Skydiving & Winery Biking Near Queenstown

Went skydiving on my last day in Queenstown on a beautiful sunny morning! Jumped from 15,000 ft, which is twice as high as the tallest peak of The Remarkables, the mountain range next to Queenstown, so the view was amazing!!

 

I look like I have no neck

The most insightful of barometers

They instruct you to get into banana position during freefall.  After the parachute was released my tandem partner was laughing because I was still intensely banana-ing...  I just felt so safe as a banana.    

 

I was sitting next to the plane door so as soon as we got up to elevation and they opened the door I was out of the plane and didn't even have time to think about it.  My favorite moments were the initial jump out of the plane and taking sharp turns while parachuting because you could really feel it in your stomach.  The freefalling felt like an out of body experience.

Re-fueled with some seafood chowder at Ivy and Lola's on the wharf afterwards.

In the afternoon, Alex and I went biking in Gibbston Valley to visit the wineries.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Queenstown, we had a blast!



Part of the bike trail was along the Kawarau River, the water was a gorgeous teal color.

My Queenstown PIC... she is so adorbs 

1st winery was Peregrine.

2nd stop was Kincross, where they gave tastings from the private vineyards nearby.

After a few tastings, we were feeling feisty and decided to completely ignore the warnings from Sean  at the bike rental bike shop, who told us not to bike past Kincross or we might miss our shuttle back  to Queenstown (are you starting to see a trend here?).  We continued down to Brennan Wines, and so glad we did because this was our favorite stop. 

Hanging out with Julia and the winery dog <3 

Half-way through our 11-wine tasting menu, we realized we were behind schedule (and that perhaps Sean's warning was right, but only because we chose the 11-wine tasting instead of the 5... because YOLO).  Julia speed-poured the rest of the tasting and we were on our way.

We had a 30-minute bike back to the shuttle stop, so we raced back as fast as our little legs could carry us... but not before taking several unnecessary photos along the way with sheep and free farm pears.

We made it back to the shuttle only 5 minutes late, with Sean's judging eyes upon us as we boarded the bus.  We shared our pear gifts with the bus driver and passengers so really it was a win-win for everyone.

Flew out of Queenstown the next morning, so sad to leave this amazing land of sheeps and shamels.

Last Stop: Queenstown!

I love Queenstown!!

Whew, after lots of driving/hitchhiking/actually making one of my buses, I made it to Queenstown.  It's easy to forget how large New Zealand actually is since it lies next to Australia. Here's an overview of my trek through the South Island.  

I didn't even make it to the northern part of the South Island, where you can swim with dolphins in Kaikoura, visit the wineries in Marlborough and see the beaches and fur seal colonies at Abel Tasman National Park... next trip

I was amazed how small Queenstown actually is, but it was nice that everything was so centralized and walkable.  Spent the last 3 days of my trip here, stayed at Base hostel and met new friends from France and Cali in my dorm rdoom. We hiked the Tiki Trail up to the gondola.  It was a great 2-hr hike up and down with a pretty steep elevation change.

After the hike, we stuffed our faces with Ferg Burger. I am obsessed with all things Ferg. I wanted to try their entire meat pie breakfast menu because I am a fat kid at heart (and also literally was a fat, fat boy-resembling baby).

 

Christian got a double cheeseburger/heart attack

After burgers I walked down Sunshine Bay to see the sunset.

I stopped at Smith's Craft Beer Bar a few times during my stay. They had 12 local NZ brews on tap and I made a pretty good dent in them... all for scientific research purposes.  The Better Island black IPA from Sidewinder  Brewery in Wanaka was my favorite. For whatever reason, this bar seemed to be primarily operated by and visited by Americans... does this mean we are a country full of beer wankers? 

The Winery was a fun wine shop where you could do self-service (read: dangerous) tastings or pours by the glass using these neat contraptions. So much science.  

Ended up at World Bar (again) but this time I made my next day AM appointment... to go skydiving! :-O

Sea Kayaking in Milford Sound

Stayed the night in a small dorm at Milford Sound Lodge.  No cell service or wifi up here and nothing else around except this lodge and the Milford Sound, it felt good to be disconnected from the world.
 
