And finally, my last option was to stay in Queenstown for the day and experience some of its activities that make it a popular destination in NZ, and even for this choice, I had several options of activities. I had already decided all of this beforehand (since I had to book everything at least a day in advance) - I was going with the adrenaline thrills. I figured while I would be missing out on Milford Sound (and it'd probably be a very long while till I ever return to NZ again), I could always look at photos of it online, whereas I wouldn't get that many chances (or have easy access) to try some of the activities available at Queenstown outside of the town. Then I had to choose between the many activities available and narrowed it down to canyon swinging at the Shotover Canyon Swing and bungy jumping at "The Ledge." I could've tried to fit in "The Nevis" as well (a 134 m jump from a platform suspended by highwire over a canyon, the highest jump available in NZ), but I knew I couldn't afford it and more importantly, Richie told me the other day that if I was looking for a high jump, the world's highest bungy jump was actually in Macau! Since I was planning to go to Macau when I got back to HK after NZ, I figured I could save on doing The Nevis and hope I'd have time to do the one in Macau when I got there.
Yet, despite not having to hop on the bus, I had to wake up early to do the canyon swing (I was on the first group for the day) - well it was later than I'd usually wake up to catch the bus, but it felt early thanks to the partying the night before hahaha. I got to the pick-up centre, and there were only 3 of us! But when we got to the jump centre, there was actually another group of guys that met us there who were giving a stag party to one of the guys in the group. I really should have taken a picture to remember his outfit because I've forgotten it by now, but what I do remember was he was half naked wearing women's lingerie, a rugby leather helmet, had some writing on his body, and it was hilarious hahaha. And the guys setting up the jumps had something special planned for him...but more on that later.
So what's canyon swinging? It's a mix between bungy jumping and those giant swing rides, over a canyon - but you only have one rope attached to you around the waist (vs. 2 ropes for the swing rides) and you swing through on an arc (vs. just dropping straight down and recoiling back up in bungy jumping, though the initial descent is almost a vertical drop before the arc kicks in at the end). The beauty of the setup is that you can jump almost any way possible, and the guys who invented it have come up with literally hundreds of possibilities (and are always coming up with more creative jumps). It can involve running before the jump (since your feet aren't tied together and you're hooked up at the waist), using props, etc. I was stoked! They do have some preset jumps that they recommend, but they also have an option called "jumpmaster's choice," where they choose how you should jump. Obviously that's what I picked hahaha! I didn't get to do anything as crazy as I wanted (even though I asked them to give me the craziest jumps they could think of), but it was still sooo fun. So fun I even paid to do a 2nd jump (it's cheaper after the 1st jump), and if I had money, I would've spent the whole day there trying out as many creative jumps they could throw at me hahaha. The one they came up for the stag was hilarious and the first time they tried it - after getting shocked by his buddies with a cattle prod (there's a name for this but I forgot what it was), the "jumpmasters" hooked him up, placed a garbage bin over his head (so he couldn't see anything), the lifted him up so he was completely horizontal, then hung him out off the platform (though they told him were just moving him around over the platform to set up his ropes so he had no idea he was hanging out in the air). Then, after prodding him a few more times (hahaha I felt so bad for him), they dropped him for the swing just as the garbage bin was pulled off, scaring the crap out of him as he fell...the thrill must have been amazing hahaha. Honestly, I highly recommend the Shotover Canyon Swing if anyone reading this ever goes to Queenstown, NZ. The guys were professionals but hilarious, just enhancing the overall experience. Plus the view while swinging through the canyon after the initial momentum has finished is really nice. Okay, enough text, some photos!
A swing at the entrance to the jump centre - no, that's not the canyon swing haha.
That's the canyon swing - actually the jump platform.
A look at the straps while getting ready to jump, already all strapped in. Very professional with safety first, and then it's all fun from there!
The next 4 sets of photos are the ones they took (kind of obvious given the border on the photos haha). Yes, there's a lot, but I paid for them, so I might as well share them all (or most of them, some are redundant)!
First "jumpmaster's choice" jump, they had me do something called the "gainer" - you take a running jump, then bring your legs up immediately after jumping and clutch your ankles, so that you can rotate forward while falling. I got some good flips in (I think 2 or 3), which according to the "jumpmasters" was really good for a guy my size. I really liked this one - an awesome way to wake up hahaha (I was the first one in our group to jump)! You'll notice in the first few photos I'm hanging off the ledge with my arms spread wide - the guy was holding me with just his pinky on his non-dominant hand (left a pressure mark on his finger when he showed me) - an example of their hilarious antics! That feeling alone of almost feeling like you're about to fall off was quite a thrill - at one point I thought he'd let ago for a surprise fall.
