Southern Loop (& back to Queenie)

I feel I have to stand up for myself somewhat here - I find leaping off a 60 foot platform to be completely mental, no matter how many safety ropes you have attached. I'd much rather jump off a bridge with NO safety devices attached. More later...

My day snowboarding was awesome! Starting off from square one, I ended being able to get my way down the mountain - albeit on the easy slopes and only coming off the board a few times... I would just think I was getting the hang of things before my board turned on me and sent me flying face first into the hard packed snow. All in all though it was a very exciting day and despite not throwing myself off anything too high I reckon it's not too bad on the excitement-o-meter.


Anyway, our first stop after the adrenaline capital of Queenie was the Milford Sound. Although Milford Sound is technically a fjord rather than a sound, then name has kinda stuck... Milford Sound is a beautiful area in the far south west of NZ - full of waterfalls, snow covered mountains, lush forests and glacial valleys. We took a cruise out into the fjord/sound itself and had a close-up look at all of the scenery. One of the highlights of the trip south was seeing a Kea. Keas are really cheeky little alpine parrots who love to steal things from backpacks or tents and unattended items like cutlery, nails, food - anything really.


When we got into our accommodation, we took over the DVD player to watch Tracy's Canyon Swing DVD. Fun was had by all.

The next morning we had to get up at 6am to get over to Stewart Island. The rest of our group weren't up for it, so we could make our own plans. SI is the island that sits off the south coast of NZ and is generally regarded by most New Zealanders as a pretty backwards place - similar to Australians and Tasmania... Anyway, we got a roller-coaster of a ferry over the short stretch of water and soon were standing on wee Stewart Island. The main draw (for us) of SI was the wildlife, so we soon found ourselves on a water taxi bound for the wildlife reserve of Ulva Island.

We stepped out onto a small jetty and were immediately (after the boat left that is) surrounded by the background noise of a living forest. While on the island we added the Bellbird, Grey Warbler, Kakariki and Yellow Head to our list of seen birds. We also saw more robins, kakas, fantails and wood pigeons.


That night we had a look around outside to see if we could see either a kiwi or the Southern Lights - but we were unsuccessful on both counts. The closest we got to a kiwi (the bird that is) was a road sign.


So we rejoined our group in Invercargill and we set of towards Dunedin. We stopped off in several locations to try to see various things (fur seals, petrified forest, yellow-eyed penguins) but the best we got was watching a solitary yellow-eyed penguin being stuffed into a backpack. I must quickly add though that the penguin in question did have a hurt foot and the people doing the stuffing were actually trained rangers rather than random penguin baggers.

We stayed in Dunedin just about long enough to take a tour of the local brewery and get some provisions. It's a shame really because Dunedin seems like quite a nice place generally - we just didn't have the time to stick around too long. At the end of the brewery tour we got to sample the local brew (Speight's) and take some comedy photos (which seemed much funnier after the sampling...).


We stopped by - and climbed - the world's steepest street. Not much more to say about that though...

Seeing as no-one wanted to do the bungy in Queenstown, it was suggested that instead we jump off a different bridge. I was surprised to find I was the only one up for this. Luckily Morrie, our driver, said he'd do it too. I figured that if I had to jump off a bridge in Queenstown (and everyone has to do it once) it may as well be for free. This bridge was only 10 metres above the water, so how bad could it be. Well, what I found out afterwards was the spot we were to jump was called "Deadman's Point". Oh dear.

After watching Morrie plummet for what seemed like an eternity into the icy depths of a snow-fed lake I was having second thoughts. I had stood atop a 40 metre bridge and this didn't look too dissimilar in my eyes. I was assured that yes, this was only 10 metres. My travelling companions sensed my discomfort and offered helpful advice like "come on - I can't hold my camera out all day". The passing of another tour bus made my mind up for me - I couldn't let the Stray team down and let the Contiki crowd think I was chicken. Besides, how embarrassing would it be to climb back over the bridge railings. Before I knew it I had lept out into nothingness.


I plummetted of the bridge and found out that, yes, the water was Baltically cold. I dragged myself out to the bank and swore to myself that I would never again thrown myself off a bridge in Queenstown.