Days 14-16 Dunedin, Lake Ohau, and Goodbye in Christchurch

 It's a long bus ride from Queenstown to Dunedin so I sleep most of the way.  When we arrive in Dunedin we are treated to a tour and tasting at the Speights brewery in Dunedin.  I've been on beer tours before and it's the same stuff, how do you make a beer, how many beers do you make, etc.  The real highlight came at the end when we had the tap room to ourselves and free beer for 30 minutes.  After many beers it was clear my favorite was their lightest beer of course.  Anita a tour mate from Melbourne enjoyed the beer so much she got underneath the tap and asked me to snap a picture.  I obliged man this woman can drink.

Enough of the tour open those taps up!

Damn Anita!  Drinking like a champ!

We make it an early night and get up the next morning for a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory.  Again a tour of chocolate is not that exciting to me.  Those of you who know me know that chocolate is not my favorite so I was happy this was a short tour.  The tour guide threw out a series of questions for free candy but I couldn't be bothered with answering any of them.

Reminds me of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory!

Old Cadbury Cars

Every Chocolate Imaginable yuck!

The highlight of the Dunedin was probably Baldwin street which is (sorry to say it San Franciscans) the steepest street on the planet according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I was the first to the top and man it was tall.  I even used it as an experiment to Bill and Krista to show that Little Jake likes to take the same pictures as I do (Sound familiar Grandma Betty Lou).  On the walk down the street I took a picture of a rock in the road nothing special or award winning about this photo. But rest assured Jake was two steps behind me to take the same photo.  Jake I would say keep that for your personal album.

Im not making this stuff up, here is the evidence

Damn that's Steep!

I made it!

Straggelers!

My best impression of Neo in the Matrix

All is all Dunedin wasnt my favorite so I was happy to move on to Lake Ohau which definitely was a highlight.  

We head for Lake Ohau and along the way we drive by many beautiful vistas, mountains, and a lake views. We also drive across a damn which will forever be famous on our tour because of me.  The bus stops to let us off to take pictures of the damn.  I grab my camera and head out to the edge to take some shots of the water and surrounding mountains.  As head onto the bridge a gust of wind manages to blow my favorite hat off of me, over the bridge, and into the water.  Damn it!

I look up and everyone is boarding the bus and we are getting ready to leave.  I need this hat which is now laying in the water about 20 feet below the bridge.  I see a life saving ring and some rope so I toss that into the water hoping the hat will get caught in the ring and I can pull it up.  A dumb idea that goes nowhere fast. The ring ends water logging the hat which sinks a little further in the water.  Next, our tour manager Bridget springs into action.  Maybe if I tie my flip flop to this piece of string that Pumba has from the bus you can lower that down and catch your hat.  We try that and it fails.  The flip flop is too light and there is nothing to catch the hat on it with.  I look over at the bus people are getting impatient.  "We have to use the bathroom" Come on guys this is the hat my mom gave me (complete bullshit but I needed something to stall the herd). We then tie a screw driver to the flip flop hoping the screw driver will get caught in the mesh and hook the hat.  I lower that down with little luck.  I reach the hat but the screw driver is not weighted enough to snag the hat.  Damn it!  Last resort we tie a rock to one end of the screw driver and lower it down.   This weight will keep the screwdrive pointing up and maybe just maybe I can snag it like a fish hook.  The natives are getting restless on the bus, I'm sweating like a pig, and Bridget's got this piece of string tied to my waste no thicker then kite string which she thinks is going to prevent me from falling in.  A complete comedy hour but anyways I lower it down and snag it.  I GOT IT!  Major cheers from the original jeers!  We got the hat let's get out here.  

Don't believe me check these pictures out:

So close yet so far

Am I seriously trying to fish this out with a flip flop tied to a string?

Almost got it. Got to love the shoestring safety harness tied to my waste.

The winning tool!

