The Adventure Capital of the World

Queenstown, Otago, New Zealand
Monday, December 2, 2013

It has been a fabulous day, for a bungee jump. Not a cloud in the sky and clear blue water to jump into. What could be better? Well, I can think of several things in truth, but having seen the Queenstown bridge in question, Matthew, I take my hat off to you and anything else you care to name, providing I don't have to jump! As some of you will know, our son Matt made the leap when he was here 10 years ago and we have the certificate and video to prove it.
We were naturally curious to see the spot and arrived mid morning. It was all so casual, no pomp or fanfare. The victims wandered to the jumping point high on the bridge spanning an enormous river filled canyon and were harnessed up with admirable sang froid. They are then talked at by the guys running the show and are counted down, three, two, one, a wave at the camera and that step into the abyss. Some like Matt stepped straight off with no hesitation, some needed persuasion and one poor soul just couldn't do it. We felt so sorry for him, it was actually awful to watch. He was given three countdowns before being unharnessed - no refunds! Reg was really keen to have a go, but was sharply vetoed by Geraldine and Peter was just quiet and contemplative. Suddenly, he made up his mind he was going to do it and before I could stop him he'd paid and was off bristling with determination. He was given a red top and a black helmet, harnessed up and the next thing we knew was dangling from the rope, skimming the water. He was euphoric and I called him everything under the sun. There are pictures!
It has taken me all day to recover from the shock and a large glass of wine and some retail therapy were definitely on the cards. We visited the tiny hamlet of Arrowtown for the purpose, which provided all we could wish for. It is almost Wild West in appearance, but prettier, starting life as a Gold rush settlement in the 1850s. It largely consists of a single Main Street, the buildings are wooden clapperboard style, with lots of small individual shops. Several hundred dollars later Geraldine and I were starting to recover. There's nothing like a good spend up to ease the anxiety!
More wine was required for such a momentous day and so we headed off into the Gibbston Valley for some boutique tastings. It is a gorgeous valley, surrounded by mountains and filled to capacity with small specialist wineries. The oldest was founded in 1982, so everything is extremely young by European standards. Our favourite was Peregrine, where we could in truth have bought all we tried. Here, in Gibbston Valley you are talking hand picked small volume specialties. There are not the vast machine picked hectares of the Marlborough Area. The nights are still cold and an alarm will go off if the air temperature drops towards frost point. The unlucky soul on duty will have to jump out of bed and put various prevention measures into operation. Great! This has happened several nights in the last week. Who would be a vintner?!
Displayed in the ladies loo was the following quotation which struck a chord:
'Wine is Sunlight, held together by Water!' Galileo Gallilei. Some things don't change.
The day finished with supper on Queenstown waterfront before the setting sun and our stay in the adventure capital of the world is almost over.
I have only one more thing to add ........ If you believe Peter jumped off anything higher than a stool, you're a bigger fool than I took you for!!
Night all!En savoir plus