7th January 2011, 07:22
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7th January 2011, 08:38
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7th January 2011, 18:35
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| BHPian Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Chennai
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7th January 2011, 18:52
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7th January 2011, 19:08
| #20 |
| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: New Delhi
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) I'm hooked on to this thread. Haven't read much about New-Zealand and the beautiful pics of the glacier and the countryside has my jaw dropped at present. Waiting to see more pics and read about the awesome travelogue. Rated it 5-star.  |
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9th January 2011, 14:55
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) Quote:
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Didn't drive through the whole country, just a lot of the Southern Island. | ||||||
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9th January 2011, 15:14
| #22 |
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) Queenstown here we come ... today we jump off a plane from 15000 ft (the highest possible for a Tandem jump in this part of the world). Why 15000 ft? Well, thanks to Anmol who felt that if something had to go wrong, he wouldn't want to be hurried into the last few moments of his life (you see, he likes taking things nice and slow). And yup, we also bungy off the Nevis (another of the legend AJ Hackett's ideas), at 143m its the highest in Australia/New Zealand. There are a few in the 200m range (one in Switzerland, China, South Africa ... don't remember the others) and then the biggie in Colorado in the 300m range (I think its Colorado, correct me if I'm wrong). Its by far one of the most exhillarating experiences and I personally rate the Nevis Bungy and the Nevis Arc, right up there with the G-Max (Reverse Bungy) in Singapore. This one had a 8 second freefall (gets over a bit too quick). There are loads of options to Bungy in Queenstown, all handled by the AJ Hackkett company. There's the biggie, the Nevis Arc, then you have one over the Kawarau River (the place where it all started) and here you can actually opt to have yourself dipped into the river, then there's the Ledge Bungy the only one which offers freestyle jumps. Saw a girl doing a cartwheel off the ledge, a guy doing a running jump (picture cartoons where you see Tom running of the ledge and then pedalling fresh air), it was amazing. But nothing beats what we saw at the Nevis Arc (will upload the video), its the world's largest swing (a few scales up on our friendly neighbourhood swing) where you have the option to either go tandem or solo, backwards, forwards or upside down backwards or forwards. Well, all that my guts allowed me to do, was a forward swing. The next guy though had a completely different idea. He went upside down backwards and filmed his entire swing on a compact digital camera ... hmm I don't see myself doing that in this lifetime :-) Here are a few pics from the airfield out at the jump. A few people had just completed their jump when we got there and there were new groups, going up. We were really looking forward to the jump.                     |
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9th January 2011, 15:36
| #23 |
| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) A few more pics from the jump point. Well, its finally our turn, we pull on our overalls, lookup at this screen to see who our jump instructor would be and then I notice the pilot has actually brought his plane in and turned off the engine (the place got a lot quieter) and then we're told that there's an big dark cloud right over the airfield and the pilot doesn't like the look of it. The jumps are called off, imagine how disappointed we felt, on our way back to town. We reschedule our jump for the evening but we know it doesn't look possible because its started to rain.     Anyway,after rescheduling our jump, we head off to the Bungy, here are a few pics from on-site. Its a long drive from the town centre, this one actually has my stomach in knots but its more out of excitement, knowing this is going to be my first Bungy jump  , Anmol and Amruta ain't that excited coz they have plenty experience falling off things ... chairs, staircases, couches.     Couldn't take pics after this point because it was really beginning to pour by now, the next set of pics are what was taken by the Bungy company's cameras. Last edited by RufRoc : 9th January 2011 at 15:37. |
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9th January 2011, 15:48
| #24 |
| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) And here are the pics from the Bungy's camera, there was some Heavy Metal playing up there (to psych you up or probably so you don't hear others scream on their way down). The bottom has a see through glass, so you actually get a good view of the whole thing.          The next set of pics are from the Nevis Arc (the Swing). I've got videos of both, let me check if I can upload them. In the meanwhile, here's the link to the Bungy website ... AJ Hackett New Zealand - Official Site         Verdict: Queenstown certainly deserves its title of the adventure capital of the world, you just have to walk through Shotover Street and even if you weren't planning on doing anything, the excitement just sucks you in and spits you out the other end wide-eyed, screaming and a little wet in the pants. There were adventures I've never ever heard of and I try to keep myself abreast of the new ways we device to scare the wits out of each other ... River surfing was one such thing, looked a bit too extreme for me though. And for those of you who don't really like that adrenaline rush, there are milder versions of all the above, for eg: you can raft down a Grade 2-3 river (Kawarau), while at the other end you get to ride a Grade 3-5 Shotover river, you can jump out of a plane at 9000ft or from 15000ft ... I hope you get the point. One of the most fun days of my life, certainly beat sitting at a desk in a office |
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9th January 2011, 18:03
| #25 |
| Senior - BHPian  | Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) Ah!! New Zealand, a place I've always dreamed of going. Thanks for putting up this lovely travelogue RuffRoc. Great pics you have there  |
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10th January 2011, 08:38
| #26 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) Quote:
 Looks like I'll have to first upload my videos to youtube, before embedding the links here, so in the meanwhile here is an AJ Hackkett video off Youtube (promo video) | |
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10th January 2011, 10:47
| #27 |
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10th January 2011, 13:56
| #28 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Chennai
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10th January 2011, 14:42
| #29 |
| BHPian  | Re: From the Land of the Kiwis (New Zealand) Wow, the Travelogue is shaping up to be very amazing. You actually climbed up the Glacier and Bungy Jumping is awesome Keep 'em coming. |
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10th January 2011, 16:12
| #30 |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
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