Queenstown and Hang Gliding

After my tramping, I went to Queenstown, the "adventure capital of New Zealand." It is in a gorgeous location, along the pristine Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by the Remarkables mountains. It has become the downunder Vail for some Hollywood types. However, it is highly tourist oriented, with a major focus on bungi jumping, sky diving, jet boating, etc. My hostel was "Bungi Backpackers". I didn't go all-out like that, but I did go hang-gliding, which was a fantastic experience. We got airborne quite easily, although there was not enough sun to have a really good or long flight. It was a tandem flight, but I got to take the controls for a little bit. I really do not have the gist of it yet. It is very quiet and peaceful to glide along, but the pilot also threw in some spins and tricks that woke me up. That is not me in the picture, since I took the shot, but I did the exact same thing. You can see there were some rain cells, but still decent visibility. Lots of fun.




Also in Queenstown, I bumped into this German guy who I had seen in Christchurch and then was on the same tour with in Dunedin. While tourists do tend to do a loop of a lot of the same cities, it was still quite a coincidence to see someone on the streets of three different cities that are a good distance apart, and several days apart. Small country.
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