|
Biting little devils that get fat sucking on your blood like tiny vampires. Avoid if possible, but easier said than done on the South Island.
0 Comments
 After a crazy amount of driving ourselves around, when we got to Te Anau we made the decision to take a guided tour of what is sometimes affectionately called the 'eighth natural wonder of the world' - Milford Sound. We had heard some crazy stories about the dangers of the road into Milford and given the weather forecast (very rainy) and the fact we had driven so much, we decided to let someone else take charge so we could sit back, relax and fully appreciate the amazing landscape of Fiordland National park (apparently the second largest national park in the world). We paid $99 NZ (about £50ish) for small bus which took us the 3.5 hours down to Milford, including commentary from our guide Mark. The road was amazing (and steep in many places) and more than once we were glad we hadn't attempted the drive ourselves.
 Even whilst writing this post some 3 days after the fact, I still can't actually believe that we did a bungy jump. Whilst sat on the vineyard in Chile we made the snap decision to make the booking (something we talked about before but had not done anything about). Whilst sat on the comfort of the sofa, making the decision was decidedly easy and before we knew it we had paid and had a date in the diary. With all the flights, changing time zones and picking up the van, we almost forgot about what we were going to do, but on the morning drive from Queenstown up to the Kawarau Bridge, it suddenly all felt very very real. We watched others jump off the 43m platform and the reality of what we had signed up to do really hit home. We saw the best technique was to either jump properly forward or fall forward with straight legs to get the best possible thrill. We saw some people take the wrong approach (which is to bend your knees and kneel down off the platform), resulting in one little girl basically doing a somersault off the platform before being ripped by upwards by the legs (ouch!).  We got ourselves weighed, were branded like cattle with our measurements and photo numbers and headed out to be harnessed up. The bridge is equipped with amazing cameras for filming the jump and they have special photographers, meaning our terrified faces and nervous babbling have been preserved for ever. We had our legs bound, the bungy cord attached and were told how to hold on to each other (we decided on a tandem jump). Before we knew it we were being asked to shuffle to the edge of the platform and Joe had be told to release his iron grip from the bridge handle. Then it was 3, 2, 1... BUNGY! And we tipped forward over the edge, watching the water come into view before plunging down headfirst. The thrill was electric, the adrenaline was pumping and the whole thing left our legs shaking. Definitely definitely definitely recommended for anyone brave enough and extra recommended for those who are super scared, because the pay off is immense.
 We know it's been A LONG time since we last blogged, but A LOT has happened and the wifi connection has been TERRIBLE. We waved goodbye to the South American leg of our journey and took a gruelling 13 hour flight all the way across to the other side of the world! We touched down in Auckland before catching a flight to Christchurch where we spent a few days recovering from the terrible jet lag and wandering around the city centre before picking up our camper van for a month long driving tour of New Zealand...
 Having bid an emotional farewell to the beautiful horses at Odfjell, we headed out on to our final stop in South America - Buenos Aries. Rounding off a crazy few months, we spent the first nights of our trip so far in a shared dorm (somewhat unhappily for me, 'shared mixed' dorm usually means 'lots of horrible smelly men who snore' dorm where I'm the lone female...). Despite the somewhat interesting sleeping arrangements, our few days in the Argentine capital were spent taking in the sights by foot (not that easy given the weather which was 1) HOT 2) HUMID and 3) stormy beyond belief).
 Unfortunately for me, the epic New Year party and the following hours of sitting in the cold night air took their toll on my body, and I spent the next week in bed with flu, shivering, aching and generally looking like a warmed up corpse. For this reason, the last week of our time in Chile was pretty uneventful (which definitely doesn't make for a fun post!). Joe carried on his research in the office alone and put together a presentation, and by the end of the week I was just enough recovered to present my findings as well. Overall our time at Odfjell was unique and very interesting. The job was enjoyable, the estate was beautiful and the horses were just the highlight of everything. In hindsight, we think hiring a car would have been a good option, just to allow us to get off the vineyard without having to rely solely on Uber (which was not easy). We made it into Santiago for a last weekend, walking back around the sights, picking up some last minute essentials and generally relaxing (including indulging in a pizza at Patio Bellavista).
 In our wisdom/foolishness, we made an impromptu decision to travel to the epic NYE celebrations at Valparaiso on Chile's Pacific Coast. After a quick Google search it was obvious that we could not afford to stay the night in the city - most places had a three night minimum stay policy and beds in 10 person dorms that would have cost £10 a night being sold at £40-£60. With that we decided to pull an all nighter, arriving on Sunday morning, taking in the sights, staying up for the firework display and street parties before getting the first bus back on the 1st of January.
We got up at 6:30am on New Year's Eve and immediately struggled to find an uber to take us to the bus stop, to take us to the metro system, to get us to the bus terminal. It was a slightly stressful 30 minutes as we realised we couldn't even get a taxi from the vineyard and that we were rapidly running out of time to make the journey to the station. In the end, we got very lucky, as an uber was dropping someone else off nearby and we finally made it with time to spare. |
Authors
Hi! We're Alice and Joseph, currently on a year long RTW trip :) Archives
September 2018
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
All content and images copyright © Alice Stephenson & Joseph Lidbetter 2017-2018