"Sweet as!"

(Sweet as: a term people say instead of "cool" or "awesome")

Day 5: Queenstown

Today was scheduled extreme adventure day #1. The biggest task: bungee jumping. Despite the fact that I love to get my adrenaline pumping, bungee jumping has never been something that appealed to me. In fact, the idea of it terrifies me. Jumping off of a ledge towards rocks, trees, water, or whatever with something hooked around my body just does not sound in any way enjoyable. I woke up this morning completely sick to my stomach from nerves and it only got worse since our day didn’t start until noon. Once our group met up, we took the gondola up the mountain, which gave absolutely beautiful views of Queenstown. Of course, I could barely enjoy them because I was having panic attacks as we got higher and higher up. Then I see it. AJ Hacket’s “The Ledge” bungee. It’s literally just this little building off of the edge of the mountain and there is just this little clearing of space where you jump. I was 100% sure that if I did it, I would die.

Gondola up the Mountain and the AJ Hacket "The Ledge" Bungee

After checking in and again being sorted by weight, I had about an hour wait to sit there and ponder my soon to be death (I know, could I be any more dramatic?). I watched about half of my group jump and just before each of them went my heart literally dropped. Eventually my roommate and I were up next. As they harnessed us up I was literally shaking so much that I had to sit down. The guy doing my harness knew I had gone skydiving before and didn’t understand how I could do that and be so freaked out by bungee. 1) I didn’t have to jump out of the plane by myself 2) I didn’t have to really jump at all….the guy just kind of pushed me 3) Once I was in the plane, I had no other option 4) Jumping 12,000 ft down and 150 ft down are extremely different because those trees and rocks are approaching your face MUCH faster. Then Naomi was back up on the ledge laughing and smiling and it was my turn. There was no way I was going through with this, but then the worker starts counting down. “Three.” I shook my head no. He just laughed and said, “two.” I knew if I didn’t do it when he got to one I never would. “One.” I ran full speed ahead, jumped off super-man style, and screamed as loud as I could and before I knew it it was over. The hardest and most terrifying part is not the fall, I learned, but physically forcing yourself to do something you’ve been taught not to do your entire life. Running off of an edge is just not something your brain or body wants to do!

**Note, we could run and jump, back flip, fall, be thrown off, or do whatever we wantedwith this bungee because it is hooked around your waist, not your feet like most other ones. There is absolutely NO way I would have been able to do it if it was hooked around my ankles!!

Of course, we topped this day off with a Queenstown bar crawl to calm all of our nerves ; )

 Day 6: Queenstown

Extreme adventure day 2. If I haven’t said it already, Queenstown is absolutely crazy. It has anything and everything one person could ever want to do. It’s literally “the adventure capital of the world”….or at least that’s what we were told. Today started with a jetboat ride, and I got front row seats. At around 100 km/h, these boats go through gorges and cliffs on as little as 2 inches of water. Not only do they just go through the gorges, but they do 360 degree spins through them. There were definitely a few times where I thought my head was going to bump on the rocks because they get that close! I don’t know how on earth those drivers train for that job, but it must be pretty terrifying!! After our jet boat ride, we got suited up for our white water rafting trip, hopped in a helicopter, and heli’d up the canyon to our rafts!! And yes, there were even sheep on the very tops of some of the canyons we helicoptered over. Our pilot told us they sometimes have to helicopter rescue some of the sheep that get stuck up there! Those Kiwi’s do take their sheep very seriously! Anyways, we had a 2 hour white water rafting adventure back down the canyons! Most of the river was pretty relaxing and we could just take in the beautiful scenery, but there were 4 or 5 extreme rapids where we had to hold on for dear life! Our raft also was one of the few (maybe the only one?) that did end up tipping. I’d like to say it was in one of the rapids, but unfortunately another boat just ganged up on us and tipped us. Everyone fell under the raft except me, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do and just floated around in extreme shock from the ice cold water. Then once our raft got tipped over by our guide, one of our fellow teammates was floating way up river and couldn’t reach us! Once we got her, none of us had enough strength to climb back IN the raft! I imagine that it was quite entertaining for the other rafters to watch us all struggle, but I guess it just added to the adventure. 

Day 7: Lake Wanaka

Unfortunately left Queenstown this day. I literally could have done a ten day trip just there and would have absolutely loved it! We arrived in Lake Wanaka, another beautiful town situated on a glacier lake and surrounded by mountains, and had a free afternoon. A small group of us decided to check out Puzzling World, which is, well, a place full of puzzles and things that puzzle you. They had a room full of faces that followed you everywhere you went, a room full of optical illusions, a room slanted in every which way so that you didn’t know which way was up and which way was down, a room full of puzzles to solve, and a life size maze. One wouldn’t think that this could entertain a bunch of college aged people for very long, but we actually ended up staying so long that they had to ask us to leave because we stayed 30 minutes past closing time! 

Left: Illusion used in LOTR for hobbits Right: center of gravity illusion room

Day 8: Fox Glacier

On day 8 I hiked a glacier. Yes, a real glacier. In New Zealand. Who knew? TO start from the beginning, we left Lake Wanaka and drove to the town of Fox Glacier. About 30 minutes before arriving at our glacier destination, we took a pit stop at a beach on the ocean. Within 30 minutes, I went from beach….to glacier. N Zed really truly does have it all! Before our glacier hike, we were suited up with all the right gear. Hiking boots, boot clamps with ice teeth, and gloves, although the jackets and gloves were only needed once we got to the highest point on the glacier when it started to pour…before that I was sweating! Throughout the hike our guide would stop and point out where the glacier had been at certain points in the past, which was absolutely crazy. Especially in the last ten years the glacier has regressed so much. It was kind of scary to think that at some point in the possibly near future the part that I hiked won’t even be there at all! Besides the hiking aspect, I got to fill up my water bottle with REAL, PURE, ICE COLD glacier water (yum!) and hack away at the ice with the guide’s ice pick!! After our hike we settled in at our hostel for our last night together. To emphasize how New Zealand has it all, our hostel’s hot tub was literally surrounded by rainforest. Beach, glacier, rainforest….all within 30 minutes of eachother! Later that night a few of us walked down the road and out of the town to star gaze. Since this town was in the middle of no where and probably had a population of 10 people, we literally just layed down in the middle of the road in the middle of the rainforest and looked at the stars for like an hour. It was pretty cool to be looking at all the stars from the Southern Hemisphere, althought I did notice there was definitely a lack in shooting stars!!



There just happened to be 10 Badgers on my trip!

Day 9: Today we had a VERY long drive from Fox Glacier back to Christchurch. After the most exhilarating 8 days of my life, it will be an understatement to say that I was exhausted. I actually think I slept for 7 hours and 45 minutes of this 8ish hour drive. Once we were  back in Christchurch, I had one last dinner with my old and new friends. It was really bittersweet to be leaving this amazing country and all of these amazing people I had met, but I knew I would be left with so many unforgettable memories. It’s truly a beautiful thing how quickly you come to feel so close with someone after jumping out of a plane with them, having them cheer you on before you run off that bungee ledge, giving a helping hand to pull you back up on that raft, or even share an 8 hour bus ride with them. It’s truly a beautiful thing when one place can challenge you, inspire you, and change you in just 8 days. For now, I’ll say it was a once in a lifetime experience. But New Zealand, I sure as hell hope it wasn’t.