We arrive at Lake Ohau and it is AMAZING.  It is this beautiful Lake in the middle of nowhere with giant mountain peaks coming out of it and they are so tall that they are snowcapped.  The Lodge we are staying at is the only one on the Lake and we are at waters edge.  This lodge has a family feel to it.  Couches everywhere, a big fireplace, game room etc.  This place is a giant man cave and I love it.  It has beer, pool, ping pong, Jacuzzi, fire, etc.  Man we are going to have a good time here.  

Bill and Jake immediately head for ping pong.  I walk around snapping pictures of everything.  Then watch Jake and Bill battle it out.  Jake has game with his slams and the Asian method of holding the paddle.  Bill wins the series then I play Jake.  He kicks my butt but I come back at him hard and win a game.  

Tonight we will be having a Toga party and the hotel has provided everyone with an extra sheet to make a toga out of.  For those that don't know what a toga party is think Animal house and greek mythology.  You use a white sheet and wrap it around you to represent a greek warrior.  You wear nothing else under your sheet.  I was also able to recruit one of the girls to weave me a crown out of some green grass picked from the field.

Hail Ceasar!

 Little Jake is panicking back in the room.  "Aaron how to wear toga?"  Jake I'll show you.  I spin Jake around in circles as I drap the sheet in different patterns to see what he is comfortable with.  "I like that, and we must Facebook".  Translation we are good to go with his Toga.  Now for the trickly part which is tying the sheet so the thing does not fall off.  I must of tied it 15 times and Little Jake would keep tapping me on the shoulder, "Aaron too loose, we must Facebook!"  Damn it Jake!  Do I look like a freaking seamstress.  I'm doing my best here man!  Work with me!  It was then that I realized perhaps Jake is a perfectionist.

I realized this when I failed to mention a few nights earlier I had come back to the room and found Little Jake in his bed with an electric razor grooming any possible hair imaginable on his body.  Arm pits, chest, legs, etc. the man left no hair follicle untouched.  What was more puzzling is he chose to do this routine while lying in bed.  I would think one would want to groom themselves in the bathroom in case any unsuspecting hair fell to the ground.  But what the hell do I know, but it does make me wonder if in Chinese culture it's bad to have a lot of body hair.  I don't pry and just keep to myself.

Back to the Toga Party, everyone is now congregrating at the bar and the sun is going down over Lake Ohau.  Looking out I get this idea wouldn't it be cool to do some Greek mythology scene where everyone poses and does not look at the camera.  I volunteer to stage everyone and start placing characters in the scene.  I give everyone poses and instruct no one to look at the camera.  The picture taking begins

Me and the Swedes

The Girls

I thought everyone heard my instructions but after reviewing the photos it was clear that one person did not hear me or chose to go rogue.  That person was Angela a sweet girl from Australia who loved to take a million photos.  And I'm not exagerating, I dont think there was one sign or placard that Angela missed from any of the sites we visited.  If there was a photo to be taken I could count on Angela to hit it from every direction.  She was diligent and as you can see in the photo below she also wanted the picture to have her looking at the camera (Can you spot Angela?).  My apologies Angela if my instructions were not clear.  In anycase it was all good fun.

Where's Angela

One more time

Got to love our bus driver's purple toga!

The drinking began after our photo session and Bill decided to introduce our foreign friends to a great American Tradition known as beer pong.  Essentially you have glasses full of beer on either side of a table in a triangle formation.  The objective is to get your ping pong ball into the opposing team's glass.  The team who knocks out all the glasses wins.  You would think this would be easy but we were terrible at it.  I would try and throw and then Anita (tour mate from Melbourne) would pose to distract my aim.  It definitely worked thanks Anita!

