Queenstown Report

I’ve been putting this post off for a couple of days, as I have been distracted by a pesky 3-page research paper due this afternoon… anyways, here’s a recount of the weekend.

The weekend was a group trip organized (and mostly paid for) by the Arcadia study abroad program, and we left 10 AM Friday (requiring me to skip a Geology lecture, oh well). After a lunch break at a town’s only restaurant, we arrived in Queenstown just in time for a ride on a jetboat down the Shotover river. A jetboat is a speedboat powered by two, more powerful versions of the jetski engine. This propulsion system allows the boats to have a draft as shallow as four inches!

With such a shallow draft, the boats an incredible maneuvering ability, which the ride makes full use of. We sped through the beautiful gorges, not 30 ft. wide in spots, and the drivers would skid so that we were just a yard away from the rocks and facing towards them! (The closest parallel is power-sliding in driving games) In any case, it was buckets of fun, and we didn’t have to pay the $100 admission (well, we sorta did, whatever). Most of use knocked out pretty early that night, preparation for our long day on the Routeburn track.

Saturday began, at 8 AM… with a beautiful, hour-long drive to the trailhead. Incredibly, our medium sized bus (appx. 30 seats) made it on the narrow gravel road without difficulty. Over the next 3 and a half hours, we climbed about 500m elevation to a DOC hut that overlooked the valley. My first experience in true New Zealand wilderness – I was able to drink the water running down the mountain without catching giardia! It rained the whole day, but lightly, and the rain gave a nice mood for the temperate rainforest. Another bonus from the rain was that the rivers and waterfalls were well endowed for our drinking and viewing pleasure.

And yes, the swing bridges were fun, kindly reminding you of the 5 person limit as you swayed your away across the roaring streams. As we made our way away from civilization, we were treated to this vista from a clearing caused by a ‘94 landslide.

It was here that I decided the water was pure enough to drink from one of the many streams tumbling down from the ridge – and boy was that water tasty. If you can ever find a safe place to drink stream water, do it, theres something refreshing about drinking water in its natural state. I even brought a little water back from one of the waterfalls on the way out.

Sunday was the big day for most of our group (not me!) – the day of the bungie-jump! I played photographer for the experience, as one of the jumpers let me use his dSLR to capture the jumps. After shooting an hour with a camera the big boys use, I cannot wait for the day I can buy my own.

Surprisinly, no one had jumped at the opportunity (sorry, bad pun) to do a 440 ft. jump from a cable bridge built for such a purpose. The Kawarau bridge was a mere 141 ft. After the jumps concluded, no fatalities, we then began the drive back to Dunedin. And I was left with a deep desire to do something for an adrenaline rush; the option most appealing to me is currently paragliding, hopefully something I will do later on.

I left this weekend with a taste of what New Zealand has to offer. I did a day on one of its most beautiful tramps, which happened to be my longest hike of my life – 17 km or 10.5 miles – pretty pathetic. I hope to do the Kepler track at the end of my time here, it is 31.5 miles over three days, and if I have time, the Rees-Dart track which would be a demanding 35-44 miles over 4-5 days (depending on a side trip to Dart Glacier). So long for now! As always catch the rest of the photos on Flickr!