Another angle of the first jump.
Second jump, a modified backwards jump. This one I didn't think was that great (though the feeling of falling backwards and not being able to see where you're going is a thrilling experience). I had to jump backwards (vs. just leaning back and falling in a normal backwards jump) and do the popular disco move "the point" (I'm not sure it's possible not to know this move, but in case you don't, it's where you point up then point down, going diagonally across the chest) while falling. I was commended for committing to the dance move during the entire fall hahaha (most people would forget).
Another angle of the second jump.
The girl in our group did a "jumpmaster's choice" as well called "the chair" - I would've loved to do this one instead of the modified backwards jump (she went after me)! Basically, once seated in the lawn chair, they strapped her body to the chair, placed the chair on the ledge with the back facing out, and then tilted it backwards. The thrill comes comes from falling backward and not seeing where you're going, plus being strapped into the chair so that your body can't move freely like it naturally would want to when falling. And as an added bonus because of how the chair falls backward, she did a couple backward flips. It looked awesome!
The info board at the jump centre in case you're interested about the fall. Main points are: 60 m freefall and a 200 m arc!
Back at the hostel, the view from outside during the day. I took the left one with my phone's camera and the right one with the compact (just to compare quality).
The view from the balcony of the hostel room. It was a pretty clean hostel, no real complaints. The best part about the hostel was that since it wasn't one of the hostels recommended by the Magic Bus (or the other 2 companies), there's no large bus group crowding up the place (which gets pretty loud if it's the Kiwi Experience bus).
The room.
After dropping off my photos and DVD from the canyon swing, I had to head back out to get to The Ledge...not even enough time for lunch! The bungy jump was located on the large hill neighbouring the town, so I had to take the Skyline Gondola to the top (I didn't feel like doing a long, steep hike to the top, so I just paid for the gondola ride).
Some views along the ride up. The last photo is of The Ledge, which can be seen along the way up.
Some views from the viewing platform on the hillside after getting off the gondola (very touristy set-up), overlooking Queenstown, the mountain range known as the Remarkable Mountains, and Lake Wakatipu, alongside which Queenstown was built. The 4th photo is of a paraglider that passed by (paragliding and hang gliding are both available in Queenstown, something that didn't really appeal to me).
Another paraglider passing by as I walked to The Ledge.
Watching a jumper. The Ledge is 400 m above Queenstown, but it's only a 47 m freefall (I guess they don't want you hitting the side of the hill hahaha).
All strapped up, waiting to jump. The unique thing about The Ledge is that it's the only bungy jump (well in NZ at least) where they hook you up at the waist as opposed to the standard way of binding your feet together, allowing you to do running jumps off the platform (someone even did the jump riding a bike off the ledge). I know, it looks similar to the canyon swing, but I had no idea what the canyon swing involved before I actually did it (I just wanted to do something different from bungy jumping, and I was thinking it was more along the lines of the giant swing rides), otherwise I probably would've done The Nevis instead of The Ledge.
Unfortunately (and it's a big one), there's no photos of me doing the jumps! The cameras at The Ledge had broken down a few days ago and they were still working to fix them. If I had known this beforehand, I definitely would not have done The Ledge. But I do have the videos of my jumps, though they're surprisingly very poor in quality - I couldn't even pull any sharp frames from the video to use as photos - and have terrible colour accuracy. I bet the photos would have looked so much better though (which is why up to this point I haven't bothered to upload any of the videos). Even worse was that I already paid for the photo and video package (I had to book it the day before at the Kawarau Bridge bungy jump in order to get the Magic Bus 50% discount on the photo and video package; the bungy jumps across NZ are run by the same company, AJ Hackett) and there were no refunds, but I still saved $5 NZD on the videos (compared to paying the full price for just the videos). Still, if I had known they would be that bad (the video is a lot better at the Kawarau Bridge), I would've never bought the package in the first place. Fortunately, The Ledge was having a special (I guess to attract more customers, there very few people doing the jump when I was there) that you could jump as many times as you wanted after paying for the first jump. So I ended up doing 4 jumps! I would've done more, but they were going on break after I finished my last jump, and I didn't feel like sitting around with nothing to do for an hour to wait to jump again. Enjoy the the videos though!
