Tommy & Rhonda's Travels

Queenstown

NEW ZEALAND | Thursday, 1 November 2007 | Views [430]

We woke up today and knew there was lots of adventure stuff to be done! There are so many choices in the "Adventure Capital of the World" we couldn't do them all but it was time to decide what we were going to do. We slept in late which was really nice and then headed out to breakfast at Vudu cafe (voted the best in Queenstown). I wasn't super hungry and had a bagel, Rhonda went with the eggs benedict. Breakfast was great. We went back and decided today we would do the jetboat ride and go bungy jumping! After discussing everything with the hotel concierge, we made our bookings and headed out. The first activity of the day was the Shotover jet boat ride. We got there a little early and were able to see the boats going and what it was like and we were first in line for our preferred seats. Well, the guy at the hotel said the back corner was great, which is where we sat but Rhonda and I both think the front would have been the best. Needless to say, it was an exciting ride and a good deal of fun but a little overrated. I think we both agree it’s overpriced for a 20 minute ride. Rhonda was a little scared going into it with the thought of flying through a narrow canyon at 55+ mph…it wasn’t very scary but pretty cool none the less. After completion of the boat ride, we headed on the road to the Karawara Bridge for a bungee jump! I’ll have to admit I had some nerves heading up but nothing like Rhonda. She was really nervous but I knew she would come around and do it. After we got there, we watched people jump for a while and I was a lot less nervous after that. Rhonda was coming around but still nervous. We finally decided it was time to head in and gets it going. We still had not decided if we were going to jump solo or tandem. I was all for solo but cool with tandem too if Rhonda wanted to do that instead of solo. We decided on the tandem jump. Does it take away from a solo jump? I don’t really think much, if any. On one hand, you have someone going with you so you have a partner in crime or fear depending on how you look at it. I think it probably feels exactly the same once you actually jump. And, I think it’s really cool to have done it together. Of course, immediately after we jumped, Rhonda was wanting to do the solo jump! So, next time….we will both do the solo. The jump was 43 meters high and off a bridge over a river. There are 3 different places to bungee in Queenstown, and the bridge we jumped off is the first commercial bungee in the world. We both thought that was pretty cool to jump there. We were kicking ourselves for not having a bystander video or take pics of us but we did buy the pics that they took. Wait till you see them…we told them we wanted to get dunked in the river so Rhonda is holding her nose from the first second of the jump. Kinda funny. We never did hit the water unfortunately…we came oh so close, but no cigar! It was late afternoon after that and we headed back to town and the hotel to clean up and get ready for dinner and a night out. We relaxed for a bit, showered up and headed out for some pizza in Queenstown. We ate at Winnie’s and had a half and half pizza. On one side a normal, tasty veggie pizza. On the other side, we tried the local’s favorite…um, very different. There was chicken, brie cheese and some other stuff…very sweet, not what I like in my pizza but it wasn’t bad, just not what you would expect. Oh, and you dipped it in pistachio sour cream that the local just LOVE! We picked up a bottle of local Pinot Noir and headed back to the room to enjoy it outside on the patio on a georgeous night. We only had about half of it and next thing we knew another day was gone, it was late and we were really tired. Time to hit the hay; we have another big day in Queenstown tomorrow, our last full day there.

Tags: Adventures