Day 4 - Kawarau Bungy jump and home!

Queenstown is the home of Bungy, so when in Queenstown, try a bungy. Of the 27 in the group, 5 initially put their names down. By the end of the afternoon 15 of the group had taken the plunge! This was a record number for a WelTec group. It must be contagious.

Guess the jumper?

Prior to the jump a talk was given about the history of Bungy and founder AJ Hackett's adventures in setting up the company. The talk kind of calmed the nerves but also brought home just how insane it looks to willingly fling yourself of a bridge! Most of the jumpers invested in some souvenir pictures/DVD of the big event, by way of proof that they really did it!



A nice dip







The option to have your hands or head dunked in the water was given, but didn't seem an exact science; some had hands dipped, others went in to the waist! Luckily it was another sunny day and drying off was not a problem.

What an awesome trip! A final chance for a bit of shopping in Queenstown and back to windy Wellington.

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Day 3 - Coronet Peak, Queenstown and Adventure day

Settled into the Queenstown Novotel right by the lakeside on Tuesday night. A comparison with this and the hotel in Te Anau was undertaken during the trip (free Internet access was a good bonus) Today was when the adventures began.



Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown by day



Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, evening



First up was a trip in convoy of all three vans to Coronet Peak ski field. It was closed for the season but there was still a fair amount of snow for everyone to enjoy snowball fights and slides down the hill on inflatables provided by Esther. Richard in particular was keen to get up high on the mountain for a bit of freestyle descent!




Richard letting things slide





Girl racers!



Snowball fight!



Day 2 - Milford Sound Cruise

Departing from the hotel in Te Anau, the group picked up the Real Journeys Coach for the two hour trip up the Milford Highway to Milford Sound - time for a rest for Esther, Eugene and Andy :-)

Along the way we saw some stunning scenery including the Mirror Lakes and several avalanche spots before and after traveling through Homer Tunnel.

Mirror Lakes

 

Mirror Lakes - This one looks a bit like an alien if you tilt your head



An avalanche spot on the way to Milford Sound



According to the coach driver the Sounds are best experienced in wet weather to see the waterfalls in full flow, although for this trip there was sunshine and clear blue skies which meant that Mitre Peak was fully visible and plenty of good photo opportunities on the 2 hour trip through the Sounds.

Mitre Peak

Just like Titanic?

On the trip back there were a couple more stops; to fill up water bottles from crystal clear water and also for a short walk to a rock formation known as The Chasm. Once back at Te Anau it was pretty much back into the vans and on to Queenstown... where the adventure activities began :-)

Waterfall

Esther and waterfall

More pictures of the Mirror Lakes

Day 1 - Millbrook, Gold and Glow worms

A long day for the start of the trip; starting with check in at Wellington Airport at 6.15am and finishing with at trip to the Glow Worm caves in the evening at Lake Te Anau

The first stop was a guided visit to Millbrook Resort

Looks like it could be a pretty good place to work! Take a look here for current vacancies.

After Millbrook, it was a quick trip into Arrowtown for lunch and to try a spot of gold panning. A few grains of gold may have been collected but nothing to retire on - all staff and students are back at WelTec by now.

Arrowtown also has the remains of  Chinese Settlement from its goldrush days. There are some reconstructed shacks, but not much remains of the original settlement now except a few foundations and an interesting outside toilet!



Toilet stop



In the afternoon there was a 2 hour drive to accommodation in Te Anau -

The Fiordland Motel (How did this hotel compare with the Novotel in Queenstown?)

Once unpacked and fed there was a boat trip to the Glow Worm Caves of Lake Te Anau. These were only rediscovered in 1948. Quite a peaceful little trip.

One of the group pictures at the Glow Worm caves

Megan close-up, Lake Te Anau

Radhika and Ken's back

More photos from day one can be viewed at the links below:

Millbrook Resort

Arrowtown

Te Anau