It's time to fly!

Day 6 (30^th)

­We woke up to snow covered mountain tops. It was a wee bit chilly, but that didn’t stop us from hiking around wetlands. We even saw a baby porky pine curled up in the middle of the trail! ADORABLE! We made a quick exit to Queensland before we getting caught for camping in a no camping area.

And now…  it’s hang gliding time!

Hang gliding, who does it? It’s totally a 90’s sport that’s fallen off the radar. Now everyone wants the thrill of skydiving or bungee jumping not a joy ride through the sky. Well sucks for them because I have realized it’s an amazing sport! It’s exuberating! I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to fly and now I know. We took two steps, ran off a cliff, laid down, and with no time were soaring through the wind. It’s a great way to see the landscape. I flew over pines and could see the spaces between the trees. I was flying above flying hawks. We danced along a ridgeline for awhile. As gravity brought us closer to the ground we did some stalls and swoop turns. My guide even let me steer two turns which turned out to be quite difficult! You have to hold on to the bar and push it left and right without moving your hands. It’s all core strength because you have nothing to push against. To land we stayed in flying position and swept along the grass until the wheels hit and soon our bodies skidded to a stop with fresh grass stains on the jump suits. It is defiantly something I want to do again. I would love to take lesson to learn how to fly on my own. Surprisingly it’s very safe and crashes really only occur when learning to take off and landing. The most damage done is usually bruises and scraps and maybe a broken bone if you’re unlucky.

My awesome guide from Chile

After the adrenaline rush of flying, what’s better to do than a Pub Crawl! We rolled in early and met the man in charge. Since it the last night of the pub crawl he hooked us up with some swag. I figured if I wore the pub crawl shirt I could just act as a rep and free drinks all night, anddd it was a success! I started the night off well by convincing half a dozen to a dozen people to join us. This is when the drinks started flowing. All night I was getting questions about where to go and what the drink specials were. I was leading the crew and none of the bouncers had to id me because I was working! We danced the night away, of course when to Fergburger, climbed a tree, and ended with watching the sunrise. It was 6 am when we crawled into bed only to be waken at 10 to start the next day!

The beginning of the night (Pete, Me, Dave, Andrew, Daniela)

The end of the night (Friend from Christchurch, Pete, Dave, Me, and Daniela)