roganjosh

So I went tandem hang-gliding in Queenstown, and absolutely loved it! One second you’re standing half way up a mountain clipped onto a metal frame, that for all the world looked like a tent while it was being put together, and the next you’re hanging about 1,000ft off the ground looking down on the tops of trees. It was all very calm and controlled and I even got to have a go at steering it myself. Much, much more fun than jumping out of plane!

The hang-gliding was actually the last thing that I did in Queenstown before hopping on a flight up to Christchurch. Leaving Queenstown it felt like I was starting to head for home, even though I’m still about three weeks and two countries away from finishing my journey. Christchurch was a nice little city, the largest on the southern island and I had a fun time looking around the place. One of the city’s claims to fame is that it’s an international departure point for antarctic missions so I visited the antarctic centre to be driven around in a Hagglund all terrain vehicle and experience a simulated arctic storm. That done there didn’t seem to be any point actually going to Antarctica itself so I didn’t feel too bad about not making it any further south than 45°S (Te Anau, on the way to Milford Sound).

From Christchurch I carried on up to Kaikoura and saw some whales, albatross and some fur seals. Then I headed for Picton and a swift flight on a small plane over to Wellington where I managed to tick off another item on the list of things to do in New Zealand - I met a guy who was in Lord of the Rings! In the film he rode one of the huge elephants in the big battle at the end, though his day job was doing the seal safari, which I enjoyed going on (Thanks for the tip Amy!).

Not fancying a 9 hour bus ride from Wellington to Auckland I abandoned the thought of travelling any further with the Stray people and flew up to the north, and here I am back in Auckland! I couldn’t find much to do the first time I was here, but tomorrow is surely my last chance to do a bungee jump. Expect a compelling excuse as to why I didn’t bother soon…

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 1:31 am and is filed under travelling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.