Kiwi Discoveries, Mitre Peak, Milford Sound

Kiwi Discoveries - Mitre Peak website 

Milford Sound is one of the South Island must do’s! Such a beautiful place is an attraction that must be explored and a cruise with Kiwi Discoveries – Mitre Peak is a brilliant opportunity! A coach (bus) – cruise – coach option is $175 for adults and $120 for children with opportunities to fly back to Queenstown (if there are availabilities). Our group chose to do the coach – cruise – coach, meaning that we met the bus outside the YHA hostel in Queenstown at 6:30 ready for our 12-hour trip. Once everyone had been picked up from around Queenstown we were on our way along the edge of the beautiful Remarkables Range.

Our driver, Dean, was quite chatty and seemed to know a lot about the area we were driving through. He told this great story about how Lake Wakatipu was created. I know there are different versions of the story and the locals will tell it much better, but it goes along the lines of how a there was this village and the King had this beautiful daughter. One day the village was astounded to find that the horrible giant had taken their Princess. The King said that anyone who could bring his daughter back to him would have the privilege of marrying the Princess. One man succeeded, but they figured the giant would just come back and take the Princess again. So while the giant was sleeping they put wood over his body and set him on fire. The fire burnt into the land and created a hollow; it also melted the snow on the mountains letting the water stream into a lake. The fire however could not kill the giant’s heart, even today the water level of the lake rises 12cm every five minutes. While science says it’s the fluctuating air pressure, I think it’s a little more than a coincidence! (Please don’t take offence if parts of the story are incorrect).

We rolled into our first break stop at Te Anau and forced our sleeping bodies to go for a wander around the town. The cruise has an option of buying lunch with the company and picking it up just before getting on the boat, but most of us decided to buy lunch at one of the cafes on our break. Throughout the Fiordland National Park we had two stops, to admire the great peaks and the mirror lake. We also went through the Homer Tunnel, just over a kilometer and a half, which takes us through to Milford sound. It was actually quite scary seeing how much rock and mass was going to be on top of our bus. I must say dark tunnels are not really my forte! 

After five hours on the bus we boarded our Mitre Peak cruise at midday. We were lucky that the day was beautiful weather, no clouds in the sky and only a little bit of a breeze. However, we were a bit unlucky that it hadn’t rained in the lead up to our trip and the waterfalls were quite small, definitely disappointed with Mother Nature. But Milford Sound is still an incredibly stunning place! We saw seals lounging around, visible minerals in the rocks and it was fun when the boat bobbed on the ripples from the other boats we occasionally saw.

After about an hour of cruising up through the wide gorge like rocks we finally came out at the sea. Suddenly it’s like there is a moment of clarity, something clicked in my emotions and everything just seemed to make sense in that second. It was tranquility, all the problems of the world seemed to fade with the wind rushing past us, there was nothing to care about, no college assignments due in by 5pm. It was just the wide-open ocean that could take us anywhere we wanted, only five days to Australia and to my family! We did this great loop and turned to go back through the gorge. The cruise back is equally as beautiful and we were able to see a couple of big waterfalls.    

                     

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On the bus trip back to Queenstown we drove right through to Te Anau and most people slept. We had a short break in the town where I found this coffee shop that does an epic chocolate frappe! Back on the bus we watched ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ – great movie, and made it back into Queenstown by 6:45. I really enjoyed our trip to Milford Sound and recommend it to those who enjoy the small wonders of the environment and things that are a bit more slow paced in comparison to the fast adrenalin activities like bungy jumping       and Canyon Swing.    

Check out this blog from Jucy Cruize, another great way to explore Milford Sound!  
              

Shotover Canyon Swing

Canyon swing website

I would have to say that Canyon Swing is one of the craziest and best things I have done whilst being in Queenstown. This is the highest cliff swing in the World, 109 meters high, 60 meters free fall and a 200 meter swing over the Shotover River. It is $199 for a single swing of your choice, $49 for a second jump and $20 for spectators.

Our group of seven met at the Canyon Swing office front on Shotover Street where we were introduced to our jumpmaster Chris. We were then weighed for safety reasons and while this happened Chis wrote something on our hand. Many other companies in Queenstown, like AJ Hackett Bungy, put numbers on your hand to represent which group you are with or which bungy cords need to be used. Canyon Swing, however, use the hand to draw funny little things that appear to have no meaning whatsoever. Chris only had to ask where I was from before he was writing ‘I ate six pies today’ … Stereotypical outlook on Australians. 

We boarded the Canyon Swing mini bus to drive out to the swing site about 20 minutes from Queenstown. On the way Chris was completely lighthearted and made us feel at ease about jumping towards the raging water below. We watched a short movie about the different types of swings we would be able to do and there was so many possibilities. Some of them included jumping off the platform forwards, backwards, upside down, in a chair, with a bin on your head or with various teddy bears and other items. Each had a name like the Elvis Cutaway, Gimp Boy Goes To Hollywood, Indian Rope Trick or the Jumpmasters Choice. It gave us our first look at how we might be creative in our jump.

Once the van was parked we were told that the last toilet stop would be the drop dunnies – go now or hold it in … I recommend holding it! We had a 300 meter walk down a dirt path to get to the platform and along the way we were challenged to find all the gnomes hiding along the way and to laugh at the funny path signage that really didn’t make much sense.

Our first job on arriving at the platform was to chant ‘backflip, backflip, backflip’ for Duchy, the new operations manager, he didn’t quite make it that far though. Chris went through a bit of safety information before we headed out to put harnesses on. Although the guys fitting us up were joking around they were also very through about our safety and making sure the harness was on properly. Each of us had our own little perks about our jump; one of us started off in the chair and ended up having to get out and walk away from the edge, another wouldn’t let go of the railing, one of us played a ukulele and one of us went off the edge with a bin strapped over his head while dancing to the Harlem Shake.

Me, I decided it would be cool to jump backwards and do as many backflips as possible. Standing on the edge I was a little bit apprehensive, what was I thinking? The human mind isn’t made to casually fall off a 109 meter cliff, yet there I was. Because I had chosen a jump which I had to commit to by myself I was very fortunate to have Chris as the jumpmaster and there to talk me through my craziness. I had to fall back a certain amount before I could push off and tuck up my feet. I listened carefully as I fell and Chris told me exactly when to push off and I managed four awesome flips before going a bit spastic at the bottom! This was the biggest burst of excitement and adrenalin and when they asked if anyone wanted to do it again I just had to. For my next jump I did the Gimp Boy Goes To Hollywood, they suspend you upside down and let you fall when you least expect it! In the process of freefalling I lost one of my shoes, which will now be at the bottom of the Shotover River. When I got back up Chris gave me the biggest hug and a shoe from their spare collection, which has skulls and crossbones on it.

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Inside the platform centre we collected our photo and video package (in which you can actually see me losing my shoe). Because it was only my teacher and I who attempted a second jump and because the operations team thought my jumps were epic, they gave me the second jump on the house! Definitely the coolest guys around  town. I would highly recommend the Canyon Swing for everyone, adrenalin junkies to those a bit unsure, everyone comes away feeling revived. The guys who run the operation might joke and be funny, but they are %100 focused on your safety and enjoyment, and on the way home you have the privilege of watching people who are so funny that they made it into the Oscar’s of Swings video, honestly the best laugh I’ve had in a long time!

This blog from the Road Folks will inspire anyone who wasn't inspired by my blog!!