barrantes tour and travel: Jan 10: Queenstown, Bungy, & "If you want him, come and claim him."

Monday was another early morning as we were on a mission to get to Queenstown (a 5-6 hour drive) by noon. Mijin was leaving us (tear) on a 2pm flight to Christchurch and then to San Francisco via a night in Sydney. We also were meeting up with Megan, Vanessa and Graham's friend, who would be driving our extra stuff back to Dunedin as Vanessa, Graham and their friend Simon were biking home to Dunedin.

We popped out of our cute little cabins ready to hit the road at 6am . OK, maybe we didn't pop out, but we made it out of our cabins and into the car and onto the road on time. And most of us were showered too! At a coffee stop along the way, Vanessa took the opportunity to dry out their tent a bit using the well-proven "wave it in the air" method.

Although we were tired, we didn't sleep through all the beautiful scenery that we continued to see on our drive back inland from the West Coast towards Queenstown.

After a quick stop in Wanaka, we headed up over the Crown Range to Queenstown. This was the second time that Todd and I had been up to the top of the Crown Range but only the first time we'd made it over them. On a mid-winter trip to Wanaka, by the time we drove to the top of the Crown Range, it was snowing and Violet (Vanessa's car) didn't think she wanted to go any further. And she didn't have any chains. We were okay with this decision, knowing we would come back someday. Today was the day! A jump at the summit was clearly in order.

After driving down the other side of the Crown Range, we dropped Mijin off at the airport on time - phew! We went to our accommodation and met up with Megan and Simon who had spent the weekend in Queenstown with friends. We returned our rental car (4000km later), and then it was time for the giant car juggle. Everything that Vanessa and Graham didn't need for their bike ride was loaded into Simon's car which Megan was driving back to Dunedin this afternoon. Simon's car had also brought all the bikes to Queenstown, so they didn't have to make the entire great Kiwi road trip. Any extra stuff that Todd, Katie, Jim, and I had also got loaded into the car. Once this logistical dance was complete, we all grabbed lunch at Queenstown institution Fergburger, and then Megan headed back to Dunedin, Vanessa, Graham, and Simon headed to Arrowtown to go tramping, and Todd, Katie, Jim, and I headed up.

Since we had been to Queenstown before, Jim and Katie determined our agenda and stop #1 was a bungy jump for Jim! He did The Ledge Bungy, 400 meters above Queenstown, right next to the Skyline Gondola. While Katie was understandably nervous for her dear love, I was kind of excited to see someone I knew make the leap. As Jim got closer to the ledge (and Katie got closer to throwing up), I got a little nervous too! I can't imagine watching Todd bungy jump. Todd and I were in charge of taking pictures and videoing. Katie had given her camera to Todd as she didn't trust herself to not drop her camera. The video I took is coming soon, but I think I screamed more than Jim did. HUGE props to Jim for doing it. I was thrilled to have witnessed it!

Jump!!

And swing...high above Queenstown

Katie faced her own fear of heights and successfully rode the gondola up and down.

Still on a high from his bungy jump, we dropped Jim and Katie off at the Central Otago Wine Experience, a place where you can taste over 80 wines, and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Queenstown and doing a bit o' shopping.

For dinner, we headed over to Arrowtown, about a 15 minute drive from Queenstown, to meet up with Vanessa, Graham, and Simon and have dinner. To thank us for arranging the trip, Jim was treating us to dinner at Saffron, a Restaurant of the Year Finalist for the past four years. They specialize in using local ingredients from the Central Otago region. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to describe how yummy the food was...remember, I'm no food critic, so words other than yummy escape me. Here's a bit of what we ate:

Twice cooked Blue Cheese & Courgette Souffle with a Salad of Asparagus & Watercreess, chargrilled Pear & Maple syrup vinaigrette
Roasted rack of Southland Lamb, with chargrilled Brochette of Lamb shoulder & Spring Veg, Rosemary sauteed Potatoes, Pea puree, red Current jus
Grilled Stewart Island Blue Cod, with Guacamole Mousse, Crab meat "Quesadilla" and Tomato & Coriander salsa
Jilly's warm Chocolate Cake served with Orange Ice cream and Raspberry Couli

Saffron has a cookbook. If this taste of the menu wets your whistle at all, you might want to think it about adding it to your personal cookbook collection.

Right before dinner, we walked a few steps off Arrowtown's main street to one of the filming locations for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It was the spot where Arwen the Elf was riding with a dying Frodo to Rivendell and crosses the river just ahead of the Ring Wraiths. She dramatically says, "If you want him, come and claim him,"and then says magical elf things to make the water crash all over those nasty Ring Wraiths.

I'll admit that I said "If you want him, come and claim him" as we went over any river that resembled this river. You can ask my car-mates, so it was pretty cool to come to the exact location it was filmed.