The party continued into the night and wrapped up at the hot tub underneath a billion stars.  It was a great night and more importantly Little Jake stepped up his game.  Sidney having left him a couple days earlier in Queenstown, turned Jake into a dancing sex machine.  Little Jake in his Toga was bouncing all around the dance floor.  He even found a Sidney replacement and that was Therese (a beautiful girl from Ireland traveling with her fellow optomistrist friend Laura).  Jake was smitten for Therese and insisted on taking many photos with her.  But that's not the funiest part.  The funiest part is that a split second before the photo was snapped Little Jake would turn his head and kiss Therese on the cheek.  He then would jump around all excited.  At one point Jake even picked up Therese to her shock and spun her around.  We were dying laughing.  Little Jake this shy guy from China had grown up in a matter of 7 days and was now the life of the party.  I've seen this play itself out in many movies such as 16 Candles, Can't Hardly Wait, Can't buy me love.  I was envious, way to go Jake!  

The pictures speak for themselves.  Little Jake has graduated to Jake

Jake kissing Therese. The evidence is in!

The next morning we departed for Christchurch our end of the trip.  As the bus goes steaming forward for Christchurch I reflect on the last 2.5 weeks and what I had accomplished and who I had met.  I jumped off things, made friends for life, cracked so many jokes along the way, saw amazing things, had the best tour guides, and quite honestly enjoyed every minute of it.  


20 minutes away form Christchurch and Bridget and Pumba give their final speeches.  Everyone feels some emotion and Bridget and Pumba will not be forgotten.  You often wonder with tour managers since they give so many tours will they remember your group?  They say they will but you get competitive and hope that your tour group was the best group.  I hope we were Bridget and Pumba because we were the best!  We are the Wild Ones cue the music!

The bus pulls up to the hotel where everyone will depart for the airport.  Little Jake is practically in tears and says two words over and over again, "So Sad, So Sad"  Me too buddy!  I give Little Jake a big hug and tell him thanks for the memories and leave him with last minute instructions.  No noodles when on a date (Jake likes to slurp his noodles loud), always remember the girl's name, ask questions that make her feel important.  I think he understands as he responds with, "We must facebook!"  Jake heads off, will see you again in Shanghai some day!  


A smaller group of us head to dinner at a Mexican place where we drink, reminisce, and say goodbye.  Dinner wraps a few hugs later and everyone is off.  Pumba drives me to my hostel and we chat more about American culture.  I get to the hostel, thank Pumba, and begin the next leg of my journey.


Hostel living ain't no night at the Ritz Carlton.  Man this has been my biggest adjustment yet.  When I arrived at the hostel I was put into a 4 bed room with this guy from Israel.  The dude would just stare at me then ask, "I see you like to work out!"  Look I'm no hulk hogan here but all he kept talking about were my arms.  Made me totally uncomfortable and the next two days in Christchurch were lousy ones.  I missed my tour mates and the people at this hostel were clicky (meaning they had formed their groups so I was an outsider).  All I had was myself and this crazy Israeli!  I was happy to get the hell out of Christchurch and onto Australia!        

Day 13 D-Day Time to Bungy!

We get up early since we were leaving Queenstown to head to Dunedin everyone had to have everything packed.  We get on the bus.  There will be 2 stops before My Bungy Jump.  The first is a shotover jet ride up the river.  For those not familiar a shotover jet boat is a boat powered by two powerful jets that can fly over water as shallow as 6 inches.  Not only that the boat can do crazy tricks like 360s, 180s, stop on dime, etc.  We get suited up, board the boat and off we go.
The boat shoots up the river at 30 mph it does 360s, we scream, we get wet.  It flies through the river canyon playing chicken with the canyon walls on the sides.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun but after the 10th 360, I was ready for it to be over with it.  I had a jump looming in the back of my mind.  



