me feel better.
As I was about to go, they were pulling Sophie back up and she told me how awesome it was and how her feet just magically did it! So I felt a lot better. The guy brought me out to the front and I was freaking out! He had me smile to the camera and said 1, 2, 3, go!
After the jump, I was on a high! I chatted a bit with Sophie and told her and her friend that there was a pub crawl on tonight and we should totally go and celebrate our jumps!
I had yet to experience the NZ nightlife so a pub crawl was the perfect reason to. It was $35 and gave us access to 5 pubs, which included the Ice Bar and a shot at every pub. Since entry to the Ice Bar was normally $30 it was an awesome deal. Sophie and a few of the other bungee jumpers came out. A few people from my hostel also came and met some random Aussie athletes that enjoyed taking their shirts off!
Overall it was a super fun night with dancing and drinking. Unfortunately I had to wake up at ass o clock the next day to go to Milford Sound. So I left at about 1am and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up at 6am and felt like crap. We got on the bus at about 6:45 and it was a bumpy ride, which didn't help my motion sickness. Couple that with a slight hangover, I was not a happy camper. I finally had to ask the bus driver to stop as I felt sick. He apologized and said they were on a tight schedule and gave me a plastic bag, which I proceeded to throw up in. Luckily we were stopping in the next 20 minutes and I was feeling so much better. We stopped for a bathroom break and I was to the chemist to get some sea sick pills. The rest of the ride I was basically half asleep - drowsiness from the pills. We finally go to Milford and hopped on a boat. It was beautiful!!! New Zealand is really gorgeous and picturesque.
After we got back to the hostel, me and two other Canadian girls that I met decided to go to FergBerger, another Queenstown "must." It's famous for its burgers and they were known to be huge. I ordered the regular ferg, without too many other extra toppings because I knew it would be too much. It was actually pretty perfect and I was able to finish it!
The next morning I had to check out but my flight wasn't until 4, so I decided to do the hike up to the Gondala and take the ride down. View was amazing and the ride was very cool!
It was such an awesome trip, I can't even tell ya. Queenstown is SOO MUCH fun and is freakin BEAUTIFUL! Met some really cool people and had the time of my life!!
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