Our last stop together is Queenstown, the capital of adrenalin. The world’s first bungee jump took place just a few kilometres away. Jetboating through narrow gorges, paragliding, aerobatics. Downhill mountain biking, speed luging, windsurfing, sailing, water skiing, climbing, canyoning, rafting. Choose the colour you want to paint a boring life an exciting colour!
There are twice as many tourists and three times as many bars for every 16,000 inhabitants. Queenstown is nevertheless nice and small, and still much quieter than Zell am See in the high season. The weather is absolutely unpredictable: Rain in the morning, sun in the afternoon, storms in the evening. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a single good kite spot for the same. Which devil had recommended Queenstown for kitesurfing?
So, I’m here. Good. Or am I? I’m pretty dead on my feet, and in the adrenaline capital of the world. Arnulf is doing his bungee jump for $160. I don’t care, the money for skydiving was already a hell of a lot. We wander around the bars, go out to eat, smoke far too much. The hostel is good. But nothing important happens. I try to keep my eyes open, yawning. Walk through Queenstown. Buy a few items of equipment that I’ve lost, given away or simply ruined.
The surroundings of Queenstown are beautiful. Turquoise blue wild rivers, high rocky mountains. Numerous scenes from The Lord of the Rings were filmed in the surrounding area. But somehow all the beauty doesn’t come through. It’s like eating my favourite dish every day. Simply full. I’d love to move to a really ugly DIY store suburb of Munich right now. But it’s too far away.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.