wild and wonky

The only way I can describe this past weekend is by using the phrase: wild and wonky. Hello all, and welcome back. I'm being serious, my weekend was quite wild and wonky. The majority of our story takes place in Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Remember I told you about the knights and steads and such? And how that weekend was spent in Queenstown? Yeah, well I forgot to mention the fact that it is literally the adventure capital of the world. But anyway, lets begin.

Thursday morning, I woke up at approximately 4:50 am to go skiing with Trevor and Greg. I woke up, got my stuff together, they picked me up at 5:35 and we were on the road out of town by 5:50. Nice and early start to the day. Along the road, we got to see a pretty schweet sunrise. Trevor was driving at the time so I just gazed at the colours as I slowly began to fall back to sleep. When I woke up from my little nap, I was in a much different location. Waking up, I found we were pulled over at the side of the road engulfed in some seriously thick and awesome fog. It wasn't sketchy fog, like at night when you can't see anything, but it was still super thick and you couldn't see very far ahead of you. I took over driving at this point so Trevor could sleep, and it was heaps of fun driving through the bright fog and then eventually out into the morning sunshine. The drive to Queenstown and Wanaka is so pretty and I love every opportunity we get to drive there. Then again, everywhere you drive in this country is pretty fantastic. Anywho, a couple hours later, we made it to Queenstown and scooted down the road a little further to The Remarkables. The Remarkables is the name of the ski field we went to, and the access road was basically up the side of a ginormous cliff. The mountain/cliff thing is really impressive, and its crazy how they weave a road up and around it to get you up to the very top bowl type location where the skiing is had.

So after driving up the super cool road, we made it to the base of the ski field and started getting our shat together. I had to rent some skis and they hooked me up with some awesome, brand new skis. Dope sauce. The three of us then headed out to the lift to start getting some laps in. By the way, the day was shaping out to be absolutely gorgeous. I started out with a long sleeve t-shirt, a short sleeve t-shirt and a light sweatshirt on. Later in the morning I would ditch the sweatshirt because it was just so warm and sunny out there. Righto. We started doing some runs through this little park and had a grand old time just getting warmed up on a couple of the small jumps and various other features. I don't typically ride park so it was fun to get out there and just basically do warm park runs for the day. Its no fun to do jumps and such in the freezing cold cause the landings are quite unforgiving on those days.

After a handful of runs through the small park, we headed up another lift to get to the bigger park to have a little more fun and enjoyment. The jump line in the upper park proved to be a lot of fun. The jumps were really smooth and heaps of fun to just launch off in a big group of us. The last 2 runs of the day were especially fun because at that point, we had a group of 5 heading down the park all at once and hitting the jumps in quick succession. Good times were definitely had on that lovely day of spring skiing. Trevor, Greg and I then loaded up our vehicle once more and started the drive home. Greg drove the first half and I took over to finish up the journey and arrive in Dunedin.

The next day proved to be another somewhat warm day. It wasn't as sunny as the previous day, but still a lovely day. A bunch of us went down the the Botanical Gardens to play some football and throw a frisbee around. We also ended up wandering through the gardens for a little bit before dinner time rolled around and it started to rain a little bit. Overall, Friday wasn't too wild and wonky, but it was a very nice and relaxing day for sure.

Saturday morning a bunch of peeps woke up somewhat early to take a trip down the farmer's market at the train station. On the way I made a pit stop at the library to print out a couple of vouchers. One was for a car rental that we were gonna be picking up that morning, and one for something a little extra schweet, which I will be getting to later on. Right. The farmer's market was once again enjoyable to walk around and check everything out. I only got a roll thing from one of the bakery stands, but it was a scrumptious roll indeed. A few of us then headed to a car rental place to get ourselves a car for the weekend journey ahead. We got hooked up with a pretty nice Toyota and went back to Queen Street to get all our stuff ready to go. Brittany, Michelle, Megan and I all put our stuff in the car and went to pick up Trevor, Greg, Louise and J-Bo. The guys got in our stinky car as the girls settled into their really nice rental, and we hit the road to begin the trip back to Queenstown.

The drive proved to be somewhat uneventful, but beautiful as always. At one point we saw a little bit of freaky cow action, which was hysterical to see. Eventually we made it back to Queenstown and found a parking spot for the evening so we could go and seek out a hostel. We weren't about to set up a tent in the middle of a rugby field and then get invited by a bunch of kind folks to crash on their floor for the night. We found a pretty cool hostel, posted up our stuff for the evening and went across the street to get some dinner at Ferg Burger, this famous burger place in Queenstown. These burgers were seriously massive. Almost too big. They were really tasty and delicious, but unnecessarily large. We were all beyond satisfied for the time being and needed to take a little walk along the lake to settle our stomachs a bit before going out that night. It ended up being a fun night for all, and we didn't have to set up a tent in the cold in the middle of the night, so that was quite nice.

Sunday morning! Where the real fun begins. Alright, so the whole purpose of going to Queenstown was really to do a little bit of jumping. Bungee jumping that is. Hells yeah. We woke up to some rain, which was kinda wack but kinda cool at the same time. Jumping in the rain could potentially be a lot of fun. Racing the rain drops down and such. Anyways, Megan, Brittany, Michelle and I roll bounced on over the the bungee building to check in for our excursion. We signed in, got some schtuff written on our hands and waited for the time to depart on the shuttle to the ump site. I can't tell you how pumped and excited I was to get going. I had been waiting to bungee jump or sky dive for so long, so it Sunday was a glorious day for me.

We eventually loaded up onto the bus with some other fellow jumpers. Team Malaysia. They were kinda silly and super nervous it appeared. Know who else was real nervous? Brittany. I have never seen a person turn the different shades that she did on that fine day.

