flamethrower77 segway

2008-09-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Queenstown is known as one of the world’s adventure capitals. The funny thing is, there haven’t been a lot of adventure activities to do in Queenstown. You usually have to drive up to 3 hours to get to where the adventure is. Til now.

If you haven’t seen a Segway, it looks like something the Jetson’s would use to get around town – a futuristic platform on wheels that keeps itself upright and moves in the direction you lean or steer with the handlebars. Kevin Hey, the owner of Segway on Q, saw a great opportunity to offer locals and visitors a unique adventure, without having to leave town. In fact, you get to see more of the town than you would any other way.

Kevin picked us up from our hotel right on time, and drove us to a carpark on the other side of town for our first Seqway practice run. Even getting them out of the van felt like we were going to be riding on science fiction robots. After some instructions and a demo, we were up and riding. It takes about 5 minutes to get used to something that seems to be able to read your mind – think about going forward and it goes forward, think about turning left and it turns left. The tour starts off on the lowest speed, which you control by how much you lean forward. There are bike helmets and a safety switch and it feels completely safe the whole time. One of our group was very nervous, and probably ended up having the most fun of all of us.

Once we conquered the carpark, it was off to explore Queenstown. There’s something satisfying to the ego to have people watch in amazement as you glide by. You can see the “I want a go of that” in their eyes. We follow a path through St Omer Park, stopping for Kevin’s unique commentary on the lake and the town, and some amazing photo opportunities. It was very, very strange riding through one of the shopping centres into the town centre.

Probably the most amazing thing about the Segway is that hills don’t seem to have any impact on how well it rides. Kevin took us into the residential areas, up and down hills, over curbs, through zig-zag pathways – over every kind of terrain and surface we could imagine. Once he saw we had the hang of it, he asked if we wanted the speed limiter increased, so we could go a little faster. Absolutely, we said.

We ended up at the Queenstown Gardens where Kevin introduced us to Frisbee Golf. Imagine a golf course where you use Frisbees to get around trees, over sand traps and have to hit a post within the specified number of throws. A typical example of the added extras Kevin throws in to make sure everyone has the best time possible. That’s also why he keeps the group sizes to a maximum of 4, so that everyone can participate equally.

Kevin then let us roam the Gardens on our own. The Segways handled the path, off-road and on, with no trouble. When we met up with Kevin again at the other end of the Gardens he asked if we wanted to up the speed to maximum. Two of us said yes, and then he took us on a zig-zag ride around the trees in formation. GREAT fun!! After 2 hours floating above the ground, it felt weird to be back at the carpark walking again. We had to take a few minutes to get used to that.

The Segway feels so natural, and Kevin makes it such fun, that if evolution really does exist, we’ll all grow Segways. Like Kevin says, there’s nothing better than Segs.

http://www.redballoondays.co.nz/experience/SOQ812

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