Queenstown (by Kevin)

Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series based on our recent trip to the South Island. 

The adventure capital of New Zealand is Queenstown, located in the Central Otago region of the South Island and nestled between Lake Wakatipu and the Southern Alps.  Queenstown’s proximity to lakes and mountains make it an ideal destination for those seeking a wide range of adventure tourism activities including skiing, snowboarding, jet boating, white water rafting, bungy jumping, sky diving, paragliding, parasailing, quad biking, abseiling, and canyoning, just to name a few!

We spent two days in Queenstown on our recent trip and had a great time taking in the alpine resort town and enjoying the crisp autumn mornings and colorful fall foliage.  It has a bustling central business district with lots of good restaurants and shopping and as the main base for New Zealand’s ski industry, it’s crowded year round.

Our family decided to have a go at two different adrenaline activities while we were in Queenstown: jet boating and bungy jumping.  There are a number of jet boating operations in the area, but Ashlyn had received a personal recommendation to go with Skippers Canyon Jet Boating.  The person who recommended this company pointed out that their actual jet boat ride was great, but that they give you a “scenic” drive through the canyon on the way to and from the boat that was better than the other companies.  It turns out that the word “scenic” was a bit of an understatement.  The 45-minute drive winds up and down a very steep and windy gravel road (with no guard rails) that seemed to be about 3 inches wider than the (top-heavy) passenger shuttle bus that we were in.  The scenery, to be fair, was absolutely gorgeous and the driver was very knowledgeable and friendly, but we were convinced at several points that our vehicle might plummet over the ridiculously steep and high cliffs that separated us from the valley floor.  In the end, we made it safely to the boats and it truly was a great ride (despite the white knuckles).

Skippers Canyon from our drive in

The jet boating itself was phenomenal.  We sped through the shallow water (only 6 inches in some places) at the bottom of the canyon reaching speeds up to 55mph while making hairpin turns to follow the braids of the river.  The drivers seemed to take great pleasure in brushing right up against the cliff edges and doing 360-degree spins.  The whole ride lasted about 30 minutes and it was worth every second.  Luke and Sedona really enjoyed it too – especially the spins.

On our second day in Queenstown, I crossed a major item off of my bucket list by bungy jumping from the Kawarau Bridge, which is where A.J. Hackett opened the first commercial bungy jumping business back in 1988.  The bridge, which was originally built in 1880, is considered the birthplace of bungy and it stands 43 meters above the Kawarau River.  It was replaced with the current structure in 1963 and it is now on the national registry of historic places.  The bridge itself is beautiful, especially in the fall with the changing colors, and it is part of a popular hiking trail in the region so lots of folks walk across it even if they don’t decide to jump over the side, like me.

The Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge

We arrived pretty early that day, before the business was actually open (I was excited, what can I say) and after we filled out all of the appropriate paperwork, Luke decided that he wanted to try out the Zipline.   The Zipline drops about 130 meters along the side of the river and reaches speeds up to 37 mph.  One of the best parts about the experience is that you get to choose your “pose” during the ride.  Luke picked the upside down and backwards option and he really had a blast zooming down for the ~8-second ride. 

After Luke finished, I headed out to the bridge for my jump.  The jump itself was amazing.  It was scary on the one hand and exhilarating on the other, which is the point of most adrenaline sports, I guess.  I could describe the jump in more detail, but here’s a video.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever bungy jump again, but no matter what I’m glad that I had the chance to do it once in my life, and I can’t imagine a better place to do it.