To Queenstown and Beyond!

Queenstown, NZ, the Adventure Capitol of the World. It definitely lived up to its reputation. I partook of the adventure and I am still alive to tell about it! What great news! We embarked on the two hour drive up to Queenstown early last Friday morning. We started the trip off with a bang by driving out to Kawarau Bridge, the site of the first bungee jump ever in 1988 (a good year, I must say). Bungee jumping was awesome. I wasn’t really nervous at all until I stood up, with my feet tied securely together and they made me hop out and hang my toes over a ledge that was about 120 feet from the ground. That was a little scary. But oh man, I would do it again in a heartbeat! I screamed louder than I think I ever have but, I still wasn’t the loudest screamer… The most awkward part of the whole thing was walking around with my weight scrawled in bright red marker on my hand. That’s always a great thing to broadcast to the world.

We spent the rest of Friday exploring the wonderfulness that is Queenstown. I loved that place. Yes, it has tourist town written all over it. But who really cares when you are a tourist? We went in about a million souvenir shops, found some good food and just had some fun out on the town. We stayed in a nice hotel. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but when we are talking about a group of 40 college kids traveling together, anything nicer than a tent is a miracle.
After one long night of screaming girls in my bathtub and birthday parties in the middle of the night, we spent the morning getting breakfast at a bakery in town and yet again, shopping. In the afternoon we went river boarding. For a better idea of what exactly this is, just picture boogie boarding down class 3 rapids. That is what I did. It was fun and challenging. Turns out, I am really awkward once flippers are put on my feet. The guides kept asking me why I was running into the rocks on the side of the river as they pulled me back into the center flow. I thought this was a question I should be asking them. It’s not like I was purposely trying to ram myself into rocks.

By the time we made it out of the river alive, we had enough time to grab a very large, delicious burger before heading back home and collapsing in bed. What a weekend!