Try to read the next paragraph in David Attenborough's voice for extra pleasure:
Queenstown. Adventure Capital of New Zealand and perhaps, the world. It's main export product is adrenaline. Junkies flock here from all over the world, their daily fix consisting of a bungee jump, skydive, luge ride, some other seemingly neckbreaking activity, or a combination thereof.

The weather was forecasted to be rainy during our first days in Queenstown. Why not choose an activity, then, which gets you soaking wet anyway? Riversurfing does exactly that. I don't blame you for not knowing what riversurfing exactly entails. I had never heard of it either. For riversurfing you need 4 key ingredients: (1) a deep, fast flowing river, (2) a boogie board, (3) a wetsuit to keep you warm in 10°C water, and (4) a slightly irresponsible human being. I was willing to be key ingredient #4, Caroline didn't care much for the conditions in #3 and skipped this activity. Riversurfing is the activity of floating down rapids by trying to stay on your boogie board, do some 360's or barrel rolls in the meantime, all the while kicking furiously to stay in the middle of the river, avoiding the eddy currents and rocks at the side. But, by God, is it fun. Whirlpools were excellent locations for 360's, the waves of the rapids even allowed you to get some airtime. You could also ride underwater currents if you could catch them.

Another, universal, bad weather activity: Going to the movies. Arrowtown is a 20 minute drive from Queenstown, and has a boutique cinema called Dorothy Browns. Instead of popcorn and coke, you can snack on a cheese platter and a glass of wine. The movie theater had about 12 comfortable armchairs to sit in. We very much enjoyed watching 'Captain Fantastic' in that setting. In total, we spent six nights in Queenstown, filling our days with coffee bars, walks along the lakefront, or Netflix at the hostel. Nearly all of the hostels we went to in New Zealand had Netflix, how cool is that. We both felt like we needed the downtime. The first three weeks in New Zealand had been overwhelming. Moreover, by doing all the driving ourselves, we felt like we could never really take some mental time off, like you could in a long bus ride.

Short intermezzo here: When I was 16, and on holiday in Spain with my parents, there was a bungee jump just outside a waterpark. As we were leaving, my dad proposed that I would do a bungee jump. Being 16, the only acceptable answer was yes, and some 30 minutes later I was standing on a platform suspended some 80 meters above a giant air cushion, a big elastic band dangling from my feet. As the count reached zero, I froze and didn't jump. Instead, the bungee employee gave me a slight nudge that left me no choice, and I half jumped from the platform. Now, 12 years later, the main reason for doing a canyon swing was a personal victory, that I could throw myself of a ledge without external assistance.

"Gravity is a toy" is the slogan for the Shotover Canyon Swing. Jumping from a platform 109m above the Shotover River, a 60m freefall and a 200m swing. The highest cliffjump in the world. Those are the dry numbers. But the experience is never the same, with a near endless list of ways you can make the plunge. These are conveniently rated on a 'Scary' scale, ranging from the 1/5 scary 'The Cutaway', in which you are suspended above the abyss in a sitting position and then released, to the 5/5 scary 'Pin Drop', where your hands are tied behind your back and you stand sideways on the edge of the platform before a small sideways jump sends you down. Deceptively scary. Other notable options are the 'Indian Rope Trick', where you hang on to a rope until you can hold no more, and the self-evident 'This is Sparta'. Since I was after a personal victory, I tried, and succeeded, to just run off the platform. 4/5 scary, if I remember correctly. YESSSSSS. I even managed to scream fairly manly in the meantime. Mission accomplished! I was also booked in for a second jump, for which I chose the 'Elvis Cutaway'. Personal victory achieved, the 'Elvis Cutaway' lets the staff decide when you fall.

We'd been keeping our eye on the weather on the Routeburn track for a while, but it had been rainy all the time we were in Queenstown. Just as we planned on leaving Queenstown, it was forecasted to be fairly sunny for three days on end. That was exactly what we had been waiting for. We spent our final day in Queenstown, the rainiest one of all, preparing to hike the 32km, 3 day Routeburn track, one of nine 'Great Walks' in New Zealand. Our previous experience with a Great Walk, the Tongariro Crossing, was an experience of a lifetime so we knew we were up for something good. One problem: while the start and finish are 'only' 32km away from each other by foot, they are 330km or 4,5 hours removed from each other by car. Parking your car on one end means you have to take a shuttle bus back to it. Or you can opt for a relocation service, where you park your car on one end, and have someone drive it to the other end for you. It's a logistical hassle but there are plenty of solutions.

Unfortunately for us, the Lake MacKenzie Hut was fully booked on the second night we would be staying there, so we had to carry additional camping gear such as a tent and sleeping mats. After freezing our asses off on the first night in the bunkhouse, we pleeded with the hut warden to sleep to be able to sleep inside on our second night, as we were not looking forward to a night in a tent. Apparently the hut was not really fully booked, they always have about 8 spare beds "just in case". Would have been nice to know this beforehand, as it would have spared us carrying the tent up the mountain. Great chap though, the warden, whose evening speech was filled to the brim with dry-as-a-bone English humor.

I wasn't that thrilled about the parts walking in the forest, but the views you get once you ascend above the bushline are astonishing. On day 1, a side trail up the Key Summit allowed for 360° panoramic views. The Key Summit now stands a couple 100 meters above the valley floor, but was once covered by 500 meters of ice from the massive Hollyford Glacier. You can tell because of the way it is (it's rounded and smooth, indivative of the polishing by the iceflow). Especially the second day, when we walked along the Hollyford valley with continuous views of the Darran Mountains, only to turn the corner at Harris sadle and stumble upon the magnificent Lake Harris, was well worth the whole ordeal. Cue a little bit of M83 - Outro, The War on Drugs - Red Eyes, Hans Zimmer - Time or other epic music to make it a complete experience. We exited the Routeburn Track a couple kilograms lighter than we came in, because of all the food we ate, and arrived back at our car well on time to start our adventures that will be documented in next week's blog update!

Geschreven door BigTrip