This day was another full day in Queenstown for even more activities. For me though, I had no activities scheduled, so it was going to be a "day off" so to speak. Chad was the first to get up as he, Damien, Fred, and Colleen the Machine were the only ones insane enough to do the Nevis Highwire Bungy, the highest bungee jump in New Zealand. They were transported from the lodge a half an hour out of Queenstown to the Nevis River where they would be transported via cable car to a suspended gondola with a glass floor. They would be fitted in a full harness and then jump out and drop 134m/440ft (a full 8 seconds of freefalling!) The rest of us three were rather slow to get up after such an eventful day we just had. "2nd Generation Filipino Educated in Hawaii" became just too long to say, so Mick had officially shortened it to "2G". Mick was off to get a massage in town, and 2G was off on the Dart River Wilderness Jet ride. It was a near full day excursion by jetboat and then canoeing along the Dart River in inflatable canoes through Mt Aspiring National Park for some spectacular alpine scenery and isolation from the rest of the busy world. (Even though I did not participate in this excursion, I have posted here several photos Michael had taken of the excursion as some of the scenery is just breathtaking.)

My day was completely free, with my only plans being doing some laundry, going into town to pick up photos I had ordered from the previous day's rafting experience, and heading back up the Skyline gondola where a group of us were going to to watch Fred and Colleen the Machine do their Ledge bungee jump. The laundry room was full with people lining up to do their laundry, so I decided to head into town to pick up my photos first. I met up with Martina in the laundry room, who was also going to head into town to wander around a bit and also treat herself to a massage. So we both walked from the lodge into town. It was another beautiful day, but a little windier and cloudier than the day before. We found out therefore, that all the skydiving activities for the other Contiki group for that morning were cancelled. After that, we all truly felt lucky that we had such great weather the previous day, as we would have been very disappointed if we had our skydiving cancelled. I picked up my rafting photos and met up with a small group of others from our tour. Many of them were meeting for their Shotover Jet ride, which a large number of us had already done the day before. Colleen the Machine had just come back from doing the Nevis Highwire bungee jump, and had a few hours until she was to continue her extreme pace of adventure activities with tandem hand gliding. So she joined both Martina and I for lunch. We were looking for a change from the usual New Zealand buffet-style meals we had been having so much of, so we decided on Chinese. After lunch, we all parted ways, Colleen to her hand gliding adventure, Martina to her massage, and I just continued wandering around the town. I made it back to the Queenstown Lodge and did a load of laundry. The laundry room was empty this time, unlike in the morning. As I loaded my wash into the dryer, Chad came back from his day of adventure and showed me his photographs from his Nevis Highwire bungee jump. The pictures made the whole experience look frightening, and thus made me nervous about my impending bungee jump off of the Kawarau Bridge in a couple of days ... and that was to be only a 43m drop, nearly 100m shorter than the Nevis Highwire! Chad had also decided to do some laundry, however, there wasn't enough time to wait for the drying cycle, so he left the dryer on with his clothes inside as we both headed out to go back into town. We were going to just walk back down into town but we met up with Julie who was waiting at reception for a taxi. So we all shared a taxi into town. We stopped in at the Red Rock bar for a drink as we waited for more people to meet up with us. We all then used our last free pass up the gondola to the Skyline Restaurant where some more from our tour group were there at the bar. A few had also gone ahead to ride the luge, much like the one we were at in Rotorua. Fred and Colleen were booked on the Ledge Bungy in a half an hour, and as the time came near, we all exited the restaurant and headed to the viewing area to cheer them on. With a torso harness, they could be a little more creative in their jumps, and both dived backwards over the edge, Fred going first, then Colleen, dropping 47m down and then left swinging 400m above Queenstown.

The majority of us then headed back down the gondola to look for a place for dinner. Separate groups went separate ways. I headed back to the Red Rock with Chad, Tyrees, April, John, Vicky, Sinead, Jane and Julie. Extreme Colleen the Machine, our bungee jumping queen, joined us a little later after she got her video of her Ledge Bungy jump. We all ordered some food and drinks as we sat outside on the patio. We continued on with the drinks after Julie, Tyrees, and Extreme Colleen decided to call it a night. The rest of us eventually migrated to inside the very crowded bar for a while. Chad then bumped into a couple of his sister's friends. All were shocked to see one another. They had known they would all be in Queenstown at the same time, but never expected to actually bump into each other in a crowded bar. It reminded me of when I bumped into someone I went to university with on my last trip when I was in Madrid. John, Jane, Vicky and I all left Chad, Sinead and April at the Red Rock and decided to take a look into The World, which we were told was one of the best nightclubs in Queenstown. Inside was crowded and very busy on the dance floor. We stayed for a short while before we shared a taxi back to the Queenstown Lodge. Before getting to my room, we saw Mick, who told me to take a look at what had been done with Chad's laundry, which he had left still in the dryer when we went out to the Skyline. We got back to find 2G doing some laundry and in the hallway, Chad's clothes, all tied together to form a long rope. The end of the "rope" was swung over a plant that had been moved to the entrance to our room. We were told it was one of the "San Diego Girls", Christine (possibly Tyrees too), who had done the deed. Mick, 2G and I left the crime scene undisturbed, with the open door policy still in effect, as we went to bed. Chad did eventually come back and stood outside the room untying the "rope" and folding his clothes up.

The trail of Chad's laundry all tied together