Te Anau
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2004
1
55
89
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Te Anau,
New Zealand
Thursday, December 23, 2004
It seems a bit weird to wake up in the morning and think, today I feel like throwing myself off a mountain but then there's nothing that normal about the travelling life which is why it's so fantastic (notice I wrote life, can things ever be the same again ? Day jobs, office work, commuting - current interest rating ZERO NEGATIVE !)
So off we went with me slightly more apprehensive than B, who generally has no fear so is not a good control in any experiment. Got picked up in a mini bus and drove up towards treble cone mountain. The road was pretty steep and wound around switchbacks before we found a good spot. I was quickly corrected that we would not be jumping of a mountain but rather it would be a controlled walk and take off. I stand corrected ! B got kitted up (I clearly was going to check physical and mental damage after his jump before I decided whether to go ahead or not and we worked out the secret squirrel code of whether he thought I should maybe do it or DEFINATELY do it. Anyway after some quick instruction and getting the gear on it was all happening. I perched on the side of the mountain to get a good take-off picture (failed and got seriously repromanded for poor photography skills)and B did his controlled walk and take off.
Amazing view over the lakes and valley a bit like you'd imagine if you were in space looking down on earth. B did soem nifty manouvers in tandem with our instructor and we we chased them down to the bottom in the van. They landed before we got there (more sh*t for not getting the landing pictures) However all in one piece, so I thought I'd better go for it. Back up the mountain and tried my controlled walk before getting lifted off and up we went. Thought we were supposed to be gently falling ? Apparently we got a better wind cycle and we cruised around for about 20 min before some death defying g- force spins (bleugh) and a gentle landing. Not what I expected as it is fairly passive for the tandem paraglider and no adrenellin rush but beautiful views and a cool experience.
Had spinning head for a couple of hours so not sure about the next journey but the long and short is that we cruised though Queenstown and onto Te anu which was the starting point for our trek the next day. Checked into our holiday cabin had a chinese that could feed an army and did our last minute shopping and organising for the next few days. Apparently its nearly Christmas !
Last night before Kepler Track
