We survived! We thought this blog might be our most important yet for those of you that think we may have perished yesterday during bungee jumping. We boarded our bus Tuesday morning around 9:30AM and made our way to Nevis valley, where the bungee took place. We had to take a big bus up yet again another gravel mountain. We could tell that they have done this just a few times because once we got there it was a pretty well oiled operation. They got us in our gear the second we stepped off the bus and before we knew it were taking a trolley/chairlift across a valley to the platform from where we would be jumping.
That way out there is the platform that we had to jump off of.
I speak for both of us when I say that neither one of us were too scared until we actually were strapped up and had you walk to the edge. They had me go first and there was a definite moment of “what in the hell am I doing?” but they count you down and you just do it.
We purchased videos so you will all hopefully be able to watch once we find wifi that's not mind-numbingly slow, but we have been laughing ever since we saw them because you can definitely tell there is some hesitation on my part judging by the way I jumped. The other embarrassing part is that when you bounce up a third time you are supposed to pull a cord by your legs that flips you over so that you are sitting up when being pulled up, but I wasn’t able to figure that out so I got pulled up upside down like a bat.
Ian’s jump:
Caitlin’s jump:
All in all we had a fabulous time and it’s an adrenaline rush that neither one of us have ever experienced.
Once we made our way back to Queenstown (the bungee was about 40 minutes outside of Queenstown) we cleaned up and made our way to The Winery. I had set this up prior to coming to Queenstown, but it was a wine and cheese tasting session. The place was filled with all different wines from around the New Zealand region and every bottle was hooked up to a self-serve machine (you’d be in trouble mom). So you would go up, insert a card they gave us, and pick which wine (or scotch) you wanted. Paired with the wine was a large local cheese and bread plate. We aren’t exactly wine experts but everything was delicious especially after a pretty stressful morning.
We went back to our hotel close by and relaxed for a couple of hours before heading back out for some pre-dinner drinks at an excellent bar called the Ballarat Trading Co. The Ballarat is Queenstown’s first gastro pub and is modeled after an 1850’s trading emporium. We left and went next door for an amazing meal at Madame Woo. The place was absolutely packed at 8:30, which is something we have not seen often in other places. The food is described as Malaysian and we went with the dumplings for an appetizer and then the char siu BBQ pork ribs and stir-fried pork belly for our shared main courses. The meal was fantastic.
We are up and writing this blog at a Starbucks close by and then will be off to Milford Sound! Hopefully the weather cooperates because this is most definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We have read in a few different articles that the Milford Highway ranks in the top 10 for most beautiful drives in the world.
P.S. Happy election day! Everyone over here in NZ is pretty interested in what happens, and have dedicated a ton of coverage to it. Yesterday, the guy strapping me into my bungee harness asked me if I'd already voted. When I informed him, "Yep, pretty big day tomorrow." He replied, "Yeah, maybe one of the most important in the history of the world." Completely serious. So go vote please, the world is counting on you!