Queenstown--> Hang gliding!

Day two in Queenstown was the day that I did my hang gliding! All activities that we signed up for were booked for us through our tour so we didn’t really have to do anything but pay for them. No research just options, so that was nice.

There were so many options and I knew I had to do something. I knew I would never jump off a really high bridge head first tied together by my feet and I knew I didn’t want to sky dive. I kind of wanted to do the jet boat because jet boats were invented in New Z and these boats can go so fast and do 360’s in the water in 4’’ of water and all kinds of cool stuff but I just decided that I was going to do something that I never even thought of doing before which was hang gliding.

I always saw parachuters and hang gliders jump off Mount Sentinal at the Griz games that land in the middle of the field at the beginning of the game but I never thought about doing it before so I thought I would give jumping off a side of a mountain and flying in the air a shot. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday morning I woke up and hung around my hotel for a while and waited for somebody to wake up. Nobody was waking up so I headed down to room 10 where Anas, Ben, Alex and David were sleeping and decided that I would wake them up so they could start their day. I knew they were not going to be awake because I assumed they stayed out late the night before but I was wide awake and needed company asap! So Anas was already awake and gone because his rope swing across cliffs was scheduled for 8am. But I thought it was a good idea for his roomies to wake up and hang out with me. They were not that into it so I tried to hang out with them for maybe 15 minutes but they needed more sleep so I went and checked out the town and walked back to my hotel and my other roommate Julie from England was awake so her and I went and got breakfast and hung out for a while. Then I went to do my hang gliding while Alex and David did their sky dive, Ben did the cliff rope swing and Anas went on a hike.

I got picked up from the reception office of our hotel with 3 other people from the Top Deck tour. Francis, Zaid, Mark and I all got picked up and drove to the top of the mountain.

Right when we got there our tandem professionals came up to us and strapped us into gear. I said I had to pee before I got my gear on so I went behind a big dirt hill and popped a squat then walked back to my tandem guy named Alfreado (he was from South America, not Italy) and got all my gear on. We practiced running as fast as we could a couple times connected side by side. As soon as we did that we waited in line for our turn. There were about 3 hang gliders and parachuters in front of us and we were all waiting for the wind to blow up the flag high enough so we would stay in the air for a while. As soon as the flag lifted up high enough the first pair went and then the second and then the third and then us. It all happened so fast there was no time to be scared. It was just all of a sudden because we waited for 10 minutes and then 4 pairs went at once. We glided in the air for about 10 minutes and it was such an awesome feeling! It wasn’t scary at all. I think the thought of it was scary but it was so easy and fun. We glided around for awhile and Alfreado took some pics and then he let me steer the hang glider.

I went left and right and went in a circle and then he steered again so that we could prepare for landing. We landed on the wheels of the hang glider but we were on our stomachs also but we had thick apron looking things on to cover our stomach so we didn’t really come in too much contact with the grass. Taking off and landing was really easy and fun.

The views from up there were beautiful. We were right above the second biggest lake in New Zealand and there were big mountains all around us.

We landed in a field with everybody else who went and there was a café where we could get drinks and food at the bottom but I just had some water and then I watched my video and Alfreado burned my dvd and pictures and then we hopped back on the van to go back to our hotel. It was a great feeling to be up in the air flying like that and I think I made a good choice for my activity.

Once I got back I ran into Ben so I just hung out with him until he had to leave to go to his cliff swing jump thing. Right when he was about to leave Alex and David got back from their sky dive so we all just gossiped for a little bit about our events and how much fun they all were and hung out for a while. Then I went back to my hotel and nobody was there so I walked into town and ate subway and walked around more and then went home and showered and hung out for a while. Then I went to room 10 again and we waited for Ben and Anas to get back from the swing cliff and the hike that Anas went on and then we went to a famous burger place. Its somewhere that if you are in Queenstown then you have to get (at least that’s what everybody says) I would have been happy not going there but since I was in Queenstown it was important that I went there. I got a Cod Sandwich and it was delicious! I would get it again if I went there. We ate it outside in the freezing cold darkness by the water. Then we all walked to this bar and played cards and Jenga for the rest of the night. It ended up being a really relaxing fun night. We played a bunch of card games and then only a few games of Jenga. Then I left the bar around 10:20 and all of the boys stayed and played longer but I was too tired. So then I just went back to my hotel and went to bed.

This morning I got up and showered and got ready and packed my suitcase and my overnight bag for the boat and then went and had brekky and loaded up the bus. We all had to pack an overnight bag because tonight we will all be staying on a boat and there is not enough room for our big suitcases. Right now I am on the bus catching up on my blogs in word and I will post pictures and post them onto my blog when I get home. I am just writing them now so I don’t forget anything : ). We stopped for a lunch break for about 45 minutes and now we are headed to Milford Sounds where we will get on our boat for the night. It should be really fun. We will get free kayaks that we can take on the ocean and there is a bunch of other free activities that we can do tonight and tomorrow. We will get on our boat around 4:15 and be back on the bus tomorrow morning around 10am. We will be doing an evening cruise and enjoying our time together on the boat in a World Heritage place. I will give ya more details later but for now, I am all caught up : )!