Queenstown Adventure Weekend

Over the weekend, Arcadia bused us all out to Queenstown for our biggest adventure so far. Queenstown is the home of commercial bungy jumping and is known as the adventure capital of the world - people regularly pay to partake in activities such as white water rafting, canyoning, paragliding, hang gliding, sky diving, helicopter rides and other daring activities. We left Dunedin early on Friday morning, for a 4 hour drive on a winding road through Central Otago. The first thing we did when we got there was Jet Boating on Shotover River. We donned these fashionable splash coats and life vests:

and went on quite a ride! The boats can speed along in as little as 4 inches of water and reach speeds of 80km/hr. Here is a picture I snagged from the website:

Basically, the driver speed up and down through the canyon, driving so close to the canyon wall you could probably touch it by sticking only one finger out of the boat. He would drive straight towards a rock and then turn at the last second. He also spun us around on several 360 degree turns which created huge waves that soaked the boat. So fun. (Found this Youtube video of what it was like.)

Later on Friday evening we strolled around in downtown Queenstown and went to Ferg Burger and had one of the most amazing burgers ever. I have been craving one ever since.

Saturday was the best adventure of the weekend: a full day on the Routeburn Track. We hiked for 8 hours and went 26km on the track (one of New Zealand’s Great Walks) to summit Conical Hill (1515m). We were fortunate to have spectacular weather on the track, very sunny, not too hot, and we got some of the most spectacular views I’ve seen in my life. This first picture was taken about half way up, with a view of the valley we walked through down below.

This is the view from the saddle, with Harris Lake in the foreground (1255m).

And finally, the view from the Conical Hill, 360 degrees of snowcapped mountains and sky so clear we could see all the way to the sea!

At the end of the day, I was so tired all I could think about was getting back to the hostel and going to sleep.

Then on Sunday morning we took the Skyline gondola ride up the side of a hill above Queenstown and we went on luge rides (basically go carting, but on the side of a mountain). A fun activity for sore legs. Before driving home on Sunday, we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge (below) so the more adventurous members of the group could go bungy jumping. I was content just to watch, but all those who went plummeting head first from the bridge said that it was worth it.