Adrenalin rush central - Queenstown

Left Wanaka today and travelled to Queenstown the home of all things crazy and adrenalin fueled. On our way into Queenstown the bus stopped of at the first commercial bungy site in the world - Kawarau Bridge. We were lucky enough to see some bampot leap from the bridge and I have to admit that it looked kinda fun and I was at that stage thinking yup i'll be doing this - I didn't of course but instead did something I think is even better, but more of that later.


The first few days we didn't really do much (well Milford Sounds but i've given that it's own blog entry), just eating out and having a few drinks. Queenstown is a really cool place, it's small but has plenty of things to keep you occupied. Since the ski slopes are all located near by it's no surprise that the place has a very apre ski feel to it and most of the hostels and accomodation is based around a swiss chalet design, actually as are most of the bars. On the Monday we had planned on doing some white water rafting but when we went to investigate this we found that the river didn't have enough water in it to guarantee a grade 5 rapid so we grudginly left and instead went to the kiwi bird sanctuary. This was good fun as I finally got to see my first kiwi - they are damn cute little buggers (nocturnal so no photo's i'm afraid) and it's such a shame that their numbers are decreasing so rapidly in the wild. There were also numerous other species of birds, some good fun like the cheeky Kea parrots and some just down right crap - the pigeons for example.


Next day we got the gondola cable car up to the peak which again affords some fantastic views of Queenstown and the mountain range known as "The Remarkables".


It was at the top of the gondola that we did the luge. What's a luge I hear you ask, well it's basically a steep concrete track on a hill that winds down with various sharp corners, bumps etc that you traverse on a little go cart. Sounds crap eh ? Well we thought that too, but it was superb, so good we did it 5 times. You'd be amazed at the speed that the little carts go at and since there is no barriers at either side, it'd be damn eazy to steer the cart of the track which of course adds to the enjoyment. After the luge I went and booked onto the canyon swing for the next day..............