Australia and New Zealand – Melbourne and the Milford Track (again)

After returning from New Zealand in 2002, I convinced my brother to visit New Zealand with me in 2003. I also took the opportunity to visit another part of Australia, Melbourne. Why Melbourne? I stayed in touch with the two guys I met in 2001, Adam and Anthony, and lived in that area.

Sydney

My trip started in Sydney. After a 14 hour flight, I had planned to stay a few days in Sydney to recover. I also love Sydney so it was an easy decision to visit some new places in the area. I tried to visit some areas I hadn’t seen on my previous trip.

One area was Manly Beach which is a ferry ride away from Circular Quay. Manly Beach has a great little shopping area with restaurants as well as an amazing white sand beach. There was also a walking path away from the beach that provided stunning views of the beach (as well as a few lizards sunning themselves!).

I also took a bus to the city’s outskirts to visit the harbor entrance’s southern head.

Of course, I had to visit Bondi Beach, famous for its surfers (and sharks!). I didn’t see any sharks on this day but lots of skin and lots of surfers. There is a walkway heading south from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach. The bus dropped me off at Bondi Beach and I caught it back to Sydney from Tamarama Beach. A beautiful and relaxing afternoon!

Melbourne

After a few days in Sydney, I flew down to Melbourne for a few days. I spent the first day just looking around the city.

The next day, I took a tour of the Great Ocean Road. It was crazy hot this day (about 110 degrees), so thank goodness the bus had air conditioning! And it was totally worth the time outside to see the sights.

I had dinner with Adam and Anthony that night. We’d been communicating via email for 2 years ahead of this point so it was great to see them in person again. We spent a few hours just chatting over a great meal in downtown Melbourne. They asked if I had any plans for the next day and it was really to just walking around the city further. Instead, they invited me to visit Werribee Park and Lancemore Mansion with them. I’m so happy they suggested it. It was a place I probably wouldn’t have visited without the suggestion.

Queenstown

From Melbourne, I flew to Queenstown, New Zealand. My brother was flying there straight from the US so we were going to meet at the hotel. We got a 2-bedroom apartment to share at the same place I stayed the previous year. Amazingly, the lady at the front desk remembered me. My brother had already arrived when I got to the hotel. I scared the daylights out of him when I entered the room because he was out cold taking a nap in the living room. After the initial shock, we spent some time relaxing the rest of the day.

We planned a few things in Queenstown before heading to the Milford Track. Queenstown is just a stunning location with the Remarkables Mountains as a backdrop. At this point in my life, I was actually between jobs. I had quit my previous job with my last day being the day before I left on vacation. I had a job lined up for when I returned. But, it was an interesting feeling not to be tied to a job while on vacation. I had been debating about what to do next. I remember having dinner with my brother and chatting about options. At one point, I thought about opening a consulting company that would be called the Remarkables.

The Nevis Bungy Jump

Queenstown is the home of bungy jumping. The first commercial bungee jump location is in Queenstown. There’s a second location, the Nevis Bungy jump, which at the time was the second-highest bungee jump location in the world. We decided that we had to try it out. I can easily say that bungy jumping is scarier than sky diving. I’d done a tandem skydive a few years earlier. It was scary and fun, but you’re attached to someone and they push you out of the plane and take care of everything. Bungy jumping is different. Let me take a few paragraphs to describe the experience.

In this case, there was a pod between two canyon walls along with a cable system. It started with taking a little cable car the holds about 4 people from one side to the pod in the center. The pod held about 20 people at a time.

Once in the main pod, you wait for others ahead of you and watch videos of people jumping. It heightens the nerves as you’re waiting and hearing the screams. My brother went ahead of me so I got to see the process. I didn’t have my camera with me (they don’t allow that), so sorry for the lack of pictures. But they basically have you sit in a chair that reminded me of a dentist chair. They explain what’s going to happen while they strap your feet together with the bungee cords. I wasn’t really paying attention as I listened to people who’d just jumped. And then I watched my brother spread his arms out and jump. I was next, so even while my brother was bouncing up and down, they settled me into the same chair he’d just occupied. They went through their speech while watching my brother emerge back into the pod, full of adrenaline with a huge smile on his face.