We then make a short second stop in Arrow town a former gold mining town with lot's of shops and an old town feel to it.  Not really my cup of tea but the stop was short so I took a few photos and we moved onto the Karawau Bungy.  
OMG here we go!  We pull up to the bridge I can see it in the distance but I refuse to look below the bridge.  I do not want to know how far down I will be jumping.  We get inside the Bungy place and line up to sign our life away and also allow them to weigh us so they can calibrate our Bungy.  Also, I forgot to mention that sometime between when we finished the shotover jetboat and arrived at the Bungy place, Brad was able to convince Little Jake that perhaps he should also Bungy jump.  Little Jake had been making excuses all week that he was coming back next November and therefore he wouldn't need to jump now.  We all thought it was an excuse and that the poor guy was just really scared. The only way Brad could convince Little Jake to jump was if he was going to jump with him.  Jake agreed and Brad and Jake signed up to do a tandem jump together. Back to them in a little bit.
Here's my pre-jump Interview:



I finish getting weighed in and head out to the bridge.  I see as I am walking towards it there is a viewing platform where people can watch others jump.  I refuse to go over there, I just need to get this over with.  My goal all along was to try and jump first that way I could get it out of the way and not be so in my head that I could not enjoy watching my other tour mates jumping.  I get on the bridge and walk halfway across it.  Is this what it feels like when you are walking to the gas chamber in San Quentin to be executed?  I can barely breath, swallow, etc.  Immediately this woman in her 20s comes out and says, "Hey you you're up next"  
They bring me to this platform underneath the bridge and wrap a towel around my legs.  They then apply straps to both my legs and chest.  She is a great coach.  I don't say much to her but her thoughts were as comforting as a mothers.  "Don't worry I'm going to walk you through every step of the way."  "You're going to love it and I'm going to hold onto you."  I stand up, the time has come.  I tip toe out to the ledge and can hear all my tourmates cheering me on.  They all know how scared shitless I am.  I briefly glance at them then the camera for a picture.  My coach says "alright I'm going to count down to 3-2-1 and then you are going to jump".  I say okay, and now I'm at the edge.  I never looked down because I knew that would psych me out.  I yell 3-2-1 FUUUCCKKK!  I jump my eyes are closed for half a second but I open them and see the rest of my jump.  I bounce back up and back down!  IT IS AMAZING!  I'M SO FREAKING HAPPY!  I loved it and at the same time it is over.  The guys in a boat below hand me a pole.  I grab onto it and am lowered into a raft.  When I lay down in the raft I look up for a second and I pump my arms in victory.  Yes I bungy jumped.  And yes I did it in New Zealand at the same place Bungy was founded and yes I did it for my tour mates.  But more importantly and selfishly I did it for me.  I've had a rough couple of years and this was something I was extremely proud of myself for doing.  I can do anything!
Don't Believe The Hype See For Yourself!

Sweet Photo Prior To My Jump

The Peanut Gallery Is Watching

I give my form about a 7, knees were a little bent!

That's better knees are straightening

Ridiculous Photo!

Whoa!

I DID IT, I FREAKING DID IT!

I run up the canyon stairs to the top I can hardly contain myself.  I must have hugged about 5 different people but to this day I couldn't tell you who they were.  Jumping is a surreal experience almost out of body in some ways.  Time seems to stop for a short minute then hit fast forward all at the same time.  I was the second person of our group to jump which meant I got to enjoy everyone else's jumps and most importantly Little Jake and Brad's Tandem jump.  
I'm now at the observation deck and I am watching Little Jake and Brad get their last minute instructions. Little Jake is extremely nervous for Brad it is old hat, the man jumps off everything.  Little Jake and Brad are strapped together.  3-2-1 they jump and the split second after they jump and Little Jake is holding onto Brad for dear life.  It was the funniest and cutest jump I have ever seen.  Brad was such the big brother.  And Little Jake felt amazing.  He must have taken a 1000 photos after his jump and insisted on more.  

Little Jake Celebrates!

Thumbs up from the bridge we jumped!

VICTORY!

The Roommates Conquered Karawau!

