Canyoning: Part I - Beth's Version

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We are now in a town called Wanaka and have been here for a couple of days. My mom and my aunt Mary have joined us and have just jumped right into this trip. We wasted no time after they arrived on Friday getting into things and spent nearly 7 hrs. driving our rental car south from Christchurch to Wanaka and taking in the gorgeous scenery and frequently stopping off for priceless photo opportunities. One of our favorite sites was the view of the blue-green glacier colored Lake Takepo with a back drop of the steep, rugged snow-capped mountains.

In Wanaka we are staying at a hostel called The Purple Cow, a lovely cute clean hostel with a cabin feel to it that overlooks Lake Wanaka and the green and snow-capped mountains behind the lake. It is very calming and relaxing.

Our first full day here we walked around town a bit and went to Puzzleworld for much of the day. Puzzlworld is a fun place that is full of illusions, puzzles and a 2-story maze. We were feeling the need for some adventure so Justin had the idea of going canyoning. Canyoning is basically working your way down a canyon in the mountains by descending down the canyon by abseiling (repelling), lots of sliding, jumps...both big and small and a few other things besides. I wasn't all that excited about the idea but my mom, Mary and Justin were pretty keen so of course I went as well.

I think I must have some sort of 6th sense or something (not wanting to go canyoning) because I am back at the hostel nearly 3 1/2 hrs. early from canyoning with my arm in a sling after dislocating my shoulder on a 1 meter jump - yup, that's right I somehow managed to dislocate my shoulder on a 3 foot backwards jump (more of a fall) into the water. We had only gone down 1 short canyon slide and abseiled down 1 wall when it happened. So we had barely even got started. Since this has happened to me twice before I usually know how to get my shoulder back in, but this time it felt like it had rolled forward instead of backward (yeah, it didn't really feel to good). Because I was pretty much stuck in the canyon and the only way out was to abseil down another wall and climb up through a steep slippery hill (the emergency exit) and back to the walking path I really had no choice but to figure out how to pop my shoulder back into place. After about 15 minutes of trying to get it back in, finally (and painfully) I got it back into place.

Getting out of the canyon was quite an experience and quite the task being I could only use my left arm. The guide abseiled with me down the wall...probably not the easiest thing she's done lately! Between the guide and Justin helping me, we all made it up the slippery slope and back to the walking track. I do have to say, we had an excellent guide who really knew what she was doing, so that was very good.

Sooo, here I sit, writing this blog and waiting for the others to return. This is not quite as fun as what the others are up to right now but I guess I still can't complain too much because I am lucky enough to be in New Zealand and it is awesome here. But you bet I'm going to milk this situation for all its worth 😉 hehe

When the other 3 get back they should hopefully have a better canyoning story than mine and can tell you all about that in a couple days.

Well, that's bout it for now. We will be putting more pictures up the next time we get an internet access, which should be very soon. The canyoning pictures are also digital, so we can put a couple of those up (believe it or not I actually made it in a couple of them!).

Until Then....Take Care!

Beth and Justin...& Sue and Mary

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