Here's why you should visit

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New Zealand is amazing. To start, as I am typing his I am eating a bowl of Hokey Pokey ice cream. A Kiwi treat, Hokey Pokey is vanilla with honey comb/honey mixed in. Maybe my new favorite ice cream. If that isn’t enough to make NZ great here’s a short list of reasons…

1. About a thirty minute walk away from Dunedin is Mt. Cargill, a lovely 3 hour round trip hike that has stunning views of the town, ocean, and surrounding mountain scenery. Right in my own backyard. Me and some friends decided to do this hike last week and we happened to pick a gorgeous sunny day. Sweet as.

2. A wave of sunny days it translates to ocean waves. Beach time! I hit up the same beach again on Wednesday and it was quite fun. No surfing this time because the rentals were all used up but still a nice day in the sun. I even ventured into the Pacific without a wetsuit to do some body surfing. After all your body goes numb the water isn’t that bad.

3. I went to a late night metal show on campus, so there’s a small underground hardcore music scene. The night included three NZ bands, Ashes of Eden who opened, Made in China, and Incarnate. The latter two are kinda metallica like metal so it’s not quite my style. The opener and local heroes (they go to the Uni), Ashes of Eden, are quite awesome. A mix of scream and sing with some nice metal twists make them perfect for me. I’m going to go pick up their EP from the drummer’s flat once I text him. Note that they don’t have a myspace and there’s another Ashes of Eden metal band that isn’t so hot when you search myspace.

4. We traveled this weekend on a group activity weekend (so that means the Arcadians) rolled into Queenstown. It’s about a 3-4 hour bus ride which stopped a few times for lunch to get lunch (I had meat pies which are good despite the name) and to a local fruit stand that had amazingly delicious fruit. Once we arrived it was rainy, which has been the only downside for this trip so far, so we didn’t get to go luging (like an Alpine Slide in the States). Instead we just kicked it around the hostel for the rest of the night. Queenstown is nestled next to a big lake and in the middle of the mountains. I named it Rivendell.

5. The next morning we went on an 8 hour hike called Routeburn (or something like that). Giving further proof that this place isn’t real on the bus rise to the trail head we saw numerous rainbows (both full ones and double ones). I kept expecting to see mythical creatures or dinosaurs walking around this magical place. The scenery was breathtaking. It’s right by where they filmed the Misty Mountains from LoTR and the whole last sequence in Fellowship of the Ring. Despite the misty/rainy weather it didn’t detract from the experience at all. The hike was about 13 miles roundtrip so we were pretty beat when we returned.

6. Sunday (today) gave us a taste of Queenstown that makes it such a tourist attraction, extreme sports. So to start off the day we did something called jetboating. This involves your group getting into these big, red, fast boats that whip you through a rocky canyon. The drivers are amazingly good and slide you within a few feet of these big rocky cliffs. Not only are they fast and dangerously close to the walls, but every now and then the driver can make the boat do 360’s. Needless to say it was pretty sweet. Then came the big even, Bungie Jumping.

We had the option to do a bridge jump, which is the first bungie jump in the world, or a bigger one. Go big or go home. Although the bridge jump allowed you to be dunked into the river below, which is a gorgeous blue color because of the glacier melts. The bigger jump, Nevis, is three times higher than the bridge jump, a whopping 134 meters (about 450 feet) up. This jump is from a suspended gondola car that you take a short ride out into the middle of this canyon with a river far below. Even the bus ride to the gorge was somewhat scary with a windy road that teeters on the edge of the cliffs. Once we were all harnessed up, we went out to the big platform-gondola thing. It has some glass floors so you can view your fate. I wasn’t that nervous despite my previous incident. Once they call your name, you get into a chair that resembles a dentist chair near the edge. They strap you in (the bungies around your ankle and again to your harness). Then you kinda waddle out to a small platform that overlooks the gorge with nothing in front of you but open air. That part was a little scary. With an attendant holding your back so you don’t fall forward, a count down progresses and then off you go.

I had my arms out in a crucifix-esque position (I’m a good Christian and figured it’d help my chances) and took a giant leap off the edge. The freefall is unreal. It’s just you and the ground for a few seconds as you plunge into the chasm. Not a thought crossed my mind because I was so in awe of what I was doing and just caught up in the moment. After a few second straight freefall, the bungie starts to kick in. Scary enough as is but for me but it felt a little loose around my ankles, yet still held up much to my relief. You bounce a couple times until your hauled back up to the gondola. It was amazing and the biggest thrill of my life. I definitely suggest it if you get a chance. After the whole group went, we hopped on a bus and returned to lovely Dunedin.

7. We went out to eat at a Thai restaurant after we exited the bus and dropped off our stuff. Since NZ is pretty close to Asia there is a lot of Indian, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese places. It’s all so delicious. Even the regular food is better than home. Everything just seems more fresh (kinda like in Germany, but the food is just better). Also since Dunedin is a big college town there are many options.

It was an amazing weekend. Hopefully soon I will return to Queenstown to cash in my voucher to do the luging. Additionally I will hopefully go white water rafting and ultimately sky dive. Thankfully I returned in one piece with no accidents. Still alive and kicking.

Oh, one more thing. My friend had pretty big party at his place over the weekend. There’s a tradition at Otago to burn couches and furniture. I experienced my first taste of this there where a few chairs were torched. Cops showed up (but didn’t break up the party, kinda silly) and the firemen put out the blaze. Additionally as I was walking over to the party a large gathering of people were down the street surrounding something. Upon further inspection they had flipped a car. Crazy kids.