QUEENSTOWN TRIP!!!

To start with, I need to explain a few things/people. Here goes. I believe I've explained that Arcadia is a university in the States, but also has agreements with schools around the world to offer study abroad. In New Zealand, there are four main Universities that Arcadia offers study abroad programs at: Canterbury (me), Otago, Victoria, and Auckland. Each university also has a "student support coordinator" that lives in the same city as campus or possibly on campus. There is also a program director, who is in charge of EVERYONE within New Zealand, the boss of the bosses basically. Her name is Jane Gunn-Lewis, and she also happens to be the "director" for us Canterbury kids. However, she does not live in Christchurch but in Queenstown, and travels all over New Zealand for Arcadia. Then there's Shane, who's in charge of the Otago students, Aislinn for Victoria, and Kate for Auckland.

K, now on to the good stuff :). This past weekend was awesome and definitely what I needed.

After a fitful night of sleep where I kept waking up and thinking I'd missed the bus, I woke up to Joshua calling me at 5:55, 5 minutes before I wanted to get up :(. I hate waking up! Anyways, after chatting with him and his family for about 20 minutes, I got ready and headed for the corner of Ilam and Riccarton to meet the rest of my Canterbury Arcadians. They all made fun of me for bringing my suitcase, which I only brought because I decided to bring a sleeping bag. Not really sure why, but oh well. We had a LONG bus ride, about 6 hours, with only 2 stops. We got to Queenstown and met up with our Otago friends! It was great to see them again! We were split up into two lodges, each with 4 rooms and 4 bunk beds in each room. After putting our stuff in the rooms, we headed off to ride in a Gondola up a mountain in Queenstown. Queenstown is located south of Christchurch and is a huge tourist town. It is absolutely beautiful and in the middle of the Southern Alps. It's great for skiing, snowboarding, and tramping.

Anyways, we rode the gondola up the mountain and then each got 3 luge rides! It was so fun. Basically, you sit on these little rubber/plastic sleds that have bicycle-like handlebars to steer. Then you ride down these concrete tracks. It was soooo much fun! I tried to tip mine several times (which didn't work) but I did manage to almost fall out once (on accident) and could smell the rubber burning on the bottom from going around the corners too fast ;). It was so much fun though! After that, we rode back down the gondola, and a bunch of us bungee jumpers went to go sign up. This is where my weekend took a crazy turn...there were two separate bungee jumps offered. One is the Kawarau Bridge, which is cheaper, shorter, and the one shown on the Bachelor last season with Jason :). It's less scary too, obviously, and over a river where you can choose to get wet or not. The other jump is the Nevis and is the second highest jump in the world. It's over a huge ravine with a creek below, and is 234 meters high, or about 450 ft! I, naturally, wanted to do the bridge. However, when signing up, I was surrounded by all the guys and was completely pressured into "go big or go home." I was also under the impression that NO ONE else was doing the Bridge and didn't want to be the ONLY loser chickening out and doing the little one. So I gave in and signed up for the Nevis. After that, I learned that there WERE people doing the bridge, just not very many, and that everyone else not bungee jumping would be at the bridge to cheer people on. Great. I was so mad, and I blamed the boys the whole weekend...

Anyways, that night we didn't do much. A heap of us made pasta and frozen pizzas for dinner and split it, so dinner was about $4 (way cheap!). Then I hit the sack, and I was so thankful that I brought my sleeping bag because our sheets were dirty in our room and the comforters smelled HORRIBLE...I won't go into detail.