Onwards I say. After about a 45 minute drive, we got to the jump and swing location. I say swing because in the same valley, they have the worlds largest bungee style swing thing. Pretty cool, but we were headed for the Nevis, a 134 meter bungee jump. Translation: approximately 440 feet. Cool beans! We all got our harnesses on our heads and headed out to a little look out point where we could see the suspended contraption we would be jumping out of. Just before that, we got weighed and situated in a jumping order. I was destined to go second! I wanted desperately to go first, but one of Team Malaysia's members was a kilogram heavier than me, bastard. Unimportant though, because we were about to launch ourselves off a platform thingy.

The three girls and I then got onto the little shuttle that goes out to the jumping location with one of the workers. He then says to us: "know what my favorite part of this shuttle is? The floor." We looked down and the floor was just a grate so you could see out the bottom. Really schweet if you ask me, but you can bet there were some shrills that came from our companions. I spit over the edge to see how long it took to reach the bottom. It was quite some time before that little white dot struck the ground. Like, a really, really long time. Awesomeness was about to ensue.

We arrived at the jump gondola thing and got situated with ankle straps to attach us to the cord. I then walked over to the seat to get strapped in and ready to go. I can't begin to explain how pumped I was to do this. In fact, its hard to even begin trying to write about what was about to happen. I'll do my best. One of the worker dudes got me all situated and asked if I was ready to go. What kind of question was that? Of course man. We shuffled over to the edge of the suspended building and looked over the edge as he dropped a bit of slack over the edge. As Trevor would say, oh yeah buddy. I gave the camera a little thumbs up and a smile, and it was time to go. Jumper brotha counted down from 3 and I leapt off the edge into a big swan dive. I then started rushing towards the ground, just falling and falling for quite some time. I couldn't believe how cool of a feeling it was. Tingling all over my body as I see the ground getting closer. I eventually reached the extent of the cord and got pulled back up a bit by the recoil. At this point my head was just rushing with ecstasy. The cord did a couple more bounces and I reached up to release my feet so I could get pulled up in a seated position. On the way up, I just laid back and looked around, thinking about what I just did.

Once at the top, the guys pulled me in and unhooked me from the bungee contraption. I reconvened with Megan and Brittany as we watched Michelle get situated with the cord and led to the edge. She had this big, goofy, nervous grin on her face as she looked over at us to take a picture. The dude then counted down and she was off the ledge. Once she got back to the top, she was all smiles and laughing and such. One compadre down that had a great time. Next up, Megan.

Megan had a similar nervous grin on her face after she got set up with the bungee cord and such. She got shimmied over to the edge, gave us a final look and took a dive. On the way down, we all heard her screams load and clear through the valley. Even when she was at the very bottom, everyone could clearly hear her. She got pulled up and, like Michelle, had a big grin on her face and was laughing. Brittany's turn.

Now Brittany had a look of sheer terror on her face when she got strapped up and such. We really didn't know if she was going to jump. The dude tried walking her to the edge, but she kinda snapped at him, telling him to wait just a minute. She did however make the shimmy over to the edge and gave us this absolutely terrified look. Oh dear Brittany. She leapt off the edge and took the plunge. When she got pulled back up, she still had a look of terror on her face, but it was terror mixed with happiness. We were all very proud of her for making the jump, considering she told us she almost didn't go through with it. Good on you, Brittany.

Now, my first thought as I got to the top was: I need to do that again. Seriously, I really wanted to go another time. As one of the dudes was taking my ankle straps off, I said I'd really like to go a second time. He told his buddies, radioed inside to find out the cost, told me, and it was game on. I asked if he had any suggestions for a different kind of jump this time. He told us about this one called the bullet. This particular jump involved slowly letting yourself fall/roll over the edge and then pushing off the ledge, to give yourself a little more speed. And, while doing so, you hold onto the back of your leg straps so you are in more of a bullet shape. Sweet deal. I got all situated once again and shimmied over to the edge. The worker pointed at a bush/tree way down on the ground and said aim for that. Alright, lets give it a shot. 3. 2. 1. Time to go again. I leaned forward and let gravity start to take over, then pushed off the platform aiming for the third tree. On the way down, I was going noticeably faster than my first jump. Seriously. Pushing off and keeping in a straight, bullet shape, you go a hell of a lot faster. I got to the very end of the bungee-ness and started the recoiling once again. Holy moses was that a fast ride. I couldn't help but let out a yell of excitement as I went down. After 2 bounces I released my feet once again and just kinda chilled while waiting to get pulled up. Again, I just lounged and observed my surroundings. When I got to the top, it was just about Michelle and Megan's turns for round 2.

Both girls did the bullet as well. Again, Michelle had a big nervous grin on her face and Megan's screams could be heard by everyone in the Southern Hemisphere. They both were so glad they chose to do it again as well, and we all gathered round to take a group picture before departing the jump zone. The four of us rode the shuttle thing back to land, leaving all the jump workers behind. On the ride back, the wind started picking up and clouds started rolling in once again. We got so lucky having such nice weather for when we did our jumps. The bungee gods must have been smiling upon us. Back in the building, we all got our pictures and videos, and hopped back onto the bus into town. We were still all amped up on what we had just done, and the ride back to town went very quickly.

Once in town, we got some Mexican food for lunch, Michelle and I tried some of this salsa stuff they had that was so hot it was quite unpleasant. Anywho, we had a good lunch, returned to the car, got Michelle's stuff (she was catching a bus to Milford Sound the next morn), bid goodbye to Michelle got in the car to head on home. Brittany passed out for most of the ride and Megan for about half as I drove us back home to Dunedin, ending an awesome that was quite wild and wonky.

Sorry for taking so long to post about this, but I really should have another one up for you within a matter of days! Also, the internet is, once again, being a little stink right now, so pictures will follow soon. Peace homies.