Queenstown - the home of the Bunjy

We arrived in Queenstown and booked Rich on the Bunjy for the following day. They only had 8am left so that'd have to do. Queenstown has a few Bunjy's, it has the first, which is off a bridge and is 43 metres and it is also home to NZ's highest, 134m called the Nevis. Guess which one Rich picked? Yep, the stupid one!! We also booked us both onto this thing called 'flybywire' (a 'plane' suspended in a valley that you fly around ??) for the following afternoon.

So, Rich said he was a bit aprehensive about his bunjy on that morning, I should think so!! He said he'd be OK so long as he wasn't first, it was the first group of the day and he didn't want to be first out of that group. We arrived at the meeting point and he had to be weighed and stuff. I was going along as a spectator. We got on the bus and drove to the site. On the journey we could hear the driver chatting to someone at the front about the order of jumpers, 'heaviest first' the driver said, we looked around, and Rich was definitely the heaviest!!! Then he was nervous as the pressure was on, there couldn't be any dithering at the platform!

We arrived at the site and there were many 'ohmygod''s going around the bus as everyone actually saw what they were jumping off!! It was a little 'pod' suspended between two hills hanging over the valley, the 134 metre valley! There was no messing around, straight into the harnesses and into the cable car to take us to the pod, I went to the pod too to watch and just going over there in the cable car was scary enough!! So, Rich is all harnessed up and ready to go, 3, 2, 1, go........and he's gone!!! I poo'd my pants for him as I could see the aprehension in him but he was laughing through it, and when he jumped it was as if he was a pro, it was impressive!! He was winched back up with a big grin on his face and I stopped shaking!! Watching the other people do it was fun too, especially this chinese girl who kept dithering on the edge but eventually just sort of fell off!!! Because Rich had done that jump he could get another at a big discount so he booked himself onto the Kawara bridge (original bungy site), a mere 43 metres for the next day!

So, after that we had some lunch then went to the meeting point for the flybywire. A short bus journey and we were there. Now this thing looked scary! It was a sort of plane with an engine that you lie down in and it has handlebars at the front. It's suspended in this valley and you get strapped in, winched up the hill backwards, then you let go and are catapulted around the valley, you control your direction and how high and fast you go all depends on how well you control it as it swings back and forth and round and round. Sounds easy!!! I climbed in and was scared when the towed me up the hill, but when I let go it was great fun, it didn't feel like you were attached, just flying this little thing round. I didn't have much control over it and kept going round in circles, which didn't bother me, I still had fun. When my time was up though, the guys sent me out again to do it properly, which I managed on the second time and got some real height and speed out of it!!! Great fun. Rich, did the best out of everyone, he got really high and went the fastest, he loved it!!

So, after all the adrenalin rush, we had a pint in a bar near our site. It was throwing it down again and was quite cold. We got chatting to an Aussie couple who'd been there a few hours. We then planned to take our stuff back to the van then go for a curry, we took our stuff back then went back to the bar for a pint first. Aussie couple, Cliff and Kara were still there, getting roundly drunk, we joined them and played pool and chatted and drank, and drank more and had a laugh, there was a band on too, which we really enjoyed. We stayed till quite late and ended up buying pie and crisps and stuff for tea, as you do!!!! Hey ho, we've heard curry in NZ is crap anyway!!

Fortunately Rich's bunjy wasn't until noon so didn't have to get up so early. Rich was feeling a bit curly though, I wouldn't have done a bunjy with a hangover (I wouldn't do one without either, but that's beside the point!) But he did, and not just a normal one, a 'reverse elevator' where instead of diving off, as is the norm you turn around and do a little jump backwards whilst keeping your eyes on the guy at the top! Man, that boy is crazy!!

Adrenalin activities done, time to head to Fox Glacier for something a bit tamer!