Day Twenty-Four : Dec 24 Queenstown - Skydive...
Ahhh...no riding today...what to do. I know! Let's jump out of a plane. We awoke to the sound of fear running through our brains. We were about to do something very, well, high I suppose. We rocked up at the NZone skydive at 10.30 then took a fairly nerve racking 40min drive out to the drop-zone. It was scary more because of the guy's driving than anything else, as we were still in denial about what we were about to do. We arrived to see the previous lot come cruising in to land, all smiles and high fives. After a safety briefing consisting of the instructor telling us how to 'be a banana, not a pineapple', we were ready (apparently). They said that Simon was going to fall very quickly becuase of his 'Superman' physique. Nice.
Next thing we knew 9 of us are crammed into the back of a plane with a see-through automatic door, a padded floor and some hand holds (no seatbelts). We had to sit in the lap of our tandem instructors so it was quite a cosy ride up to 12,000 feet where we dropped off the first lot of three (instructor, terrified tourist and cameraman for the DVD). All of a sudden there were three less people in the plane which was quite surreal and the fear and excitement really started to kick in as we climbed to 15,000 feet. Simon was next up. Within what seemed like 5 seconds, I went from sitting comfortably with the door closed to sitting on the ledge with nothing but icy cold air between my feet and lake Wakatipu below. The cameraman was somehow hanging outside the door ready to get the first shots from his helmet cams. After rocking back and forth with a 3-2-1 countdown - I vacated a perfectly good aeroplane with some guy I'd only just met strapped to my back.
The next minute was something I'll never forget - freefalling is amazing! You reach 200km/hr within about 12 seconds then just relax and take in the view. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the views were absolutely amazing! The wind made it a little hard to exhale (or it could have been my brain freaking out) and the air was also making the eyes water a bit. The cameraman was falling closeby, moving above and below taking pics and a video. Before the chute opened (at 5000 feet) the cameraman drifted over and shook my hand.
After a crotch-bruising deceleration everything went quiet and we cruised down doing some fairly gut-wrenching spins and dips before cruising in for a (nearly) perfect landing back at base. The experience of freefall is something I would love to have again and I'll definitely be skydiving again someday (when I can afford it again).
The adrenaline rush really took it out of us and for the rest of the day we were very tired and lethargic. That night we headed out on a pub-crawl of 6 of Queenstown's best bars to celebrate. We stayed out dancing at WorldBar until about 3am then headed back to the backpackers where we drank and played cards with some other backpackers until about 7am. This would explain the confusion and croakiness when parents etc, called to wish us Happy Christmas during the morning.
Day Twenty-Five : Dec 25 Queenstown - Christmas day
Turns out Queenstown completely shuts down on Christmas day so it took us a while to find somewhere to eat (once we got up). We found a little Thai place, sat around watching TV for the rest of the afternoon then wandered into town for a Pizza that evening. We saw a pretty amazing street performer show culminating in juggling burning clubs while lying stomach-down on a bed of nails on top of a 3m high pole. Impressive. Went back to the ranch and packed up Tanya to continue our ride the next day.
Day Twenty-Six : Dec 26 Queenstown - Winton 159km
We left the haven of fun that is Queenstown and rode south along Lake Wakatipu beside the Remarkables mountain range. Once we reached the end of the lake the scenery quickly returned to boring farmland. We pushed on through essentially flat terrain, rolling into Winton at about 7.30 (with some serious ass pain). Turned out the only place that offered camping was the golf course, so after a bite to eat we headed out there and set up camp one last time. There was no-one else there.
Day Twenty-Seven : Dec 27 Winton - Bluff 62km
With only a cool 60k to go, we got on the road early and made short work of the 30km to Invercargill. We weren't going to stop with the end so close, so we pushed on the final 30km of our N-S conquering of NZ. We pulled into Bluff at about 1pm, took in the serenity at Stirling Point (the starting point of State Highway 1) then had some local seafood and a few beers. We decided to head back to Invercargill that afternoon (there's a bit more going on here) so we re-traced our steps back into 'town' and found our final accommodation in Kiwiland. Treated ourselves to a great meal at the Speight's AleHouse next door to the backpackers.
Day Twenty-Eight : Dec 28 Invercargill
This morning we sadly took Tanya to the bike shop around the corner to bid her farewell (though not before stripping her of her tyres - we didn't want to give her back with tyres that we had paid serious coin for). We leave tomorrow morning to fly back to Brisbane.
It really has been the experience of a lifetime this trip - we've seen some great scenery, met some great people, had a great stack and done some other things that were great. The weather for the first week of the South Island threatened to dampen our spirit a little, but it was nothing some waterproof pants and some shopping bags couldn't handle. As an added bonus, our level of fitness seems to have improved somewhat in the process.
We'd like to sincerely thank everyone who has donated to Red Cross on our behalf. We have raised over $2500 so far, but if you would still like to donate (now that we've actually made it!) please do so by clicking the link on the right.
Trip Summary
North Island
Days Riding : 13
Kilometres covered : 1225km
Avg km/day : 94.2
South Island
Days Riding : 10
Kilometres covered : 1097km
Avg km/day : 109.7
Overall
Days riding : 23
Kilometres covered : 2322
Avg km/day : 100.96km/day!!! (Gee that's a lot of kilometres!)
Thanks for your support!
