Thinking we’d make our last ride before leaving Queenstown a gentle one, we chose a paraflight, where a parachute is towed behind a boat for great views over the lake. We were strapped into harnesses one more time, and winched out the back of the boat, and up to about 100 metres high. I thought this was all very nice, a bit chilly but nice views over the early morning clouds, whereas Caroline wasn’t too sure about the whole thing. Then we started to fall, and fall, until we were a few metres from the lake. That’s about the time I seriously considered that there was something wrong with the boat, and made plans for getting wet. At the last moment we were tugged up high again, in another example of the Kiwi sense of humour. Still it got the adrenalin pumping, and it wasn’t even 10am!
With that in mind, we high-tailed it out of Queenstown, to save our hearts and wallets from all the excitement. The sun beat down as we drove through to Te Anau, and started up the Milford Road, the easy option to get to the Milford Sound, compared to the Milford Track!