Jump #1: "the matrix" - based off the move in the matrix, you do a running jump out and twist as you jump so that you fall backwards looking up, with your arms pointing up at the platform as if you were shooting someone on the platform. This jump was the best one I did (I asked for some crazy recommendations and they were pretty disappointing here too).
Jump #2: a simple backwards bungy jump (it's way more thrilling falling backwards).
Jump #3: front flip bungy jump - a pretty simple jump where you doing a running jump and tuck your chin in to flip forward during the fall.
Jump #4: "the flying squirrel" - I botched this one hahaha (though I did all the steps correctly). It involves a running jump, then arching your back and grabbing your ankles behind you in mid-jump. I was told later on that some trick jumps that work for some don't work for others because how each person performs a jump varies. For instance, a girl who had jumped before me who did "the matrix" did an awkward head-first fall because she twisted too fast. I don't know what I did wrong, but it hurt - I started to fall head first but somehow the harness yanked up on my crotch (I really don't understand how that works) and put a lot of pressure on my sensitive area hahaha. It wasn't until the recoil of the bungy rope stopped and I could re-orient myself back into a proper position of feet towards the ground that the pressure was lifted. The girl working the rope at the top knew the jump went awkwardly because she even yelled down to ask if I was okay. Not the most pleasant jump hahaha.
Some more views along the gondola ride back down.
I stopped by a convenience store when I got back into town because I was starving at this point (plus I had a coupon for free coffee at the store haha). I ended up picking up this little treat, because it was one of the cheapest things I could find (the coffee was free only if you purchased something), strawberry white choc logs. Basically 2 sticks of white chocolate in the shape of a log, wrapped in strawberry flavoured gummy-type candy (really similar to the candy I bought on the North Island, except it was hard white chocolate in the centre); I think NZ specific again.
The candy was actually pretty good but obviously not very filling, so I had to get something else to eat. So I decided to get an early dinner and try Queenstown's famous "fergburger" - apparently a really large burger that's also really good quality too. It's another "must try" in NZ. It indeed was big, a bit wider than my hand, but it wasn't thick, so there actually wasn't as much meat as one might expect. It was filling though (thanks mainly to the side of fries I got, which are extra) but very expensive - jacked up in price probably because of its popularity (which I think has to do with the name hahaha); my most expensive meal in NZ. Can you believe I even had to pay for the wasabi mayo for my fries (and you can see how small it was - not even enough to use with half my fries); I remember it being more than just a couple of cents! People really seemed to make a really big deal about it (including the locals), and there were always line-ups at the place whenever I walked by, and while I will say the cheeseburger I ordered was pretty good, I'm not sure it lived up to all its hype (I mean there's a slew of burger places in the US that serve up as good a burger or better for much less). I guess it's all relative though - it's NZ, and you don't think "big burger" when you think NZ. I also met Andrew and Rory there while I was ordering my burger (they had just arrived in town that day) - I totally did not expect to see them again.
After such a filling meal, I decided to walk around town for a bit while the sun was still out. I ended up walking around the more upscale pier area. I have to say, the town may be small, but it is a nice town (obviously to attract the tourists). These photos are shot with my compact camera - not too bad in quality.
The scenery was so nice, that I knew I couldn't just capture everything with my compact camera, so when it got closer to sunset, I set back out with my DSLR. I have to say the price of a DSLR setup is worth it - the difference in quality is not even close.
Some photos I took with my DSLR. It was a gorgeous sunset. One thing I finally realized about NZ while taking the photos was how late it was - it was almost 9 pm! I failed to realize earlier that the closer you are to the poles, the more daylight you get during the summer months. This is one thing I loved about NZ, the late sunsets (when I could actually see the sun hahaha). The 8th photo is of a beach party that was going on - it didn't really seem too organized, just a DJ pumping out very loud music while separate groups of people just hung out on the beach around the makeshift DJ booth. There weren't even that many people dancing. I actually walked along the pier area all the way to the beach because I could hear the loud thumping beats from the hostel and wanted to see where all the noise was coming from. The music stopped shortly after I left the beach area (probably shut down by the cops, as I overheard a local saying that they're not licensed events that just pop up on the beach every so often, with increasing frequency as the main tourist season rolls around).
The view of the town from outside the hostel at night, taken with my DSLR. Compare this photo to the one I took with my compact the previous day, and the quality is not even comparable.
