Day 24 :: The End (with a Bungy!)

Day 24 - Bungy Jumping off the Kawarau Bridge

"Do you want to touch the water?" - was the question they asked me as they strapped me into the bungy line. My answer was "YES". (This jump-style goes out to Ryan.) I penguin-shuffled to a plank leading to a spectacular view of a gorge and the river below. It's the Kawarau Bridge, where the first bungy jump was "performed". Unlike the canyon swing yesterday, I did not hesitate. It was a countdown from 3, I lept, and in a few seconds I felt my arms reaching into the cold glacial waters below. Mission accomplished.

Today is Day 24, and consequently my last day in New Zealand. It has been a good run but time to go home now. My flight leaves in 2 hours.

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“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” - Frank Herbert, Dune

Day 23 :: Canyon Swing

Day 23 - Canyon Swing

Having seen the brochures and even featurettes on television (ala MTV) shows like "Jack Osbourne: Adrenalin Junkie", I knew that the Shotover Canyon Swing was for me. I got up real early and caught the 9:30 am trip to Shotover Canyon. I would be the second person to jump, and selected my "jump-style"... that is, how you jump off. You get your assortment of styles with different scare factors - 5 (soiled underpants) being the scariest. I chose the "Pin Drop", which is a *5* because of the mental factor. You need to make the conscious decision of hopping sideways off the ledge, with your hands clasped behind your back (so as not to dislocate your shoulder on the way down). I will admit that it was harder than it looked. I took almost 2 minutes of meditating and almost allowed the fear to get to me... but I knew I wanted to do this (especially considering it cost almost $200 to do). Check out the video.

Specifications: (Height: 109m), (Freefall: 60m), (Max Speed: 150kph), (Arc: 200m)

(Watch via Google Video.)

Day 22 :: Rainy Day in Queenstown

Day 22 - Rainy Day in Queenstown

It's raining heavy in Queenstown. No kidding. But I gladly accepted a day of sitting back and resting the dogs for a while. After a long night of sleep, I walked out to town for egg-bacon-sausage-toast breakfast at a bar called the Loaded Hog. I did a little shopping and bought a rugby jersey and a few other souvenirs.

>With plenty of ours to kill, I caught a showing of Blood Diamond at the movies, which turned out to be an amazing and very emotional story. Very well done. It features awesome performances by Djimon Hounsou, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly.

I then stumbled across a bar called >Minus5, which is constructed totally from ice and ice sculptures... including the glasses! They give you huge parkas, gloves and some booties (optional) - I felt like I was getting suited up for a cruise to Antarctica. Our bartender Kylie is a kiwi girl who loves snowboarding and as you can see from the pics is a lot of fun.

The rest of the evening will be spent eating sushi and meditating for my big jump tomorrow on the Canyon Swing.

Day 21 :: Routeburn Track

Day 21 - Routeburn Track

This morning I woke up and got the crazy notion to do the Routeburn Track. Not all 3 days of it - just the first day's worth of hiking. If you recall, this is the hike I cancelled to accomodate an overnight cruise. In the end I would meet 2 cool travelers - Alon and Tom, who would prove to be good company on the way up and down respectively on a hike that would measure 17.4 miles (28km) roundtrip and with a net elevation gain of 2300 feet. This is one of the longest hikes I've every completed in a single day (including the Inca Trail in Peru).

We would hike through beech forests carpeted in ferns and moss, cross a dozen wooden suspension bridges over crystal-blue streams, climb alpine terrain full of greenstone (jade when polished) and tussock grass, and tell good stories of life.

I picked Alon Beneliezer - another backpacker on his way to the Routeburn Track as well - about 1km just out of Glenorchy. Alon is a 24-year old Israeli who literally just finished his degree at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and decided to venture to the South Pacific for 12 months. His travels have included the last 2 months here in New Zealand, and will continue on hi Austrailia and then Thailand/Cambodia/Laos. It was a good thing that I picked him up because he was still another 22km or so from the trailhead. We practically sprinted the first 8.8km (or 5.5mi) to the Routeburn Falls hut, where we broke for a long lunch. Alon had an amazing lung capacity, as he told me stories all the while up... stories about life for 20-somethings in Israel and the story of his near-death experience trekking solo around Mount Cook. When we at last reached the Harris Saddle, we parted ways. Alon continued on another 10km (or 6.2 mi) to Lake Mackenzie where he would spend the night. He was close to persuading me to continue the trek with him and return via the Caples Track, but I remembered my reservation to do the Canyon Swing back in Queenstown on Thursday morning. His intentions were to complete nearly 40-50 mile loop in 3 days. With good conversation and our Israeli-army pace, it was hard to turn down but I decided to stick to the plan and head back to Queenstown.

