Day 14 - Queenstown, New Zealand

Happy New Year all!  We rang in the New Year in Queenstown last night, with a huge street party!  The weirdest thing for us is that it doesn't get dark here until 10:30PM.  Very strange to see people bar crawling during what seemed like the day.  Sun comes up around 4:30, so the days are very long here.  People were CRAZY here, yelling, screaming, dancing in the streets.  We sat at an Irish pub for most of the night, then ventured out to the street for the countdown.  It was a blast!  We didn't stay out to late because today was my big BUNGY day!!!!  Now that I've done it, I'm allowed to write about it, right?  LOL. 

We started the New Year's Day right, look at those blackberry and blueberry/lemon pancakes Jeff had for breakfast, they were the best pancakes I've ever had!!!

Now on to the bungy....IT WAS AWESOME!!!!  I won't say I wasn't scared, who wouldn't be?  I was juming off the Kawarau Bridge, which is 141 feet in the air over a steaming river!  Standing next to me was a kid who was 12 years old, bungy jumping with his dad.  He made me feel a little bit better, if a 12 year old can do it, I can do it!  The oldest person to bungy here was 94!!!!  I figured since it is the Adventure Capital of the World AND my Skydive was cancelled the day before, why the heck not?  Queenstown, AJ Hackett, is the founder of bungy and his first jump was off this very bridge, very cool.  I got a DVD and tons of photos.  Here are a few.  Bucket list CHECK and phew, I survived...LOL.

The rest of the day we walked around, had lunch outside, and sat in the Village green soaking up the sun.  It was a beautiful day today, very different than yesterday! 

We also took the Skyline Gondola up to the peak of Queenstown.  Very cool ride, you overlook the entire city and as far as Frankton Bay.  Lake Wakatipu is just beautiful, clear blue.  It's over 3 miles wide and 1310 feet deep, putting the lake floor below sea level!  It also rises and falls up to 12 cm every 5 minutes!

We just love this town, so laid back and has such a great vibe.  It has a small town feel, but has enough to keep everyone occupied.  No one wears heals or dresses to fancy, almost everyone walks around in yoga pants, running shoes, and fleeces....we love it.

We are off to Sydney tomorrow.  We have 3 days there and then back to reality.  Our to-do list for Sydney is already long (since we've already been there, we know what we missed).  It's been a great time in NZ, we are sad to leave this beautiful country.  The fact that only 4.4 million people live in this country and that over 75% of it is untouched, is remarkable.  I encourage anyone that can get out here to visit and experience the Kiwi lifestyle (that's what the locals say - it's their national bird and so cute).

Till tomorrow.

J&J