A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME :)

Hi everyone! My name is Hannah O'Neill and I'm studying Adventure Tourism Management at Queenstown Resort College. I finished school at Orewa College in 2011, where I then found out I had won the Adventure Tourism Scholarship for 2012 at QRC. This meant I had 9 months of free time before I could start at QRC in July 2012. 

In this time, I decided to travel around Europe for four months and had the most amazing, memorable experience of my life. I absolutely loved it! After returning from Europe, I had 10 days to pack up my room and head on down to Queenstown to start my first term at QRC.

 I'm now a week away from finishing term one, and have had a brilliant first 10 weeks! I have enjoyed all of my classes and the famills have definitely been the highlight. This blog shows just a few of the great experiences I have encountered so far. Enjoy! :)

SHOTOVER CANYON SWING

We were lucky enough to experience the Shotover Canyon Swing as part of our Famils at College. This I was extremely excited about, because I had done it the previous year and absolutely loved it! It was a bitter cold morning, but beautiful clear skies.

 We met at the shop at 9am, filled out safety forms and got weighed. They drew little pictures on our hands to signify our weight, like a secret code which I thought was a brilliant idea as it doesn't directly show peoples weights which is good for people who may be self conscious.

We piled into the van, and the staff put on a video about the Canyon Swing and all the different ways we could jump off. This was also a great idea as it hyped everyone up and got us all excited.


We arrived at the Canyon 15 minutes later and headed down to the platform.The staff on the platform were amazing. They were really funny and kind guys who tried to scare people for a laugh. They were however very professional and very knowledgeable about the product and their procedures.

 I was the second person in line to jump and the adrenaline started pumping. I walked towards the edge of the 109M cliff and turned around as I chose to jump off backwards. This was absolutely terrifying as I couldn't see the direction I was going to fall. A minute later, I was plummeting down a 60M free fall at 150KMPH and then swung over the Shotover River. The feeling of falling backwards was one of the scariest things I have ever done, but it was so much fun.

The staff at Shotover Canyon Swing, I believe showed us the best customer service. They communicated with our class extremely well by telling jokes and talking about the nightlife and social side of Queenstown which the class loved. They were very professional and willing to answer any of our questions, and gave us all a hug after we had jumped which I thought was really cool.

They made the entire experience very fun and memorable and I would reccommend every one to go the Canyon Swing. If your not confident enough to jump, I would go along and watch and support friends and family! Its a great view and a very enjoyable experience. Check out the Canyon Swing Blog

AJ HACKETT LEDGE BUNGY

Another one of our Familiarisation visits was theAJ Hackett Ledge Bungy. To add to the thrill, we did it in the dark! I had already done three previous bungy jumps in different locations, so I knew what to expect more than the others in my class, but I was very excited to do the jump at night time. Another difference with this bungy, was that we were attached into a harness around our waists. This allowed us to do many different jump styles instead of the standard forward jump making the experience even more fun!

We filled out all of the safety forms, headed down to the platform, and got geared up by the entertaining jump masters. The staff were great. Very casual and kind in the way they greeted us, but very professional and serious about their duties. They asked us questions about where we were form, how nervous we were and shared a few jokes to lighten the mood for the nervous people!


Eventually it was my turn to jump. The atmosphere was great. Twinkling lights of Queenstown were below me, with the intense bright light from the full moon behind the Remarkables mountain range. Music was pumping in the platform, and my friends were cheering me on to jump, so I did! The experience of falling into the dark was scary but so much fun. I loved it. Swinging in the freezing cold with my heart pumping from the adrenaline.

Overall the experience at the bungy was fantastic. The staff made it extra enjoyable by the great customer servive, they were friendly and could communicate very well with teenagers which is sometimes hard to do! I would reccomend this bungy jump to everyone. It's a great choice for those who are less confident about bungy jumps, as this jump is not very high and your attached by your waist not your feet.

WEST COAST TRIP

The first of our Familiarisation Visits was a three day trip to the West Coast, to experience adventure tourism companies such as Fox Heli Services, Fox Glacier Guiding, and Adventure Kayaks.

We set off from Queenstown Resort College at 2pm and prepared ourselves for a 6 hour drive to Fox. We stopped off at Makarora Cafe to have dinner, then hit the road again for another 2 hours until we finally arrived at our hostel in Fox. We had an early night in preparation for our action packed day the next day.

FOX HELI SERVICES

The first trip was with Fox Heli Services and a flight up onto the Fox Glacier. This was the first time I had ever been in a helicopter so I was extremely excited. What an amazing experience that was! The scenery and weather were beautiful, not a cloud in the sky and breathtaking views of the mountains glacier and sea surrounded us. The customer service from the driver and the pilot were very good. Both staff members were welcoming, polite and friendly. They were more than happy to help us with answering questions and queries. This made the trip more memorable as I felt as though the staff really cared about the customers.

LAKE MATHESON WALK

After the exhilarating ride on the helicopter, we went on a short scenic guided walk around Lake Matheson, with our Department of Conversation Guide Cornelia.

The walk was very peaceful and calming, but made very interesting by the extent of our guides knowledge. She was incredibly informative about the local area and the history behind the glacier and our surroundings. Her interpretation was great as she made it interesting for teenagers by making jokes and having casual conversations with us. Similarly with the Heli services staff, Cornelia was great. She was friendly and professional. I really enjoyed the walk and would recommend it to any individual! (Picture by mkiwi.com)

FOX GLACIER GUIDED HIKE

To finish up our action packed day we had a guided Hike onto Fox Glacier which was another amazing experience. We met our guides Rodger and Dan who talked us through the safety rules, the functions of the company and showed us around the office.

 (Photo by Craig potton, prints.co.nz)

It was great to see this as it gave the class an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of the company, i.e. writing down any hazards or warnings on the glacier, weather reports, rescues, and emergency procedures. This was really good service management as it showed the company was prepared and thinks ahead in case anyone is unprepared. It shows willingness to help and responsiveness. 

Our head guide was brilliant. He knew absolutely everything about the local area which made the walk really interesting. The beautiful surroundings of the Fox glacier combined with the excellent customer service experience made this excursion one of the best. I had a fantastic time on the ice as did my classmates.

KAYAKING TRIP

Our final activity on the west coast was a three hour Kayaking trip on Lake Mapourika. This I was really looking forward to as I have been on some fantastic Kayaking trips.

In relation to all the other excursions, Ben was also a fantastic guide. He knew how to communicate with the teenage age group by telling us jokes and personal stories, but did it in a professional way. He was also very knowledgeable about the area even though he was American, which I thought was really impressive! He made the tour exiting and interesting, by taking us to different areas of the lake and was great motivation and help when some class mates began to get tired. This is what made the trip so enjoyable and fun.

SUMMARY

Overall, our trip to the west coast was brilliant. We got the opportunity to sample some great products and services that adventure tourism companies can offer and had a great time doing it.

The main thing that stood out from all the companies was the great customer service. Everyone was friendly, helpful and very professional. I would recommend any tourist or holiday maker to do all of these activities, as they are very enjoyable and memorable.