Day 8 - Queenstown again

Maggie here.  Miss me?  I've been a little preoccupied during nap times as of late so Lance had to pick up my slack.  The blog is a lot of work!  Each entry takes over an hour to do and only about 15 minutes to read.  Keeping up takes a lot of motivation.

We spent two days in Queenstown.  It was about time we stayed in one place more than 24 hours.  We were at the halfway point and we were getting pretty tired of the car.  Queenstown is beautiful, built right on a lake surrounded by mountains, so there are worse places to stay two days.  Lance is looking forward to another trip down there for skiing.  His parents are going down there with us for two days when they come over for a visit over Easter.

Since New Zealand obviously doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, and therefore have Black Friday, they have their own day of super sales and crazy shopping.  The day after Christmas is Boxing Day and the streets were filled with busy shoppers.  Since we didn't really have room in our suitcases for extra items we just perused the storefronts while strolling downtown Queenstown.  It really has the feel of a mountain ski town like Vail (only bigger).  I did end up getting a light jacket from Kathmandu, which is an Australian owned outdoor clothing place.  Kathmandu and Macpac are the two competitors for outdoor gear. I should do an entry on New Zealand stores and their US equivalent.  It took some time for us to figure out where to shop for what items!

After we killed some time wandering, we headed to the Nevis Swing headquarters, which is one of the companies that does the bungee jumps famous in Queenstown.  Their Nevis River bungee is the tallest in NZ and 14th tallest in the world.  I've bungee jumped before but now that I have James I'm a little more cautious.  So we opted to swing the gorge instead with the world's largest swing!  Less chance of spinal injury or knocking an eyeball loose than the bungee.

Swing Stats:

• The World's Biggest Swing
• 300metre Arc
• 120m rope length (That's longer than a rugby field!)
• 160m above the river
• Swing options: Forwards, Backwards, Tandem, truck'n trailer, 69, back2back, Honeymoon & much more.

We were able to bring James out onto the suspended platform with us, which didn't phase him a bit.  The guys who were hooking us up said that the few kids who joined their parents on the platform panicked a little when they saw their parents drop out of sight and plummet below, but James just coolly tracked our progress as we swung out over the gorge, then dropped.  Good to know he will keep on keeping on without us...

Both Lance and I opted for the upside-down and backwards position, which I ended up regretting because the ropes really cut into my shins.  I still have marks over a month later.  I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had just gone the regular way, but oh well.  It was still pretty awesome to hangover a 160 meter gorge upside-down and wait for the plunge.  The initial drop feels just like bungee jumping, but then you gradually slide into an arc, swinging back and forth over the river a couple times before they haul you back up.

We both wore the GoPro Lance's parents gave us for Christmas. The first video is from Lance's point of view, the second is flipped right-side up.  Watch one or both!

I went second, making sure to kiss my baby boy before I went.

 

The video below is of my swing from Lance's point of view on the platform.

After the swing we headed to our next destination, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.  On the drive we followed along the Kawarau River Gorge, which is the river used in LOTR Fellowship of the Ring to portray the River Anduin when the Fellowship is canoeing to the Gates of Argonath.  I'm sorry to say there were no several-stories-high statues at the end of it.  BUT, the river was the true bright turquoise color as seen in the movie.  It was gorgeous.  The pictures don't do the color justice.  I made Lance pull over at one point so I could wind my way into the gorge to wade into the water.  LOTR nerd bliss.

I'll let Lance tell you about the campsite at Lake Hawea, which was beautiful!!