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.