We headed up to Queenstown for our Nevis Arc Swing, checked in for that and then got the bus to the canyon site. They also do the Nevis Bungy there, but we decided to go for the swing as it was cheaper for us both! It’s also the highest swing in the world, and you freefall 70m before swinging across the canyon.
I was a little apprehensive, but neither of us were particularly scared, although if I’d been doing the bungy it would have been a different story I think! We got off the bus and were the first of our session to get harnessed in, then hovered above the open canyon. We were released and freefell 70m, turning upside down on the way! It was all over very quickly, but hanging at the bottom was quite nice! I thought the worst part was being winched back up! Was great fun though, wish I could have done it again. Maybe it’ll be the bungy next time! Follow the link below to view our photos and video.
After celebrating our achievement with a Fergburger in the evening, we drove to Wanaka the next morning. We went for a walk up Mt Iron, which had some nice views although the day was a little cloudy. We then took a trip to the FANTASTIC Puzzling World…. it was quite a good way to kill an afternoon but nothing particularly to rave about - a few optical illusions and a big maze (and random Roman themed toilets..). The evening was spent at the Cinema Paradiso, which I would definitely recommend. Its a really small privately run cinema with a cafe out the front, where they serve homemade cookies and ice-cream. The cinema itself is full of comfy arm chairs and sofas, and a Morris Minor with comfy cushions inside! We saw Iron Man 2 (mildly entertaining) and had dinner in the interval, really tasty food, if anyone goes there I’d recommend eating too!
After staying the night in a local holiday park and indulging in a hot shower and a load of washing, we drove the long and hilly drive to the Glaciers. It was pouring with rain for most of the day so it took quite a while, but we arrived at Fox Glacier and booked ourselves a half day hike.
Up early the next day for the hike - a little bus took us to the glacier access and then we walked up to the ice itself, through an active rock fall area and 800 steps up through a forest! We got our crampons on and spent an hour walking on the ice. There were a load of guys up there cutting out our path with axes! I really enjoyed this hike, it would have been good to stay up there for longer on the full day hike, but I was exhausted by the end anyway!
That afternoon we had hoped to walk around Lake Matherson, where there are some stunning views of the southern alps, but unfortunately it had pretty much been pouring with rain all morning (although it did clear up while we were on the ice) and the visibility wasn’t great so we reluctantly gave it a miss. Instead, we headed up to Franz Josef where we braved the rain and went on a couple of short walks to get good views of the glacier (including to a little lake called ‘Peter’s Pool’!), then continued our drive north and camped out by Lake Ianthe.
