Birthday Week - Part Two
NEW ZEALAND | Saturday, 24 April 2010 | Views [463]
Birthday Week 2010 : Thursday (25/03/2010)
Queenstown (of course)
Since this was our second chance to see Queenstown, we felt we knew what we wanted to do in the way of activities, and on the top of that list was a skydive. We tried to book ourselves in for the Wednesday (so there’d be less time to think about the potential dangers), but it had been postponed until the following day. Unlike with our bungy jump, we managed not to build it up too much and so I was pretty excited on my way down to the Nzone centre that morning. It turned out to be cancelled again, and again when we were rescheduled for the afternoon. Feeling fairly frustrated because we had been shooting the breeze all day to make space for the skydive, we decided to jump into a harness for a different reason, and signed up for a Ziptrek on the Queenstown Hill.
Since it had been another lazy day, we threw on the runners again and walked up to the top of the Queenstown Hill, where the Ziptrek started. We were booked in as “the two who walked up”, as if it were as unusual as flying in on James Bond jet packs, so that was a reward in itself! We got into our harnesses with the help of the lovely Costa Rican, Justin, and waited for our fellow trekkers - an American family, complete with a birthday boy of about 10 (stealing my “Birthday Week” attention!).
The Ziptrek was great craic – we got to swing through the fir trees (Douglas Firs, we learned) upside down, spinning in circles and the normal chair way – it was fantastic to see the forest and Queenstown in another, special way. Elaine and I tended to be at the very back or the very front, since the family all stuck together, meaning that we were either talking to Toby, the “I’m pretty cool in case you hadn’t noticed” English guy, or Justin, who seemed to be interested in any sports that involved adrenaline, and had no bones showing that he loved doing this all day! This resulted in us getting slightly distracted in conversation and almost forgetting to pop off the platform into the forest, with the ground a fair aul drop away!
At each platform we were educated by Justin and Toby about conservation (not conversation, I’m fairly sure I know what that is by now), the environment and how the company is out to do its bit to make the planet all shiny and green again; this was a nice break in between getting up close and personal to the trees they talked about. The platforms were built around the giants of fir trees (which swayed a lot in the wind), making me wish all over again for a tree house, although now I don’t know where I’d put it. The more we zipped across the “flying foxes”, the more we were told how to do different things – to go off backwards and upside down, to go upside down and spinning around, and the “zombie” which involved just walking off the platform and not holding on to the harness (a bit tame for my developing adrenaline habit).
On one of the last flying foxes, we had a long journey through the forest and were given spectacular views of the lake and the mountains which keep Queenstown in its little bowl – including the famous mountains which were used in the Lord of the Rings to play the part of Mordor – cool. We found out that the Remarkables are named because they’re one of few mountain ranges which run directly north to south, and were told the Maori legend of the Lake Wakatipu involving a giant stealing a maiden from Invercargill because he loved her (the writers of King Kong may have heard this?). I think the end involved the giant falling asleep every time a warm Australian north-westerly breeze hit him, the Invercargill locals setting him on fire when he was asleep and then the lake filling up to hide him, although I’d like to check that again because I may have changed it slightly!
We saw the scars left by the glacier on the mountains across from us, as the glacier slowly tore its path through. I really find it difficult to imagine the size of the glacier when I saw how high up the mountains it went. The mountains have scratchmarks along their waists (if mountains have waists), and are then untouched above, for some reason I imagine the glacier like someone being pulled through a doorframe and clinging on to it rather than going where it inevitably will end up – my mind is an odd place!
The Ziptrek ended lower down in the forest (naturally enough) and so once we had taken all of our harnesses and helmets back off, we “trekked” back to the top of the hill, where we’d left all of our valuables (and to chat some more to the instructors, we literally don’t know when to stop talking). Once again, we were a bit chilly so we ran back down to the bottom again, really turning a potentially lazy day of nothing into another day of activity, fun, and brilliant scenery. Queenstown and New Zealand really has so much to offer, I’m amazed at how it seems more people don’t know about it and seem to flock to Oz instead (I’m not complaining, that adds to its charm, amongst other things!).
