New Zealand Day 6: Queenstown

We woke up to a rainbow in Manapouri, a small town near Te Anau. I asked the lady at the front desk of our hotel if they get a rainbow like this every morning. "Well, not every morning. But we get them a lot."

We hightailed it to Queenstown, which is situated on Lake Wakatipu near The Remarkables mountain range. The Remarkables is featured in Lord of the Rings and is a pretty popular place to ski in the winter. We admired it from the car and it really is quite remarkable.

Lake Wakatipu had gorgeous blue water. Sorry - no photo of The Remarkables.

We decided to embrace our touristness and do what most people do when they go to Queenstown in the summer: eat a Fergburger and Bungy Jump. We checked Fergburger off the list; Roxy and I shared a Bun Laden (veggie burger) and Nate had a Little Lamby (lamb with mint jelly).

Outside of Fergburger before the line was out the door.

After lunch, we walked down the street and paid a lot of money to get tied to a rubberband and pushed off of a bridge. Queenstown is the home to modern bungy jumping, so we figured, why not? We're not too cool.

The bungy site was so incredible gorgeous. The bridge is over the Karawau River, which is a brilliant turquoise color, and is pretty cold (which I found out when I dipped my fingers in the water while hanging upside-down).

Wide shot of the bridge and river.

There goes Nate!

There goes Cory!

The equipment they used was surprisingly low-tech. They used bath towels to pad the space around our legs, and they paddled out in an inflatable raft with a PVC pole to get the swinging jumpers after the jump.

The staff working on the boat had enormous biceps!

They're making money hand over fist. They probably have 20 people jump every hour, and if the tickets price wasn't enough, they charge $70 each for photos and DVDs (we passed). We did get shirts that say "Jumper" on them and had an adrenaline rush for the rest of the day. Lots of fun!

We headed out of bustling Queenstown and on to the small hamlet of Glenorchy. We stayed in a room above a bar, right across the street from the Possum Fur store. The Australian possums are destroying the native trees, so it's good for the environment to buy a sweater made of possum fur or a possum fur coat.

One of the few buildings in downtown Glenorchy.

We were the only occupants that night and we got to sleep with the heater on! Our bedroom was in one room with a sink. The toilet was across the hall and the shower was next door. It was kind of like a college dorm and was ideal for us because the baby went to sleep at 7, so we locked her in the bedroom and stayed up to watch Superman in the lounge room next to our bedroom.