We all came saw and conquered Karawau Bridge and now it was time to say goodbye.  A few of our tourmates were leaving us.  This included my partner in crime Brad, the country girls from Adelaide (Sidney, Keziah) and a few others.  Their tour ended in Queenstown.  We all say our goodbyes and yeah I was definitely sad I was going to miss these people I shared 2 weeks with.  Our group was starting a slow breakup process.
Little Jake was upset he was losing a big brother and first crush at the same time.  He kept walking around saying "so sad, so sad"  But the man did step up to the plate with his first crush Sidney.  On the bus ride over to the Bungy jump he got the courage and sat next to Sidney.  I did eavesdrop on their conversation and I think I heard the same questions that were asked of me "You must come to my city, We must Facebook, Will you Bungy?"  But he did ask a few more questions about her family and where she came from.  Brad and I taught Jake an important lesson in that if you like a girl you must remember her name.  Earlier in the week Jake could not name a single girl on our tour.  We told him that's a no no, women like to hear their names, and the fact that you remember them shows to them they are important to you.  By the end of the trip Jake was reciting just about every girls name.  I hope he will take that one with him.
Brad and I say goodbye give each other the usual manly handshake, and chest bump hug.  Mate will see you in Melbourne!  Our bus leaves we head for Dunedin but I will miss Brad, Keziah, and Sidney and the rest!  

Day 12 Queenstown Rafting and No Bungy

We get up early and hungover.  The bus picks us up for rafting at 7:30am.  Brad staying out late the night before and up to crazy shenanigans cannot be waken.  I yell Brad get up the bus is leaving!  I push Brad, I shake Brad, I hit Brad.  Nothing works!  I head for the bus.  As soon as I get on the bus everyone yells, "Where's Brad?"  I respond the guy is not making it I tried everything!  Caitlin volunteers to go try and wake him up.  I wish her goodluck.  5 minutes later Brad appears half awake, half sleeping.
The bus takes us to the rafting base where we get suited up, wetsuit, boots, lifejacket, helmet, etc.  We then board another bus that will take us to the drop point for rafting.  By the way it is raining and freezing we're all chivering our butts off.  Our bus driver known as "Chief" is this dark, samoan looking man with long hair.  I think Chief maybe Maori but I don't ask.  He gives a little briefing tells us the most dangerous part of today will be the drive to where we start rafting.  I laugh it off like whatever!
20 minutes into the drive and I swear we were filming an episode of "World's Deadliest Roads"!  Chief is flying down a single, unpaved, curvy, mountain road at about 40mph where the road is so narrow the wheels barely fit on it.   He's yelling, he's singing, he's looking back at me through his rearview mirror.  What he is doing is scaring the shit of me and everyone else on our bus.  I look off to the side of the road and see no road but a mirror thread of water about 3000 feet below.  I start praying!  We make it, prayers answered.  As I get off Chief smiles at me and asks "What did you think USA"?  I said Chief thanks, you brought me closer to God.  He laughs "I should be a preacher not a driver!"
We get paired up with our rafting guide and in our boat is Brad and Little Jake (my roommates), Bill and Krista (Wisconsin couple), and Sidney (Aussie country girl from Adelaide).  Brad and Bill are upfront.  Myself and Krista second row, Little Jake and Sidney last row.  Bill yells "No funny business!"  I said hey I'm just here to protect your wife.  Little Jake can hardly sit still in the raft he is flying around learning how to hold an oar.  "No camera, no photos!"  Yes Jake they dont want your camera to be ruined as you will get wet.  "We must facebook"  Yes Jake when we get back.  
The trek down the river lasts about 2.5 hours as we navigate through a series of class 3 and 4 rapids.  My adrenaline wasn't really pumping on this one.  I enjoyed the trip but admittedly I have rafted harder stuff before.  The hardest being in the Tully River in Australia 8 years ago and the next hardest being Cache Creek north of the Bay Area.  There were times during our river trek where we had to get down and hold onto our partner but it never felt really crazy.  I agree with Chief the drive was way more dangerous.
We finish our rafting and I know that the Nevis Bungy awaits me.  A 140 meter drop the tallest Bungy in the Southern Hemisphere.  Perhaps that was why I wasn't enjoying the rafting as much.  Perhaps it was the constant rain and crappy weather.  Whatever it was I managed to talk myself out of the Nevis Bungy.  1. I didn't want to jump off something while it was raining, weather matters to me.  2. I've never bungy jumped before so maybe i should start with something shorter in height.  3. Everyone else was bailing Brad included as the guy could barely keep his eyes open during our rafting trek. 4. It would be Nostalgic to jump off the original Karawau bridge where bungy first started with AJ Hacket. 5.  More people from our tour would be doing the bridge so I would feel more comraderie and pressure to complete the jump at the same time.  6. I'm sort of on a budget and Karawau is $180 vs $240 for Nevis.  Done deal I cancel Nevis and schedule myself for the Karawau bridge the following morning along with the rest of my tour mates.      
That night we have an early dinner and realize that Little Jake's heavy partying has finally caught up to him.  The guy had been back at the hotel sleeping it off and totally missed out.  So I got with Bridget and we decided we were going to launch a new "Operation Wake Up Jake".  So we all got off the bus congregated outside our room and then 3-2-1 we rushed him.  The video speaks for itself priceless!  



