Kia Ora Queenstown

Ahh Queenstown, the place where dreams are fulfilled and fears are overcome. This place is perhaps my spiritual home, sadly the cost of living here probably means I’d be rough sleeping in my Nirvana. It’s really tricky to put into words just how cool this place is. The stunning mountainous landscape, with crystal clear lakes, shed-loads of space but the people are all slightly unhinged and their hobbies involve chucking themselves off high things.

I think my new tee-shirt/singlet says it best:

The absolute highlight of my stay was the Canyon Swing, in fact it’s probably my New Zealand highlight. I don’t often get scared about things, but this got me. A few glasses of New Zealand’s finest Sav Blanc down I signed up for the swing, then spent two days with slightly sweaty palms. A really heady mixture of excitement, adrenaline and fear took me over. I guess I was kind of glad I’d found something that made me hesitate and wonder if I could do it. Perhaps I’m not a robot or missing a vital chunk of my brain after all. All over the town you can see ‘Swingers’ we’ll call them on videos – many screamers and many grabbers. There is no escaping the Canyon Swing!

The morning arrived and I hadn’t really slept, felt pretty rough and found myself asking a woman in a cafe whether it was a good idea to eat before the swing. She was very understanding for a woman that’s probably had about a million morning wrecks asking her that question. The drive up there involved one of the Swing workers making hysterical jokes about dying and we had little pictures drawn on our hands in permanent markers depicting our gruesome deaths. Stood on the platform, harnessed up listening to insane music whilst the workers messed with our heads, a huge wave of hysteria swept over me. It all just became really funny.

I was told to stand on the edge and lean forwards whilst one of the guys held my harness, this was a heart-stopping moment. That meant trusting one of my tormenters not to just drop me unannounced. I clung on to my other tormenter for dear life, if I was unexpectedly going down he was coming too! The next step was to do a running jump off the edge. I chose to do it this way because I think actually chucking yourself off has to be the ultimate buzz, rather than being dropped by someone else. It goes against everything your brain is saying and is the ultimate in surrendering to what you ’should do’. As soon as I believed them it was safe to go I did it, just ran and jumped off the edge. The feeling of freedom was like no other feeling… unlike sky diving or hang gliding I was on my own and the bungee I did in my younger years which I was slightly inebriated for. The free fall must have only lasted seconds but I’ll take that feeling with me. Then the swing kicked in and I just couldn’t stop giggling. It was a truly beautiful setting, with turquoise waters below. I was so hyper after this and literally couldn’t sit still, I’ve never felt adrenaline like it and it’s left me wondering what’s next (jokes mum! Well kind of).

Anyway, enough of me talking, take a look and then book a flight and give it a go. I promise you won’t regret it.