On the long trail back down to the carpark, I ran into Tom Henstock - a nice gentleman from Washington State who made a 2-day rountrip adventure out of the first 18 miles of the Routeburn Track. In our conversations, I found out that he had served in the airforce, was familiar with filipino culture and had done a number of travels around the world. Unfortunately, his wife would not be able to complete the Routeburn (and later the Kepler) tracks with him (as she tore a tendon earlier), but I video-ed a message for him to play for his wife who was staying at the same hostel as I was. I left him about half-way down where he would spend the cold night at the Routeburn Falls Hut. Alas, I would continue the last knee-breaking downhill stretch alone as dusk was switfly approached.

I'm very glad I got a chance to do even just a portion of the Routeburn Track, and I have no regrets about cancelling my original plans - I may have never met Alon and Tom. As I always say, "Live without regret."

Day 19,20 :: Cruising in Milford Sound

Day 19,20 - Overnight Cruise in Milford Sound

(Even more photos waiting to be uploaded.)"Ploop!" That was the sound of my $75 polarizer filter (like sunglasses for your camera) as it plopped into Milford Sound. Somehow it managed to unsecure itself from my camera lens and jettison into the dark, deep glacial waters of Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park. Like a naval serviceman's burial at see, my polarizer had served me very well on this trip before an accident had claimed its life in this world. Perhaps one day, it will make its way out of the abyss and into some archaeoligist in the distant future. But how did my lens get all the way out here, you ask?

It all started from a 4 hour drive from Queenstown. Thought Milford sound is only maybe 50 or so kilometers from Queenstown as the crow flies, kiwis (as usual) make roads the hard way. Instead of a straight line of bridges, tunnels and other engineering marvels that would make the drive a mere 45 minutes, one must drive east then far-far-far south to Te Anau, before circling back up north to Milford Sound. This makes for a long haul (5 hours for slower drivers) to get to a place that is otherwise out in no where. But I suppose this does protect and preserve the untouched beauty that lies between Queenstown and Milford Sound.

The way to Milford Sound covers alpine terrain, then pastoral land, before heading into temperate rainforest and finally rugged glacial mountains that - when it rains - is veined with thousands of waterfalls flowing from the snowcapped peaks. These are the Cascade Ranges that guard the way to Milford Sound. Milford Sound itself is a misnomer, as a "sound" is a valley carved by a river into the sea. What is should be called is a "fjord" - one carved by glaciers. Anyhoo, it's really an amazing place that remains me of a cross between Peru and Alaska. It's full of life - fat crested penguins, New Zealand fur seals, and dolphins.

Since most of the sights can only be seen either from air or by sea, I opted for the overnight cruise. The MV Friendship was a small vessel that held the 2 crew members and 11 other passengers. We slept in cramped bunks and enjoyed a wholesome barbecue dinner, a dessert as well as breakfast in the morning. The small quarters and limit on annoying tourists made for a very intimate and nautical feel. The cruise was made perfect by a 7-hour break in the rainstorm that allowed us to really enjoy the scenery.

The next morning it rained some more (as usual) and I drove back to Queenstown. From now on, I'm taking it easy on the driving and making Queenstown homebase. My true adrenalin adventures (e.g. bungee and canyon swinging) are to begin and I have 4 days left to prep myself before I fly back.

Night 18 :: McNaught Comet

Night 18 - Comets & The Night Sky

If you haven't heard, there's a new comet in the skies -though, I heard it may be only visible from the souther hemisphere. Tonight, en route to Queenstown from Wanaka on the Crown Ridge Road, I made a 2-hour pit stop at a carpark to photograph the clear night sky with it's many stars and direct view of the McNaught comet.