The next day we all woke up early. We were split into two groups again: our options were either tramping or snowboarding/skiing. I chose tramping with most of the other kids and we headed to a new tramp site that Jane had never tried before. We were originally supposed to do an 8 hour tramp up a mountain, but it was closed because they were poisoning the opossums. The trail was supposed to take about 2.5 hours up and 2 hours down, and we were going to eat lunch at the top. We all started with Jane in the lead, who is the most fit 50 year old woman EVER (she skis almost every day), and we ended up finishing a small portion within 20 minutes that should have taken us 40. Woah. After that, the trek was pretty much uphill, and it kept getting steeper and harder. I got to a point where I refused to stop because I was afraid I wouldn't start again, and I was pushing off my legs with my arms in order to keep going! We saw heaps of dead opossums, and the trail got to the point that only single file was possible. The scenery, however, was breathtaking in itself. We drank from a natural spring (Dad, I know you'd be proud), and finally made it to the top after shedding pretty much all of our layers. The coolest part was that, if you slipped, you were going down and there was no stopping. It was a blast though. After reaching our destination, which was a day hut called "Bonnie Jean," we all started putting our layers back on (it was quite cold) and sat down to enjoy the view and eat lunch. Some of the guys decided to tramp all the way to the top, but I was way too sore already. After everyone got there and the boys made it back to us, we started the trek down, which was much easier for me than up. Nothin like a tramp up a mountain to show you how outta shape you are :)! After tramping, we all showered and got ready for dinner. We went out for pizza and had this awesome desert apple pizza that was delicious. Karie, Malia, Dan, Barrie, Rachael, and I went for a short walk, ended up at a cozy little bar where I almost fell asleep. We decided to go back and wait til 10 to go out and sat around and talked til then, but I couldn't muster enough energy to go out and went to bed at 11 instead.

The next morning we layered up and went jetboating!!! It's this awesome boat that can go through 4 inches of water since most of it is above water, and it goes an average 85-90 miles per hour! I wish I could have taken my camera, but we did 360s and such and got wet, so cameras were a no-go. But if you google "new zealand jetboating" it shows what we did. It was gorgeous and we were sooo close to hitting the giant rocks it was unbelievable! The whole time, all I could think of was how much my dad would love it, so I've decided that if I ever have the means to do it, we're taking a trip to New Zealand for him to experience some of this stuff! After that, reality set in that I was going to literally jump off a platform 450 feet in the air with nothing but a rope attached to me, and I got extremely nervous! We grabbed coffee at Starbucks and then checked in for bungee jumping. I was able to get on the internet for a few minutes before our bus left. We had a 45 minute ride out to the platform and plenty of time for me to freak out. Once there, we got strapped up and then headed out to the platform...it was so scary. I was freaking out, got really quiet, and then started projecting my anxiety into making sure that the people knew us Canterbury kids HAD to be on the 2:30 bus back because our other bus was leaving at 3:15, and if we missed it we were in trouble. The jump is set up so that each rope has a weight range, so the heaviest people went first. This meant that I was to go last, however, and that just was not possible for me and I was flipping. Once they switched cords and I'd watched most of the guys jump, I was up first. I really think they just wanted to shut me up since I was freaking out so much, but oh well, it worked ;). I sat down in this dentist/gyno looking chair and my ankles were strapped onto the bungee. Then the walk to the edge was the hardest thing ever. I was afraid my knees were going to give out. I kept telling the guy that I really didn't think I could do this, and I also told him I might pee my pants. At that, he said to make sure I pulled the black string that would allow me to sit upright so the flow didn't go down my face...funny eh? Anyways, I got to the edge, was trying not to look down, felt like throwing up, and he goes "3, 2, 1" and then I jumped!!!! It was AWESOME!!!! I can't even put it into words!!!! I was just falling it was so intense! And then I bounced back up, tried to pull the string but couldn't get it out all the way, and then i just hung there upside down looking at the water below and thinking "OH MY GOSH I REALLY JUST DID THAT" the whole time! It really helps to have people cheering you on! I finally was able to yank the black cord and sit up and enjoy the view as they brought me up. It was the most intense feeling ever! Very comparable to Joshua asking me to marry him, though slightly different :)! I still am on a high whenever I think about it and totally want to do it again!!!

Anyways, after that I didn't care if we missed the bus or not. I tried to talk to Joshua on Skype offered at the bungee place, but it didn't really work out too well. Tonya had answered and once she figured out how to work it I had to go :). Anyways, we made the bus with plenty of time to spare and then settled in for a nice long bus ride home. I met my new flatmate, Sara Young, who is awesome as well and then went to bed. What a crazy AMAZING day!!!!!!