Day #16 (Queenstown Continued)

Queenstown continued

Again we were up at a "sparrow's fart". 
We had to be up at 6 for our 7am shuttle to the sky diving center.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was poisoned last night. When I got up this morning, my body was ready for the ultimate purge. Not that anyone really cares, but I went to the bathroom four times before 9am.

We were picked up at the hotel and shuttled into town to pay and organize our jumps. 
The location for the jumps was about a 15 minute drive from town and we were shuttled there too.
Becky and I were really excited. I was a little queasy. It was from being poisoned rather than from nerves. I was feeling surprisingly calm for the outrageously crazy feat I was about to do.
Once we arrived at the jump site, we geared up and met our jumping masters. My partner was Kelsey. He was super great. (Please note: this was a completely business relationship. He didn't want to die and neither did I). So, Kelsey strapped himself to me (minds out of the gutter please), and we were set.
Becky's jump master was a guy named Jeff who was Canadian and grew up around the corner from Becky's current home. Crazy! She thought he was awesome.

Once everyone was geared up, we boarded a tiny plane and climbed to 12,000ft above Queenstown. It was spectacular. There were light fluffy clouds and beautiful mountains.
Before I could even get nervous, Kelsey and I jumped out of the plane! We fell at speeds upwards of 200km/h and drifted through icy clouds. The clouds were awesome. I had a bit of brain freeze from them because they are pretty frosty. I've always wanted to touch a real cloud and today I soared through them. (Side note: Yes. There are Care Bears up there).
Kelsey deployed the parachute and we glided down. The scenery was amazing and we saw a rainbow!
Once we made a perfect landing (that's right!), I gave Kelsey a big hug and met Becky. She LOVED it!!!!!!!
I don't think I have ever seen Becky so excited and happy. Her smile was ear to ear and she was glowing.

We got our certificates of 'being awesome and jumping out of a plane' and rode back into town. The shuttle dropped us off right in the middle of town so we shopped and had some brunch. 
After brunch it was nap time so we climbed up the giant hill to our hotel and had a sleep. I got up and called my parents and Alex. I was so excited to speak to them.
I met Becky back at the room and we walked down the hill and back into town. Our next activity, Bungee Jumping!

At about 2pm, we arrived at the gondola and had a nice relaxing ride up to the spot we were at yesterday for dinner.
The jump we were scheduled to do was called 'The Ledge'. Basically, it is a 47m free fall jump off a 400m cliff. It was also the only jump (aside from the swing, where we are harnessed in rather than having our feel stuck together). I really wanted to do this because I wanted to run off the ledge and dive over the side of the mountain; and I did just that. 
Becky went first. She took a running dive and had the rope snap in here face. Ouch! She's okay. She looked great on her jump. 
I was up next. Again, I wasn't super nervous. Before my jump, I asked Becky how it was and she said, "just jump". She didn't want to freak me out. 
I wasn't freaked until I was falling. The jump itself was graceful and I managed to do a flip! 
Once off the ledge we went to buy photos. The computers weren't working so we are going to pick them up tomorrow. We decided to buy the photos because the scenery is incredible and this post cannot do the moment justice. I promise to post those pics as soon a I can.

After a full day of adrenaline, we were pretty hungry. We found a cute Mexican restaurant and scarfed down some tacos. After that, we did some shopping and I got Wendy a t-shirt. 
There are many great sayings here in NZ and my personal fav is "sweet as" meaning I agree with the proposition you have made; like "sounds good". 
Wendy's shirt says "sweet as" and has the definition under it. I bought for her because she's sweet, it came in cherry red and I miss her. I hope it fits, Wend!

We hiked up the hill again, took showers and got ready for the group party at the minus five ice bar. This is a bar that is completely made of ice, all the drinks are in ice cups and they supply warm wear like Ugg boots and mittens. 
It was lame. I have to say it. 
Coming from Canada and having a nice warm vacation is great. Going to a bar made of ice for the novelty of being cold, not so fun.

After we walked out of that, we went to the bar across the way from the ice bar. Again, not anything awesome. 

As I had previously mentioned, Becky really loved the whole sky diving experience. She wanted to meet up for drinks with her jump master. We left the group and went to the bar he said he was going to be  at and had a drink. He wasn't there so we left. 
We tried to catch up with our group and found ourselves at Winnie Bagoes bar. Bec and I walked up to the bar to order drinks and sure enough, standing next to us was Becky's jump master, Jeff. Jeff brought his buddy Jason. We had a few drinks with them. At this point, it was about 2am. I was having a super time but I was feeing as Becky calls it, "banana-town". It was time to go home.
Both of us were feeling it...big time. We left and caught a cab up to the hotel and went right to sleep.