So not surprisingly, I didn’t have the best nights sleep last
night. Maybe it was all the booze, or maybe it was the anxiety of
imagining what it’s going to be like to hurl myself out of a perfectly good
airplane at 12,000 ft. today, but either way I woke up dragging a bit this
morning.
So what do you do to shake the cobwebs from a booze fest the night
before? Why, you go canyoning, of course! Nothing like a little
adrenaline to start the day off. What exactly is canyoning, you ask?
Well, lots of heart-pumping activities involving a narrow canyon and lots
of really cold water in our case. We suited up in head-to-toe neoprene,
harnesses, floatation devices, and helmets with funky names pre-printed on
them. I of course had to choose the helmet with the name “Ke$ha” on it
because, well, today we’re living like we’re gonna die young!
We then scrambled up the side of the canyon as best we could in
our crazy neoprene suits and booties, started with a few zip lines across the
canyon, then we rappelled down cliffs, jumped off rocks into waterfalls and
pools about 30 ft. below, scrambled up and down more cliff walls with ropes and
our safeties on our harnesses, swam, floated and waded down the river and over
rocks in areas of the canyon where it was only wide enough to fit one person.
All of it was really fun, but my favorite part was where we combined a
bunch of these skills into one - we zip lined out and stopped midway over a
waterfall pool about 100 feet below, then released from the zip line and
rappelled down to the end of the line then dropped about 15-20 ft. into the
pool. All of it was very physical and I was completely knackered* after.
Canyoning behind us, I then started to get myself mentally prepared for the skydiving trip we booked for the afternoon. Some of the other people on our canyoning excursion had skydived before, and they were telling us what to expect, but most importantly to remember to keep our eyes open during the free fall (apparently most people close their eyes). It was a very clear day, so we knew we would have some amazing views of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.
I’m ready to go skydiving, bitch!:
When we arrived back in downtown Queenstown, we made our way over
to the skydiving outfitter to confirm our online bookings from the previous
night and check in. That’s when we learned that all skydiving flights
that day had been cancelled due to high winds. I’m not sure whether I was
more disappointed or relieved. It’s not everyday you get up the courage
to actually agree to do it and book it, plus this would have been a really
awesome place to do it, but I was feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing.
So instead we enjoyed a leisurely lunch overlooking Lake Wakatipu and The
Remarkables**, then a few other folks got their adrenaline fix by bungy jumping
and canyon swinging while I went to a travel agency to book the next part of my
NZ trip to the North Island. Otherwise I would have landed in Auckland 3
days from now with no hotel, no car, and no clue where I was doing for the next
six days. There’s a certain adventure and excitement about traveling that
way, but I’ve taken this particular adventure about as far as my anxiety level
can tolerate. And now that I know generally where I’m going next week and
how I’m getting there, I can relax and enjoy our last night in Queenstown.
After our fun filled free day, we were treated to a pretty remarkable
sunset against The Remarkables:
Tomorrow we are on to Mt. Cook, our last destination of the trip.
* - Knackered - that’s Kiwi for “utterly exhausted”.
** - The Remarkables is a mountain range. And they have a
pretty presumptuous name, don’t you think?
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