Brad and I stay up late with Little Jake that night talking about everything.  It was then that Little Jake revealed he had a crush on his rafting buddy Sidney.  We were shocked what?!?  He said "When raft guide say get down, I got down, hold Sidney's hand, very soft, I like"!  Is that not the cutest thing ever Little Jake now has his first official trip crush where do we go from here?  Oh yeah Bungy manana! 

Day 11 Canyon Swing Oh Crap!

I wake up bright an early 6:45am to catch the bus to go sky diving.  Im nervous but less so for skydiving vs bungy jumping.  I look at the sky and it's patchy, I wonder if we will be able to go?  I get to the lobby and our tour manager is on the phone with the Nzone skydiving.  "Sorry guys it's canceled!"  Damn it!  My plan has failed.


My intention all along was to do the thing I'm least afraid of first so I can see if I like it and then do the other things.  For some reason jumping out of a plane is less scary then jumping off a Canyon or a Bridge.  There will be no skydiving today and the next days activity is Canyon Swing at 5:20pm.  Great, I have 11 hours to be scared shitless.  I head back to bed but can't sleep.


It's 11am Little Jake is getting restless having just finished his morning routine.  What would that routine be? Why clipping his nails.  I hear click, click, click through my headphones and I look over and see Little Jake at the edge of the bed clipping away.  I think to myself I hope he is disposing his nail fragments in the garbage.  I try to go back to sleep thinking he'll be done in 5 minutes.  45 minutes latter and this man is still clipping!!  Jesus Jake, do you do formal manis and pedis?  I give up and awake.


Jake sees me and his morning questions begin.  Little Jake likes to begin every morning with the exact same three questions of which I politely answer everytime but question whether he understands my answers as I know I will hear the same three tomorrow.  The three questions are, "You must come to my city Shanghai"  "You bungy?" "Can we do facebook"  Yes, yes, and yes Jake and now I need to get ready.


As I'm sitting at the edge of my bed putting on my shoes I look down at the floor.  OMG, there is a graveyard of about a 100 little nail fragments!  Little Jake forgot to use the waste basket.  Jake is in the shower I tell Brad.  He says, "Mate we got to do something that's disgusting!"  I didnt have the heart to say anything to Jake he was so excited to start the day.  I prayed housekeeping would vaccum our floors.


We grab the shuttle into Queenstown to grab lunch at the famous "Ferg Burger".  What is Ferg Burger it is the best hamburger in New Zealand as claimed by our driver Pumba and many of his countrymen.  Ferg Burger had been hyped for many days prior so I have high expectations.  Walking to Ferg Burger Brad stops in a store and Little Jake follows him in.  Brad tries to explain to Jake he will meet us at Ferg Burger.  Poor Brad I think he just needed a little break.


