New Zealand: Part II

The suspended room we jumped from!


Ben, me and Tim on our way out to the bungy jump.


Tim and Justin eating Fergburgers (they're huge, aren't they?)


Justin and I posing by a Kiwi after our long bike ride.


A nice view after we rode up a particularly large hill.


Alright, I left off yesterday by telling you that we drove to Queenstown on Monday afternoon. The drive was quite long (about 4 hours of driving) and I learned on the drive that Justin and Tim were playing the "let's see how much we can annoy Hayley in New Zealand" game. So it was definitely a long drive. . .

We arrived in Queenstown kind of late (around 7) and had a little trouble finding a hostel because apparently Easter Monday is a national holiday in NZ. We finally tracked one down and we bought some groceries at a local supermarket. Luckily, Tim is a restaurant cook back at home, so he made us some delicious pasta and pizza. We checked out Queenstown for awhile after dinner and found that it was a very nice city. It was pretty small (only about 10,000 people) and the main source of income is tourism. Here's how my guidebook describes it: "[It's] surrounded by the soaring indigo heights of the Remarkables, crowned by Coronet Peak, and framed by the meandering coves of Lake Wakatipu". . . it really was quite stunning.

We woke up the next morning and quickly found a hostel for the next night so we wouldn't be in the same pickle. We feasted on peanut butter and jelly for lunch and dinner. . .which was our staple meal for most of the trip (I don't know if I'll be able to look at peanut butter again for at least a month). Nick and Ben decided to do a river rafting adventure trip and Tim wanted to just wander around the town for the day. Justin and I decided to rent some mountain bikes and check out some of the sights. We picked up our bikes around noonand started off on a pretty intense trail that had us on and off our bikes frequently because we either couldn't make it up a hill or we were too afraid to go down a hill. Justin ended up falling off his bike twice! But don't worry. . .we were wearing helmets. After that adventurous trail we decided to take a more scenic bike ride around Lake Wakatipu. We ended up biking for about 3.5 hours and were pretty bushed by the end of it.

We went to a really famous burger place for dinner- Fergburger. It's so popular that at pretty much any time during the day you will see a line all the way out the door. The burgers were absolutely massive and we all struggled to finish them. The boys thought they were absolutely amazing (I think some of them ate Fergburgers at least twice more while we were there). I didn't think they lived up to the hype though. . .so I opted for Subway the next time they all went to Fergburger.

We had a pretty relaxed night because we wanted to be well-rested for our bungy jump trip the next day. As we were planning our trip to NZ, I initially refused to bungy jump, but at some point during the planning the boys convinced me to do the third largest bungy jump in the world with them. . .I don't know what I was thinking. We caught a bus to the bungy jump site at 10:30 am on Wednesday morning and I was absolutely petrified. We had to take a cable car across a river to this little room that was suspended above the river by cables. The bungy jump was 134 meters and we were told that we would free-fall for 8 seconds!

Tim was the first in our group to jump and when he jumped I think I screamed louder than he did. All of the other boys went and I ended up being the last one to go. Tim, Nick, and Ben were sent back to land because only a few people can be in the suspended room at a time. I was so terrified as I approached the jumping-off point and I almost didn't do it. . .but Justin and the nice women who hooked me up convinced me. I don't know what made me do it, but I finally jumped and it was the craziest feeling in the world! I just fell. . .for a long time. When I finally stopped falling I was so relieved that all I could think was: "get me back on solid ground". As we took the cable car back to land, I couldn't stop shaking. I'm really glad I faced my fear and did it, but I don't think I will be doing it again anytime soon. I am going to post the video of the jump on facebook. . .so you can check it out if you'd like.

After bungy jumping we packed up our things and began driving to Milford Sound. I'll tell you about my adventures there at a later date!