Bungy!

We called in at the original home of bungy jumping, the Kawarau Bridge over the Shotover River near Queenstown.





When I was last in the area the bus I was on stopped on the nearby road bridge. We watched a young chap standing on the edge, about to jump. Watched him for several minutes in fact, before he chickened out and retreated.
















This time there was no anticlimax. The young lady went ahead and did it.

She swung and dangled for a bit, while the retrieval dinghy came out to get her.

Nearly retrieved now.







And probably feeling glad to be alive!

Training them young

They're a fit bunch, those Kiwis. We kept encountering runners charging up mountains that some of us were somewhat challenged to walk up. And often there were mothers (or fathers) carrying their babies up quite challenging mountain walks.

Here at Fern Burn hut, after a 500m ascent and a three hour slog, this 14 month old Kiwi finally catches up with her mother. OK, it wasn't quite like that. Mother put her down 50m before the end of the walk so she could do the final bit solo. But we were still impressed.

Fern Burn

Here we are heading off up the Fern Burn valley, at the start of the Fern Burn Track, which is the first stage of the Motatapu Track, from Wanaka to Arrowtown, near Queenstown, in New Zealand's South Island last week. It's easy and level walking to start with.

Bùrn: Scottish Gaelic for fresh water (English equivalent - Bourne)

We then entered the antarctic beech forest of the Stack Conservation  Area, and it was a bit more up and downy. In all the ascent is about 500m, and the walk takes three hours or so each way.

Up above the tree line now, and after a few more ups and downs, the Fern Burn hut is sighted.

It's a great spot for lunch, and then it's off down again through that rather photogenic beech forest and bùrn.

Isthmus Peak, crowded mountain!

One of the many highlights of our New Zealand visit last week was the walk up Isthmus Peak. It's about 1000m of ascent from the start, near Lake Hawea, to the summit, so it's a respectable three hour slog. Excellent track of course, and fabulous scenery.

Nearing the top now.

Right on the snow line. And on the western side, beyond Lake Wanaka below, are very snowy mountains twice as high, including Mount Aspiring, the highest in the area.

The big climb didn't deter the crowds though. It seems to be peak tramping season in New Zealand, and dozens of groups of visitors from all over the world were doing Isthmus Peak that day.

Some locals, we noticed, were doing it the (relatively) easy way, paragliding their way up and then looking down on us.

Wanaka wannabes

I got back recently from a few days of bushwalking ('tramping') in New Zealand's South Island. A small group of us based ourselves in Wanaka, and did a selection of excellent day walks.

Here we are, in the Mount Aspiring National Park Visitor Centre, examining a rather fine wall map and checking out our proposed routes.

Wanaka town is a very pleasant place, full of holiday homes and tourist facilities. At the bottom of Helwick St here is a beach and Lake Wanaka. The other large lake in the area is Lake Hawea.

There are several ski resorts nearby for the ski season. For the rest of the year there's a big range of terrific walking tracks.

The scenery is magnificent: snow covered mountains, clear blue water lakes, and during our stay clear blue skies too. There are rivers and creeks, antarctic beech forests, and sheep, cattle and deer farms.



Below: the team, atop Rocky Mountain, with its fabulous 360 degree views.

Discovering the Discovery Centre

I finally made it the other day to the Castle Hill Discovery Centre museum thing. It used to be known as the repository for most of the stuff that couldn't fit into the Powerhouse Museum. It's now administratively linked to the Australian Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, maybe a new name for the Powerhouse anyway. Who knows.





Anyway, it's well worth a visit. There's an excellent eclectic collection of museumy things, and it's open weekdays, and beautifully uncrowded, out there in its Castle Hill site, which it shares with an even quieter looking TAFE campus.

Look at how uncrowded the car park was! That's quite a recommendation in itself, for a nice stress-free cultural experience.

Best talk Trumped again

I've been to lots of excellent public talks at Sydney University, but this was possibly the best ever.

Guest speaker David Cay Johnston, is a Pulitzer Prize winner, investigative journalist, biographer of Donald Trump no  less, and an expert on multinational tax dodging and just about everything that's gone wrong with the world. He's known 'The Donald' for decades, is fabulously uncomplimentary about him, and said "There's no way this is going to end well."

The podcast is available here. It's rivetting: https://soundcloud.com/sydney-ideas/david-cay-johnston-trumps-ua-ways-to-fix-a-dishonest-system?in=sydney-ideas/sets/2017-sydney-ideas