Jake, I, and couple other people arrive at Ferg Burger and the line is out the door.  Their menu consists of about 12 different burgers.  One burger called the Big Al consists of 2 half pound patties, 2 eggs, and bacon.  Can you say heart attack?  I opt for the Tropical swine, 1 patty, pineapple, beetroot, and bacon.  Two things stand out, 1 in New Zealand and also Australia they put beetroot in almost every sandwich and burger, 2 their bacon is different it is more of the canadian bacon variety.  The burger is served on a huge fresh baked bun.  I take a bite, it's good.  Is it the best burger I ever had?  Probably not, but it's the best burger I have had on the trip.  

Their Famous Menu

"Do you mind if I have a sip of your tasty beverage to wash this burger down" - Name that Movie?

Little Jake Tackles The Big AL!

I finish lunch at 1:00pm, damn it another 4 hrs and 20 minutes to go of terror.  I head off on my own to kill sometime.  I meet up with Brad to watch him bungy jump off "The Ledge".  The Ledge is a bungy that's off the cliff from the top of the skyline gondola.  The man is crazy but his love of adrenaline certainly has pressured me to do crazy things.  Thanks mate!  Brad does two jumps, the first a summersault, the second a hand stand.  He loves both of them.  Sorry Brad I will not be joining you today I have Canyon Swing in 2 hrs and I already have soiled myself (Just Kidding!)

This is what Brad jumped off of, man is crazy!

We head to Canyon Swing to catch the shuttle that will take me to my jump or shall I say swing of death.  Immediately our driver begins his routine of scaring the crap out of us.  He says, "You're my first group!"  "We have not had any accidents, YET this week"  "I'm still learning how to harnass people".  Thanks bro, do you just want me to breakdown right here in the van?  He puts on a video of all the crazy jumps/swings people have done.  You can go frontwards, backwards, sitting in a chair, flipping, upside down.  You name it they will let you do it.  I opt for the sitdown self pull which means I will be sitting down then I will pull a red cord that will release myself into a terrifying 60 meter free fall followed by a 200 meter arc swing.  Canyon Swing is the tallest canyon swing jump in the world YAY!  

The van arrives and we walk down to the Canyon Swing along this steep ravine.  As we are walking down Bill and Krista are walking up from Wisconsin.  They have big smiles on their face.  They say, "Ahh, you're going to love it!"  I say nothing.  

I'm quiet Im not saying much my mind is going a mile a minute.  What the F am I doing here?  Am I crazy?  Let's get this over with.  What if my harnass breaks?  I'm sorry Little Jake for getting you drunk the other night.  Graham and Quinn get ready for your inheritance.

Brad and the other 2 Aussie tour mates go before me.  They all say you're going to love it.  Now it's my turn, shit!  The guys strap me up and they can see I'm extremely nervous so they opt to be nice to me.  Thanks Canyon Swing people.  BTW, the Canyon Swing people are notorious for screwing with people.  They will push you off before you're ready.  Tell you the harnass is broke right before they release you.  Count down from 5 and pull it early at 4.  Since I'm self pulling they really cannot mess with me much and when they see my face they immediately play the parenting role.  "It will be alright, we've never had accident before, you're going to love it".  Where the hell did you people come from, this is certainly not what I've seen in your videos?

I'm strapped in and they dangle me out over a 100M cliff.  The guy tells me to pull the red cord when I'm ready.  What I didn't hear him tell me was to hold onto the red cord.  3-2-1 pull, Oh fuck!!!  My stomach immediatly goes to my throat as my eyes are closed during the free fall.  I open them and now I'm in full swing mode.  WOW!  I made it YES YES YES!  The red cord I was supposed to hold onto is now somewhere in the river below.  Oh well!  

Below are the videos enjoy.  WARNING many f-bombs are at play in this video so if you have children mute it and if you cannot appreciate what pure terror looks like, don't watch:

Official video, kids cover your ears!