Now, it was my turn. The first thing that happened is that they reminded me that this is the second-highest bungee jump in the world – 134 meters / 440 feet fall. As I stood up, I couldn’t really move my feet because they’re tied together. The crew helped me shuffle forward a bit, and at one point, I suddenly feel the weight of the bungee cord as they dropped it from the pod. They held my harness at the back as I continued to shuffle forward. I had to shuffle onto a little outcrop from the pod about 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. It’s tiny and there was nothing around me except the pod behind.

At this point, the crew asked if I was ready to go and, of course, I nodded. But inside, my stomach was doing flip-flops. I stared out at the huge canyon in front of me and felt nothing below (except a pretty sparse river that looked so far away. Suddenly, the crew yells “3…2…1… BUNGY!” and I was supposed to jump. But I stood there for a second with reality sinking in. And this is where bungy jumping is scarier than sky diving. No one was going to push me and no one was going to take care of the details. I had to jump on my own. And before they could do another countdown, I jumped.

And I fell… and fell…. and fell…. it felt like forever. At some point, while falling, I remember thinking, “I don’t feel anything attached to my feet.” Of course, there was, but the mind wanders as you’re falling 44 stories! Surprisingly, when the cord was fully stretched, it didn’t feel jerky. I was expecting a hard jerk before moving up again but it wasn’t bad. It was a long bounce up and then back down again. The adrenaline was flowing through my body and I’m sure I was shaking.

One of the instructions was on the second bounce up to pull a cord along my right leg. I did so, not really remembering what would happen. As soon as I pulled it, my feet were released, and panic flooded through me. But the intent (and what happened) was that I was also attached at the waist. I pivoted to a sitting position by releasing my feet while I was pulled back up into the pod.

I was safely pulled up into the pod where my brother waited and we celebrated! Days later, we were still stopping now and then because one of us would have a feeling of falling.

As you look at the photos, look at the lines and how small the people look relative to the canyon’s size. This is a really high jump!

Lord of the Rings Tour

OK, we nerded out for a day. We took a Lord of the Rings tour to see some of the locations where they did the filming. Overall, it was a ho-hum day but we at least got to see some pretty areas. I think the tour was meant for the die-hard fans vs. the casually interested people.

Routeburn Track

Given I had previously done the Milford Track, I wanted to do a bit of hiking on a different trail for at least a day. We were able to do so along the Routeburn Track. They dropped us off at the trailhead and gave us a time when they would return to pick us up. We could go as far or as near as we wanted along this track. Where the Milford Track has a nice long flat walk for the first day, the Routeburn Track immediately starts its upward move. There’s a 1,000 ft elevation gain right from the trailhead and then a bit of relief around a lake before a further ascent. The lake seemed like a good destination.

The hike was just as stunning as the Milford Track and I was excited to enjoy a different hike for even a day.

Milford Track

The last thing we did in Queenstown was the main reason we were there – to hike along the Milford Track. While I had done it the previous year, this hike was equally amazing because the weather was entirely different. The previous year was cold and rainy, which created some stunning views of water falling along cliffs in the valleys. This hike offered crystal clear sunshine. Not to mention, there were all different people on the hike with us.

Each day, my brother and I would have breakfast together but not necessarily hike together (we just had different paces). We met up at various points each day for lunch or to check on each other. Each evening, we enjoyed dinner together with some of our favorite people we met along the way.

It is tough to describe how beautiful this area of the world is, and the pictures don’t do it justice. The air is clean, there are only 50 people on the same section of trail (all going in the same direction), so you feel the quiet around you. And the scenery is spectacular.

On the last section of the trail, my brother and I met up for the last few miles. We, fortunately, got a picture of the two of us (a rare occurrence!). At the end of the trail, there’s also a tradition of hanging old used boots on the sign. I left my boots dangling on the sign after this hike!

As with the previous year, the last day is spent on Milford Sound. I’ll admit that I enjoyed this day more than the previous year because of the weather.

Last Day in Sydney

After our New Zealand experience, we headed home via Sydney. Due to flight times, we were able to head into the city for a long leisurely lunch before getting on our flight home.

The entire trip was another amazing experience in the area. 18 years later, I still believe that I haven’t seen any area as beautiful as the Milford Track. I feel so lucky to have experienced it twice. My brother loved it so much that he and his wife were considering moving to New Zealand at one point.