Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

Queenstown and the Home Stretch

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Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand. Birth place of bungy jumping and jet boat rides, New Zealand has a well deserved reputation as an adventure destination. Queenstown is also our last long stop in New Zealand before we start the 9000 mile journey home over the next few weeks. We thought this would be our last trip to New Zealand since it’s so far away but both Karen and I don’t want to give it up so we think we will try to come back in the future. Mostly we relaxed and just enjoyed the weather, the people, and the beautiful surroundings but I did partake in some of the adventure.

Even the power plants are pretty in NZ. It just has pretty scenery, great weather, and friendly people everywhere you go. The power plant waterfall is called Roaring Meg after famous British cannon
Taco-Medic tacos, crispy chicken, and a ginger beer
Section of Kawarau river where Roaring Meg is located

Since we had done a lot of the activities in 2016, we ate a lot of good food like Taco Medic (which we loved from 2016) and looked at the pretty stuff

I did have a chance to finally do a bungy jump at the Kawarau gorge where it all begin. The scary part was standing on the ledge with your feet tied together while they take photos. There is nothing to hang on to and you can see me reaching back a couple of times during the video. Their solution is the operator behind me has his hand holding the waistband of my shorts. It is not a comforting feeling. Once they count down and you commit to jump. it was fun. This was an appropriate end to our New Zealand trip.

Fake smile as I hobble out to the edge. That was the worst part. I was the oldest person I saw. They try to get you in the water but they have less margin with the river running low. Next time!
The harness is there just in case the ankle restraint doesn’t work. It felt safe
If you do this, splurge on the video/pictures. They will be much better than your pictures
At least I different scream or windmill my arms. It really was a lot of fun once you committed to the jump. The rocks on the left seem closer than they are and I jumped to the right just in case
A side view showing perfect aerodynamics 🙂 and the high tech retrieval system (dinghy)
After the initial plunge you come back up quite a bit which feels really cool
It’s over pretty quick but you get a nice rebound and a weightless moment at the top of the rebound. At the bottom, they extend a PVC pole which you grab and then lower you into the dinghy

Jose

AKA Alfred

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