Brad's version filming from the lookout point:

A little post Canyon Swing interview.  I look like a dear caught in headlights:

Yes I did and it was incredible and yes I would do it again, but now I'm going to relax on a nice bean bag.  1 terror over and 1 more to go in a couple of days with Bungy.

We head back to the hotel and I get ready for dinner and head out for Sushi with Therese, Laura, and Kat.  Except the place we went to didn't have sushi but rather they had teppenaki.  We quickly finish because we have to meet the rest of the group at Minus 5.  A bar in Queenstown completely made out of ice even your cocktails are served in ice glasses.

We meet up with the rest of our tour mates and they outfit us in full on parkas to keep us warm from the freezing temperatures of the bar.  We walk in and music is blarring and the cocktails start flowing.  Little Jake is so excited he can hardly contain himself.  His camera is going off left and right and little Jake starts drinking with the rest of us.  Many drinks later and it's time to move to the next bar.  

We head across the way and the dancing continues.  I failed to mention that when we started this tour Bridget our tour manager declared a theme song for our tour.  Our theme song is "Wild Ones" by Flo rider and Sia.  Everytime this song comes on our group goes bonkers.  Needless to say it comes on but this time we are all plastered.  That's when Little Jake graduated from timid chinese student to stud muffin dancing machine.

The song starts and Jake jumps into the middle of thr group.  The girls start yelling and Little Jake breaks out into his own free style dance of chops, kicks, and spins.  Everyone is going nuts.  Where did this guy come from?  At one point Jake gets on top of some benches on the dance floor and leaps off into a Karate kick.  Unfortunately his kick is deadly accurate as it is a direct hit on one of the girl's cocktails she is holding in her hand.  The cocktail goes flying 10 feet and Brad and I are on the floor dying of laughter.  Jake doesn't miss a beat and keeps on dancing.  Except now Little Jake will only dance in the middle of the circle and stays there the rest of the night.  Pure entertainment!

We get back to the hotel and Brad and I stay up talking with Jake all night.  One of the best conversations ever.  Will fill you in sometime.    

Day 10 Queenstown The Adventure Begins

At last we have arrived in Queenstown this giant lake surrounded by high snow capped peaks known as The Remarkables.   Quite honestly I loved Queenstown from the moment I arrived.  It's like Lake Tahoe but on Steroids with just about any adventure activity known to man available at your fingertips.  Rafting, Sky Diving, Bungy Jumping, Canyon Swinging, Zip Lines, Luge, Horseback riding, parasailing, paragliding, quad bikes, jetboat rides, etc.  They have it all and the saying in Queenstown is "Go Big or Go Home."

Now I must admit I had been dreading Queenstown from the start of the trip because I knew what it meant.  I was going there to Sky Dive, Bungy Jump, and Canyon Swing.  I was there to conquer fear plain and simple.  Two months earlier I had seen video on youtube of some bungy jumps in Queenstown and just the sight of them made me sick to my stomach.  Time to buck up we're in Queenstown!
We get to our hotel which is right on the Lake and Brad, Little Jake, and myself luck out with a room on the second floor with a view.  We do our normal routine unpack while Lil Jake not able to sit still watches our every move.  At one point Lil Jake is right over Brad's pack and Brad snaps "Jake I need a little room here to unpack!"  Jakes response, "Oh sorry, you bungy?"
We then head to a buffet dinner at the top of the mountain overlooking the Lake.  We take what I think are the steepest gondolas in the world to get to the top of the mountain.  The views are ridiculous and the food is even better.  They had everything, soup, salad, pasta, steak, chicken, fish, etc.  I gained 5 lbs. that evening and we then headed to the buffalo club for 2 for 1 drinks.

Our Cable Ride to the Top Overlooking Queenstown:

Views from Our Restaurant:

I make it a mellow night for the most part as I know Sky Diving and Canyon Swinging awaits tomorrow.  The dread begins!