Friday morning we woke up and left in shifts for the swing. It was about a 45 minute drive and we were shuttled by the company. There were only 6 of us per group and we all went tandem cuz it was cheaper. My group didn’t leave till 10:40 so we just hung out at the hostel till take off. Anyway, we got there and had to walk out on this tiny, wobbly bridge to the platform where they drop you. It was terrifying. Sarah and I went together and we decided to go backward, the scariest part was walking backward to the very edge of the platform as he hooked us up to the thing. I knew we couldn’t fall because we were attached to a safety line, but it was still gut wrenchingly scary. Anyway, that song that says “momma told me not to come…that ain’t the way to have fun” was playing and instead of counting down for us the guy yelled “this is the way to have fun” and dropped us. It wasn’t scary once we were falling, it was incredibly fun. I continued to scream the whole way until we stopped swinging, but it was a laugh scream if that makes sense. That was really one of the coolest things I have ever done. I loved it! The beginning was a 70 meter freefall before we were caught into the 300 meter arc, it was crazy. Steph and Emily took pictures and video for us so we wouldn’t have to buy them from the company, the video is actually really good. I tried to upload it to facebook but it didn’t work on our limited internet so that will have to go up when we get back to the states. While we were at the swing place everyone was online because they had computers with free internet. Natalie started skyping with her mom and got her mission call. It was too hard to read on the screen but she was called to the Salvador Brazil mission. She is so excited because her brother is in another Brazil mission right now and they will get back about the same time speaking Portuguese. It was really cool to see her get her call, we had to explain to a bunch of people why we were all so excited and jumping around up there. The drive back down to Queenstown was uneventful, we just talked about the swing and were so tired when we got back (after the adrenaline wore off) that we had to take a quick nap before taking on the world again. After sleeping, Brittany B, Stacey, Emily S, Sarah, and I went out to eat for lunch. We split up between fergburger and a fish’n’chips place down by the lake. I loved those fish and chips, they were soooo good. While we were standing there waiting for our food Pascal (the artist) walked by. We got all excited and waved to him, he got this big old grin on his face, shook his head, and walked away, so funny. There was a market set up in the park by the lake where we ate lunch so we wandered around that for a while. There were lots of cool wares, but most of them were pretty pricey. Once it got a little later we all met up to celebrate Natalies call and our last night in Queenstown, but it didn’t really work because everyone drifted and wanted to do different things. Brittany B and I found an Irish pub with live music so that is where we spent most of the evening. It was so fun. A much different feel from the Altitude bar. We pulled up a couple chairs close to the band and took pictures and tried to sing along when we could guess the lyrics. During a break between songs we introduced ourselves to them and asked for a picture, they were surprised and excited because we were their first groupies. When we left the pub we went over to Padagonia, the best ice cream place in the world according to most people. I don’t know if I quite agree with that but it was pretty dang good. I had a scoop of white chocolate almond and a scoop of a caramel swirl and it was to die for. We ate our ice cream and then walked around the pier for a bit. There was an old man that we had been seeing all over the place playing his guitar and singing. No one ever stopped to listen to him though so we decided to be his groupies too. There were about 6 of us and we talked to him for a while and listened to some old songs. He was actually pretty good for being so old. After that we went back to watch Pascal again, most of our group was already there watching him, I think he thought we were crazy. That was a good ending note for Queenstown though, watching him paint and enjoying the beautiful night outside.
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