Frank's Bungy Jump and up to Lake Wanaka
Trip Start
Oct 16, 2007
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40
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Trip End
May 09, 2008
Boundary Creek, New Zealand
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
the late 1800s, with the discovery of gold in the nearby Arrow River, thus it had that 'frontier town' feel.
We crossed the Kawarau River again where we saw bungy jumpers a few days earlier. Since we were driving right by the bungy site, we thought this is probably Frank's chance to
to check it out. (I was too chicken to try it out and thought I'd probably lose my lunch doing it). Luckily, Frank didn't have to wait too long. Just a quick NZ$160 payment and weight check, then he was off to the bridge to put on his harness. Just a few minutes later, harness secured, he was standing on the platform, waving to me & the other onlookers across the bridge. With a quick '1-2-3' shout from the dude on the bridge, Frank pushed off, and had great form flying down, like he was doing an Olympic high-dive or something. Some pics are attached... We also bought the DVD but need to figure out how to convert the thing before we can post his jump online. Frank says "Everything happened so fast, I didn't even realize I was jumping off a bridge until it was all over. It was also definitely the fastest way to burn $160...but somehow addictive and cool!" Frank definitely wants to jump again. It's too bad we didn't have time to check out AJ Hackett's other jump, the Nevis, which is 230m+ (the Kawarau Bridge jump was only 43m).
It was another few hour drive up to the Wanaka region. Lots of stunning mountain scenery along the way. The views were even more fabulous as we approached Lake Wanaka. We stopped for a bit to enjoy the lake front views, then did a little hike up nearby Iron Mountain to get panoramic views of the area. We drove further north to also get views of Lake Hawea , and ended up spending the night at the DOC (Dept of Conservation) Boundary Creek campsite along Lake Wanaka, with great views of the lake from the back of our campervan.