Sunset from the lodge:

Made a new friend while on the scenic cruise.  Chris is a ginger from London disguised as a blonde temporarily living in Auckland.  He was actually in my same dorm at the Mount Cook hostel a couple days ago but I didn't talk to him then because after being completely solo for 2 days I had temporarily forgotten how to talk to other humans.  Fun fact, he will also be working in the same KPMG Advisory practice I used to work in... small world!

At the lodge kitchen, there were some super gourmet meals being cooked by the guests... chicken with fresh herbs, steak, sautéed kale, stir fry, etc.  It was so fun seeing a packed kitchen full of strangers who like to cook.  Chris was being nice and/or pitied me and shared his dinner with me... I'm positive everyone else was envious of the ramen and microwavable chicken satay that we made. :)

Next morning I went sea kayaking.  This was one of my favorite experiences of the trip.

More seals! All the seals in the sound are juvenile males living solo there until age 4-5, just getting fat off fish until they are ready to swim to the west coast of the island to join a colony and mate.

 

Approaching the waterfall and getting ready for a glacial facial.

We took the kayak under this waterfall.  The wind was so strong right under the falls it literally took the breath out of me.  Apparently the wind can get up to 100 knots.

 

We kayaked 12km out to the entrance of the sound and then a small boat picked us up.  On the ride back, we encountered a pack of dolphins.  They were doing jumps in the air and we made waves with the boat so they could play in it. There are only ~60 dolphins that hang out around  the Fjordlands so it is pretty special to see them in the sound.

This time, I made it to my bus for the ride back to Queenstown. :)

A Hitchhiking Journey to Milford Sound

My late night out required me to take alternate transportation to Milford Sound... whoops.  But I made it in one piece woohoo!

Just last week I was telling a friend I would never be able to do the whole backpacker hitchhiking thing... well that changed pretty quickly after I missed my 7am bus to Milford Sound (mom, you should probably just stop reading now and skip to the next post).  

I was up by 7:15 but pretty much all the buses leave Queenstown by then since it's a 4.5 hour drive, so I was SOL as far as planned transportation goes.  The receptionist at the hostel suggested I just hitchhike.  I had a reservation at the Milford Sound Lodge that night so I was determined to get there.

I started around the corner from the hostel, and that first moment when I actually had to stick my arm out, thumb up, was a mental hurdle.  A nice South African man picked me up pretty quickly and took me 10 minutes up to Frankton where the road forks and I could find someone going in the direction of Milford Sound.

At Frankton, it felt like the longest 15 minutes of my life before I caught another ride.  My right arm actually got fatigued lol.  I'm sure I looked like a sad lost puppy with my luggage standing in the drizzle, maybe not one of my finer moments in life.

Then Julio saved me in his DIY campervan... which was really just a van with a mattress in the back.  As I am typing this I realize how insanely sketchy that sounds.  Julio was a Brazilian musician who was on his way south to Invercargill to go surfing.  In related news, he also informed me he is a wizard and was planning on seeing his witch who lived in Invercargill.  No more explanations needed.  Another perk, he gave me a copy of his album.

 

Julio was the happiest and most effective Brazilian wizard ever, because the sun came out and we saw a rainbow lol. 🌈 ☀️  He dropped me off at Mossburn so he could make his turn to head south.  2 minutes later, a family from Munich in a (legit) campervan picked me up.  I rode with them the rest of the way to Milford Sound, including several scenic stops along the Fjordlands.

Just doing some sight-seeing with my adopted German family

The Chasm: circular basins are made from thousands of years of swirling water and stones.

Once we made it to Milford Sound in the afternoon, I said my farewells to my German family and took a scenic cruise around the sound.  The sound was carved out by glaciers and has a few permanent waterfalls but when it rains you can see a ton of waterfalls form.  Apparently it is usually  rainy there so it was pretty special that we got 2 days of sunny weather.

Seals passed out on a rock... this is how I felt after my journey to get here.

Another rainbow!