Mostly Queenstown...
The glacier hike on Friday the 11th was great! The weather, disgustingly, clouded over for the day, which cancelled the helicopter hike, but fortunately the full day hike went on happily - and in fact it was difficult to care about the weather when standing on a glacier!
It was quite a walk getting up there, and at first the ice was rocky and unimpressive (courtesy of a river exploding over the top of it at one point). But as we climbed further, the ice cleared up and the cool spiky shoes came into play, so I actually didn’t fall over nearly as much as I worried I would. It was freezing cold, of course - I was very glad of the extra layers they’d told me to wear - and I got quite wet sliding through crevices and squeezing through ice tunnels, but it was an amazing, luminous blue and you could hear water rushing through it, see the huge tunnels the water had carved - staggering drops, some of them!
The guide kept calling me, Jemma and Claire ‘England’, ‘Scotland’ and ‘Ireland’ - which was particularly amusing when someone in another group could be seen posing proudly with his Irish flag for a photo! Claire tried to steal it, but we never got close enough.
All in all the hike exhausted me less than the walks the day before - though I was still pretty tired when I got back! I collapsed in the hot tub for quite a while before levering myself out and heading to the bar.
That was an amusing time. Rachel doesn’t have much experience with drinking, so we were trying to find her the perfect drink. We succeeded in the end - Malibu, midori, and pineapple juice - but that was the fourth species of alcohol she’d had that evening and it hit her pretty hard. It was so funny! By the time she actually went to bed, all three of us in the room were crying with laughter, much to her indignation. She couldn’t stop talking, and she fell out of the bed, and suddenly insisted that she required orange juice the next morning… She wasn’t hungover, at least, which meant that we even peeled out of the room in good time the next day. (Apparently I snored a little, much to my repentant embarrassment. I must have caught it off Cath, the lady in our room who’s infamous for it!)
The bus left at 7.30 on Saturday, and first it took us to Lake Matheson, where we took pictures of the pretty, reflective lake. Then we went on to a spot where we could see the Fox Glacier (like the mints, much to my amusement) and then onward, over the Haast Pass to Lake Wanaka! En route we stopped at Thunder Falls and the Blue Pools, which were very pretty. We waged a war of attrition against the sandflies, walked over a very wobbly swing bridge, and Lamb taught me and Rachel how to skip stones! I actually managed it for the first time ever, an achievement even if everyone on the bus could do it better than me.
Just before we arrived at Lake Wanaka, a lot of us went to Have-a-shot, which was really fun. There was a rifle range, which I did very well in - lots of holes in the bullseye! I didn’t have enough money to do the clay pigeon shooting, but my friend gave me two of her shots - much to my pride I actually hit the second one I aimed at.
Lake Wanaka itself was beautiful - it has my vote for good place to live in the South Island! I think Dad needs to look into property there. I had a quiet evening there wandering beside the lake and playing pool in the hostel; the lady at reception was rude to us for absolutely no reason, but we resisted the urge to steal anything portable in the room as revenge. Barely.
Funniest thing that evening was finding the little wooden caps on our bedposts could be slipped out to show secret messages from other guests! Many of them predictably dirty, but most amusing to read.
The next day, Sunday 13th, was Queenstowning day! It’s not a long drive, but on the way we stopped at Arrowtown, which was very pretty in an exceptionally quaint way. We didn’t get to go panning for gold, but Cath bought Lamb a little toy sheep as a thank you present for being her driver the whole way, and he says that he’ll keep it at the front of any bus he drives!
In Queenstown we stopped at the oldest commercial bungy site, Kawarau Bridge, where we got to watch a video on the origins of bungy jumping - which added A J Hackett to the list of my idols - and cheer on a couple of brave souls who did the jump there. (I didn’t, I’m going on Nevis instead, the big jump.) Then we had a group photo by the lakeside, in the sun, and then we checked into the hostel.
Tamsin, Rachel and I wandered about a bit, ended up watching a rugby sevens match for a while - arbitrarily picking a team to support because we didn’t know who was playing. (Auckland won). Then we all met up in the bar - meeting for the first time Lamb’s lovely girlfriend - and had an awesome time. From there we moved onto the World Bar, which - wonder of all wonders - serves cocktails in teapots. What a fantastic concept! I think I should attempt to spread it about back in England. I was quite tired, so I didn’t stay out toooo late - considering how many people were still asleep well into the afternoon back in my dorm, I think I was quite conservative!
On Monday I did my first adrenalin-y thing, namely the Canyon Swing! Basically you jump off a platform on the edge of a gorge, freefall 60 m while screaming your lungs out and certain of your imminent death, and then the swing takes hold and you level out, soaring majestically over the river and towards - but not so worryingly close to - the other side of the gorge. I did it twice; the first time they dropped me off backwards, and although (after nearly chickening out) I asked them to give me a not-so-scary one, the second time they gave me ‘gimp-boy goes to Hollywood’ - hanging upside down beside the platform, facing the ground. Definitely scary! But at least they didn’t make me do it with a bucket over my head, like one poor guy! They were really crazy. I didn’t get any photos, sadly, because they were really expensive and I’d already paid for a second go, but I did by a pair of the novelty underwear they were selling! I shall hang them on my wall.
That was Rachel’s last day with us, sadly; she went to Christchurch earlier than us. It’s a shame, I probably won’t be able to catch up with her before she goes back to Australia in a couple of weeks.
On Tuesday I was going to go hang-gliding, but that was cancelled because of the wind, so I had a very quiet day while Tamsin, Catri and Jemma were all at Milford Sound. I wandered around the lake a bit, and then sat in the Queenstown Gardens and read a book - not adrenalin-y at all. But that night we went out with the guys in the dorm next to Catri’s, which was really fun. Ended up at the World Bar again, though with fewer teapots.
On Wednesday - today! - I went BUNGY JUMPING. (It fully deserves the capital letters.) I went with Claire and Neils and Sam from the bus, and with Rupert who I met last night, and when they saw the fairy wings stuck to my bag (it’s a fairly long story) they insisted that I wear them on the jump, so I had those tied to my harness! I was very nervous - biting my nails and all - and when I went out on the tiny little cable car to the pod poised on wires in the middle of a gorge, I kept my eyes very firmly away from the drop. I especially didn’t look down when shuffling awkwardly towards the edge of the platform! I was the first to jump, by some quirk of fate, but I didn’t hesitate, and dived at the countdown - screaming loudly as I fell.
It was really fun! I just wish it could have lasted longer. I did the Nevis, as I said, which is the biggest in New Zealand - and, at 134 m, one of the biggest in the world - but it was still over much too soon. But I have a very cool t-shirt to remember it by.
Later today I’m going to go hang-gliding - I managed to reschedule my trip. Really looking forward to that, too - I’ll have to see if there’s a t-shirt available…
Tomorrow I catch the Bottom Bus, which goes around the extreme South - and, eventually, to Milford Sound. Much to my grief, I’ve had to abandon wild hopes of a cruise through Doubtful Sound as well because it was just too much over my budget, but apparently the Milford trip is really good so I’ll be satisfied with that.
I’ll update again at some point soon, and I’ll put up photos when I can be bothered. Until then, farewell!