Queenstown Hightlights (views + wines + bungy + hang gliding = 2 days of fun)

I am in love with this charming, lakeside resort town. Right off the plane I was greeted with the majestic view of the Coronet mountains with its snow cap peaks. Picked up my car, its a cute Hyundai red Accent (NZ drives on the leftside) and drove into town enjoying the scenary. Yesterday, I took a lazy stroll through town. Imagine it like the perfect New England (Vermont) town by the lakeside during autumn with the leaves changing and the crisp air, tons of shops, restaurants, and cafes to sit and chill out over a nice conversation. Another great thing, there were many lone travelers like myself...thank goodness. I spent a few hours walking through all the nooks and crannies taking pictures....the lighting here just gets better and better with every passing hour (I will upload pictures soon, they are fantastic). I ended my day with a nice turkish dinner with a fellow american from Colorado (Katye) who I met at the "Turkish cuisine" eatery. We polished off the night at the "Old man's cafe" with some coffee and desserts by the fireplace.

steamboat returning to Queenstown

by lake Wakatipu catching the moon rising


Today is my second day in Queenstown, just finished the Queenstown Hightlights tour. A half day tour of the Kawari bridge where the bungy jumping first started (yes, I did it), wine tasting at the Gibbson winery, checked out one of the location where Lord of the Rings was shot at, stopped at Arrowtown (a historic town which boom during the NZ gold rush in the 1800's) also walked through the Arrowtown Chinese Settlement camp. Still plenty more for me to do, now I am off to do hang gliding...will report back.

That's me at one of the cabins at the Arrowtown Chinese settlement camp (its tiny inside).

Getting strapped in to the bungy cords, I just asked the guy if he's been certified "he laughs ...what does that mean?!...then assures me he's been doing this for 10 years."


Back from hang gliding. I thought bungy jumping was amazing well, hang gliding rocked! Its nothing like I've ever done. My pilot (Fernando from Argentina) has been in Queenstown hang gliding for the last 9 months...my life is this man's hand! Our launch pad is approx. 680m (~2000ft) up Mt. Remarkable. After we got strapped into the hardness, practiced some runs within minutes we were off flying like a bird. We took off around 4:30pm, nearing sunset. Its an incredible feeling up there, better then any amusement ride I've experienced. The view was just unbelievable, all my senses were in overdrive. I was feeling all sorts of emotions as the adrenaline rushed throughout my body and I'm thinking "I can't believe I'm flying up here". There was a camera and video strapped to the hang glider once I figure out how to upload the video you can see my flight action!

The take off was running down hill (he didn't tell me that!), a minute later we were flying high