Then night finally came - another night for fun partying! You might be wondering why I was suddenly doing all this partying when I hadn't done much in Japan or even China or HK, and that's for one reason: money! It is unbelievably cheap to party in NZ (even the expected jacked up club/bar prices). Sure, it can be cheap to drink in China or even HK, but not when you go to the clubs. At the clubbing bars (that's what they really are) in NZ, the prices are still cheaper than buying at the cheapest bar in Toronto (remember the $6/pitcher at Greymouth?). We partied from 10:30ish all the way until 4 am (another thing I like about NZ, thank you no last call!) and put down a lot of alcohol, and still I only spent about $40 NZD (about $32 CAD) the whole night (for comparison, I probably would've spent well over $100 CAD if I did this in Toronto)! I don't even remember how many beers and shots I had, but there was a lot hahaha. Plus by the end of the night, we had hopped through 3 different bars. I also noticed I could put down more beers in NZ than I normally could(!) - NZ beer goes down almost like water (but it's not junk like Coor's Light or other bargain Canadian/US beer).
The night started at The World Bar (yet again). I really had no clue what to expect since I wasn't planning on meeting anyone there, but once I got there, I met Markus (Corinne got sick!), Mallorie, and Denise, plus Rory, Alex (a German guy I had also met earlier in Greymouth on the bus), and the Dutch girls I had left behind at Franz Josef! There wasn't happening much at the bar at this time, so after a beer and catching up with some people, me, Mallorie, Denise, and Alex (Markus went back to take care of Corinne) decided to check out another bar called Winnies, where Vanessa and Janelle were supposed to be. And that's when the actual partying began...
The Canadian gals starting it off with tequila shots at Winnies.
With Alex and Les (a guy from San Francisco who Vanessa and Janelle met earlier that day while skydiving).
The Canadians!
So many drinks hahaha...thanks in part to the 2 for 1 deals the bar had. There wasn't much going on at Winnies (the bad music didn't help), so we headed off to another bar.
At The Buffalo Bar, about to do jager bombs (and the 2 beers waiting to be consumed after by me and Alex; I had a 2 for 1 card on my hostel key)! After Alex knew I had the 2 for 1 deal card, the beer drinking really started (obviously he always finished before me; it's not my fault, the Germans can drink!).
Posing their best fight stances...I think Janelle was pretty trashed at this point hahaha.
The music was a bit better at The Buffalo Bar, and there were definitely a lot more people (it was really crowded at one point) and we had fun there just talking and drinking (and even busting a move every now and then), but suddenly when it got to around 1 am (I think) almost everyone suddenly left even though they were still open and serving people. It was so strange...I'd never seen anything like that before. So we decided to leave and find another bar to keep the party going, so we headed back to The World Bar (Janelle and Vanessa left us though since they were both pretty much done for the night).
Fergburger! I have to admit it's a pretty catchy name (especially if you say it with a funny accent haha). I somehow managed to catch a decently focused shot of it while we were walking to The World Bar.
We have arrived (back to where the night started!).
The back of Les' head and Phil (his friend, also from San Francisco).
Alex and Mallorie doing some teapot shots. The 3 of us basically split teapots for the rest of the night (many, many teapots hahaha).
The 5 of us (Phil didn't want to drink) doing teapot shots.
More teapot madness. I should probably explain what a teapot is now. It's a genius idea The World Bar came up with (I didn't see it at any of the other bars so I think it was unique to just this bar) - basically using a teapot (without the top), the bartenders would fill it with ice, mix in the drink in the teapot (they had a menu listing all their different mixes), and then give out these small plastic shot glasses, making it an easy way to share many shots between friends. And they weren't that expensive either ($10 NZD) thanks to the many $5 off coupons the other guys had collected (I don't remember where they said they got them hahaha).
Packed crowd, people dancing, pumping music (that was actually decent), good atmosphere - this was where the party was at (we definitely got our dance on haha).
Me and Alex - I have to say a really good guy; we had an awesome time!
Alex, Les, and Denise partying it up.
The drink menu - so many different teapots! They actually used a good amount of liquor in each one (I'm pretty sure by the end of the night we had tried each one at least once hahaha).
Mallorie and Alex performing some drunken antics hahaha (I remember them trying to make turtles...I don't see it hahaha).
Cheers!
You know you're drunk when...hahaha.
The rack of empty teapots - they're very popular.
Another round!
Some guy brought in his blow-up doll into the bar hahaha.
Your ability to guess where you should aim the camera worsens as the night progresses hahaha.
I was rocking out on my air guitar to some rock song they were playing hahaha.
More photos from the dance floor.
Last teapot of the night!
One more photo before heading back for some much needed sleep!
Posts
