Adventure and Burger Capital of the World - South Island Trip Part 4
The baying of a nearby donkey and the equally exuberant response from a local rooster woke me early the morning in the bach. Everyone else woke up at roughly the same time, so we cleaned up the bach, I had my leftover trail food for breakfast (an orange and canned tuna) and we took off to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. The drive was an adventure all its own. The road wove through the valley, with sweeping turns, and very few other drivers. It was like a F1 race, bombing up and down the hills and around Lake Wakatipu. I was really glad we opted for the full insurance, because I hate to think what that road did to our car’s suspension. When we got to Queenstown, he headed straight to Nevis’s Bungy. Two of the girls in our car were taking the plunge that was born in the heart of Queentown’s reckless abandon. Luckily for us, Nevis also had computers/internet connection for anyone jumping. Emails tend to pile up when you’re nowhere near a computer for over a week. It’s here I learned that ProjectGO was offering to send me to Senegal for 8 weeks this summer, and since I only applied for 4 weeks and in Boston, I was taken aback. I emailed my parents thought longingly of the Sunset nachos that I would now have to wait an additional few weeks for.
After some grocery shopping, moving into my hostel, and checking out the Queenstown library, I threw on my swim trunks and got on the bus to go river surfing. River surfing is one of the myriad of adventure activities Queenstown offers and consists of taking little more than a boogie board and a wet suit down white water. Serious Fun River Co. offers a trip down the longest class 4 commercial rapids in New Zealand, and when it comes to high adventure, it doesn’t get much more exciting than class 4 rapids on a boogie board.
When it comes to swimming, kicking is far and away my weakest skill, and it’s what I fully had to rely on for this venture. I’m not going to lie, there was chunks that were frightening, but with an exhilarating kind of fear. We passed through the Pillars of the King from Lord of the Rings, I surfed on a rapid’s wave (it’s a crazy feeling and it suspends you in the river), and then shot the Chinese Dogleg, the half mile of class 4 rapids. I ended exhausted with a big stupid grin on my face.
The rest of my time in Queenstown I spent getting to know the city, and perhaps more importantly, getting to know the city’s food. Queenstown is famous for Fergsburger, the best burger in New Zealand, and possibly this side of In n’ Out. I stopped there twice and had the Southern Swine (my first American bacon since getting here) and the Sweet Bambi (a burger made with Fiordland deer). The Cookietime store, a lamb and kumara meat pie (the penultimate NZ food stereotype), and a cup of honeycomb ice cream made up the remainder of my inspiringly healthy food choices. I wandered through the Queenstown rose garden, and took a few pictures by a stone arch emblazoned with Service Above Self, watched a street perform balance himself on the pier, and went to the local craft market. I’ve loved everywhere I’ve been in New Zealand, but Queenstown is the first place I could see myself actually living. After the crafts fair, I hopped on a bus to the airport and the plane back to Auckland.