Skiing and a Little Thing Called Bungy Jumping

I am kind of worried that I have may just have lived the best weekend of my life.  It does not feel real at all so I am living the dream?! I have been wanting to go skiing and bungy jumping here ever since I booked my flight back in April or something.  No plans arose to do it until last Wednesday when a total of 4 of us spontaneously decided to go away for the weekend to do both!  I was the solo girl, and got a view into the man's world for a couple of days.  Yes, they do piss whenever and wherever they please in case you wanted verification. :)

We left early on Saturday morning, and drove about 4 hours to Cardrona ski resort near Wanaka and Queenstown, in the heart of the Southern Alps.  The only skiing I have done prior is skiing down a golf course hill and getting pulled behind a snowmobile.  I had to rely on the fact that I can balance, and that my siblings are all able to stay alive while shredding the slopes.  Overall experience was grade A, perfect 10, five star, etc. Aka EPICCCCCCCC!  I crashed about 4 times and had really sore shins from the ski boots, but otherwise I loved everything about the experience...talking to people on the lifts, stopping at the end of the run, laughing/smiling at the beauty of everything, warming up in the lodge, and feeling the rush of not knowing if you will fall or not.  Ah, epic.  The guys offered me good advice too, couldn't ask for better slope mates!

The slopes

My rental skiis

Nice

Highly recommend

After skiing from 9:30-3:30, we headed down the mountain to Queenstown to find a place to pitch our tent.  The scenery of the whole trip was so beautiful, especially the drive to Q-town.  Queenstown is a very touristy town, and is very upscale.  Veryyyy gorgeous location though!  We ended up checking out a backpackers lodge called Bumbles that had a backyard for tents.  At first, we could not find the backyard and ended up setting up the tent wayyy far away, in a completely different campground.  We ended up carrying the tent down the road, with the joke that we were a 'wide load'...so funny!  Then we checked out the town, ate at the famous Fergberger (best burger I have ever had), and attempted to find a grocery store but failed.  We chilled at the campsite for awhile and discussed life while stargazing only to go back into town to watch Ireland defeat Australia in rugby (such an unreal upset!!!!).  They had this really cool outdoor setup for the game, with a huge flat screen and fire.  The Irish people went a little crazy!  I met some local Dunedin people who also go to Otago, and they somehow convinced me to do four backflips...but I made them spot me.  There was a professional photographer there, and he kept getting the timing wrong so I had to do it again and again.

Queenstown.

Relocating the tent. haha

Fergberger

Our campsite..not exactly rural, but sweet as view.

The peaks look kind of like a crown.

Little fish and chips never hurt anyone..cute shack by the water.

Q-town

Backflippping

The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast by the lake.  We casually strolled into town to make the bus to go bungy jumping.  At this point, I was not feeling particularily scared or nervous, and didn't get scared until we drove up the mountain and saw the bungy hanging in the middle of the valley.  We got weighed in, and harnessed up as soon as we stepped off the bus.  From there, we stepped into this shuttle (which was more like a metal cage) to bring us out to the bungy.  This is where my freaking out majorly started.  Seeing the ground a million miles down was a wake up call to me!  We entered the little 'house' and all you hear is extremely loud dubstep music playing.  It makes the experience way intense, and I jumped around to calm my nerves.  Eight people went before me, because they have different bungy cords for each weight category.  There were 2 other Americans (who just got to NZ 4 hours prior to their jump), 2 Russians, and 2 Chinese, and 4 of us.  As I was watching all the others before me go, I kept thinking I was going to get up there and change my mind.  Complete opposite thing happened.  Time went by reallllyyy slowly and I felt as if I was dreaming, and trust me, I was not on any sort of drug (just high on life, I suppose)!  They hook your harness up to a cable so if you trip, you won't go plummeting to your death without a bungy cord.  Then you sit down in a chair, and chain the bungy cord to you, and put a strap into the ankle harness that you pull once you are upside down to put you upright as they haul you back up.  After that, they tell you to walk the plank.  This is where I shuffled my feet right to the edge...and looked down.  I have never felt so calm.  My mind was completely clear for the first time in my life, and I don't even remember anyone talking.  3,2,1, BUNGY!!!!! I dove off and then after a couple of seconds, I screamed.  Then you are free falling for about 5 seconds, and your mind is just thinking "holy craaaaaaaaaaapppp!"  BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD. I would do it all over again in an instant. And again.  When I got hauled back up, I think I just laughed for about 5 minutes straight in sheer happiness.  Then we all discussed how we are forever changed people, aww bonding!!  Just grand!

The shuttle...with the 'house' in the distance!

Waiting...

On the edge.

CYA! Best best best best ever.

After that, we drove back to Dunedin where I immediately crashed.  No words can describe what a fun weekend it was. I love love love experiencing new things with new people!!!!  Crossed two things off my bucket list! Check and check. Ah, I must be dreaming yo!