New Zealand: day 15 - Adrenaline and Glenorchy

I woke up with some nerves this morning.  Queenstown is often called the adrenaline capital of New Zealand, and it's the city where bungie jumping was invented!  So, of course, I had to do it.  S decided to stay home to not watch us do these things.  I started with a solo bungie jump.  I was nervous but excited throughout the process, and the staff's attention to safety and triple-checking really set me at ease.  Nevertheless, when I stood on the platform and looked down, I was the most scared I had ever been in my life.  I took a gulp and did it!

The jump it self was chaotic for me.  I had a hard time knowing which way was up and which way was down, and with nothing in my body successfully orienting me, my perception was just a mess of color until I slowed down enough to know what was going on.  The staff in the raft got me safely disengaged from the cord, and I met H on the track back up to the lodge.  She didn't want to jump, but she did the canyon swing with me:

 

After we recovered and squeed at our own bravery, we returned to the airbnb to meet S.  We collected our stuff, folded our laundry, and then headed out to Glenorchy.  I went yesterday with Glen, but S&H didn't.  We started out doing a hike near the jetty, but we bailed when we saw how packed with other tourists it was. So, we headed further out of town, towards Paradise.  We did a hike to Diamond Lake that was glorious.  Full of bird songs and beautiful nature and a vista at the end that made us all gasp.

The barbed wire won.

gasp

After that hike, we headed further into Mount Aspiring National Park, just a few km back to the mossy glen where I stopped yesterday with Glen.  We all three took photos and gasped at the beautiful mossy greenness.   I used my macro lens today for a close-up on the moss.

From there, we headed back to Queenstown, stopping off at Bennett's Bluff Lookout, where we got a stunning vista of the lake and the mountains.  

Then, back to Queenstown for takeout burgers.  Ferg's Burgers is a Queenstown institution, but we were very disappointed when we tried it.  The patties were overcooked, the dressings lacked flavor, and the whole meal would have been an acceptable pub burger in the states.  Nothing to write home about.  

Tonight's our last night in Queenstown.  Tomorrow we head SW!