- Simon and Joe
Ahhh...no riding today...what to do. I know! Let's jump out of a plane. We awoke to the sound of fear running through our brains. We were about to do something very, well, high I suppose. We rocked up at the NZone skydive at 10.30 then took a fairly nerve racking 40min drive out to the drop-zone. It was scary more because of the guy's driving than anything else, as we were still in denial about what we were about to do. We arrived to see the previous lot come cruising in to land, all smiles and high fives. After a safety briefing consisting of the instructor telling us how to 'be a banana, not a pineapple', we were ready (apparently). They said that Simon was going to fall very quickly becuase of his 'Superman' physique. Nice.
Next thing we knew 9 of us are crammed into the back of a plane with a see-through automatic door, a padded floor and some hand holds (no seatbelts). We had to sit in the lap of our tandem instructors so it was quite a cosy ride up to 12,000 feet where we dropped off the first lot of three (instructor, terrified tourist and cameraman for the DVD). All of a sudden there were three less people in the plane which was quite surreal and the fear and excitement really started to kick in as we climbed to 15,000 feet. Simon was next up. Within what seemed like 5 seconds, I went from sitting comfortably with the door closed to sitting on the ledge with nothing but icy cold air between my feet and lake Wakatipu below. The cameraman was somehow hanging outside the door ready to get the first shots from his helmet cams. After rocking back and forth with a 3-2-1 countdown - I vacated a perfectly good aeroplane with some guy I'd only just met strapped to my back.
The next minute was something I'll never forget - freefalling is amazing! You reach 200km/hr within about 12 seconds then just relax and take in the view. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the views were absolutely amazing! The wind made it a little hard to exhale (or it could have been my brain freaking out) and the air was also making the eyes water a bit. The cameraman was falling closeby, moving above and below taking pics and a video. Before the chute opened (at 5000 feet) the cameraman drifted over and shook my hand.
After a crotch-bruising deceleration everything went quiet and we cruised down doing some fairly gut-wrenching spins and dips before cruising in for a (nearly) perfect landing back at base. The experience of freefall is something I would love to have again and I'll definitely be skydiving again someday (when I can afford it again).
The adrenaline rush really took it out of us and for the rest of the day we were very tired and lethargic. That night we headed out on a pub-crawl of 6 of Queenstown's best bars to celebrate. We stayed out dancing at WorldBar until about 3am then headed back to the backpackers where we drank and played cards with some other backpackers until about 7am. This would explain the confusion and croakiness when parents etc, called to wish us Happy Christmas during the morning.
Day Twenty-Five : Dec 25 Queenstown - Christmas day
Turns out Queenstown completely shuts down on Christmas day so it took us a while to find somewhere to eat (once we got up). We found a little Thai place, sat around watching TV for the rest of the afternoon then wandered into town for a Pizza that evening. We saw a pretty amazing street performer show culminating in juggling burning clubs while lying stomach-down on a bed of nails on top of a 3m high pole. Impressive. Went back to the ranch and packed up Tanya to continue our ride the next day.
Day Twenty-Six : Dec 26 Queenstown - Winton 159km
We left the haven of fun that is Queenstown and rode south along Lake Wakatipu beside the Remarkables mountain range. Once we reached the end of the lake the scenery quickly returned to boring farmland. We pushed on through essentially flat terrain, rolling into Winton at about 7.30 (with some serious ass pain). Turned out the only place that offered camping was the golf course, so after a bite to eat we headed out there and set up camp one last time. There was no-one else there.
Day Twenty-Seven : Dec 27 Winton - Bluff 62km
With only a cool 60k to go, we got on the road early and made short work of the 30km to Invercargill. We weren't going to stop with the end so close, so we pushed on the final 30km of our N-S conquering of NZ. We pulled into Bluff at about 1pm, took in the serenity at Stirling Point (the starting point of State Highway 1) then had some local seafood and a few beers. We decided to head back to Invercargill that afternoon (there's a bit more going on here) so we re-traced our steps back into 'town' and found our final accommodation in Kiwiland. Treated ourselves to a great meal at the Speight's AleHouse next door to the backpackers.
Day Twenty-Eight : Dec 28 Invercargill
This morning we sadly took Tanya to the bike shop around the corner to bid her farewell (though not before stripping her of her tyres - we didn't want to give her back with tyres that we had paid serious coin for). We leave tomorrow morning to fly back to Brisbane.
It really has been the experience of a lifetime this trip - we've seen some great scenery, met some great people, had a great stack and done some other things that were great. The weather for the first week of the South Island threatened to dampen our spirit a little, but it was nothing some waterproof pants and some shopping bags couldn't handle. As an added bonus, our level of fitness seems to have improved somewhat in the process.
We'd like to sincerely thank everyone who has donated to Red Cross on our behalf. We have raised over $2500 so far, but if you would still like to donate (now that we've actually made it!) please do so by clicking the link on the right.
Trip Summary
North Island
Days Riding : 13
Kilometres covered : 1225km
Avg km/day : 94.2
South Island
Days Riding : 10
Kilometres covered : 1097km
Avg km/day : 109.7
Overall
Days riding : 23
Kilometres covered : 2322
Avg km/day : 100.96km/day!!! (Gee that's a lot of kilometres!)
Thanks for your support!
- Simon and Joe
1 comment:
Awesome to see you guys made it!! Sorry we didn't get to touch base with you again before we left Queenstown. All the best in your future studies. Look us up if you're ever in the States:)
- Pam and Graham
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