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Published: December 2nd 2005
So, I left off with heading out to celebrate my birthday. As it turns out, Wednesday night is not that exciting in Queenstown. I met up with a couple of other girls from the hostel and we headed out for dinner and drinks. One girl moved on to another bar with me and we had quite a few rounds. Met some other travels at the bar and headed back to the hostel around midnight. Nothing overly extreme.
The next morning I woke up and decided to stroll around town some more. I took some great pictures of the steep surrounding mountains and the homes set in the hill side. The city sits on a lake and I also walked around it. Then, I decided to finish my Christmas shopping...mission accomplished! Dad, I have your gift. The town itself is really geared towards tourists. Too many shops selling cheesy t-shirts and plastic stuffed kiwi birds. I grabbed a quite lunch and then headed over to the company where I was suppose to meet to start my adventures of the day.
I checked in first for the ShotOver Jet Boat. For those that have not heard of this, it's a jet boat that travels at around 80 kmph and does 360 degree spins all while heading down the ShotOver River and passing the canyon walls. I was very excited about this. The site is about 10 minutes outside of town, so I loaded onto a bus and headed on over. They give you some safety instructions, much like riding a roller coaster and then send you on your way down to the dock. Once we were given a life jacket, we were loaded onto the boat. Our driver, Phil, was quite funny. They immediately take off in this thing. It was very trilling! The water is zipping past and the boat comes within inches of the canyon walls. The spins were too fun. Phil would hold his hand up and make a circle motion with his arm, like in waterskiing, and then we would spin sliding across the surface of the water with spray in our faces. The whole ride was about 45 minutes. We pulled back up to the dock with tears in our eyes and laughing out loud. I highly recommend this activity.
From here, I walked over to the building next door for my afternoon of white water rafting. I am back on track...a day on boats is where I needed to be. After having to wait for about 15 minutes, we were instructed to line up for the passing out of all the gear. The water is about 5 degrees C, therefore, we were issued heavy full length wetsuits. Now, those that know me understand how much this creeps me out, those that don't know...it gives me the willys to put on a wetsuit that someone else has worn. Yuck! Anyhow, let's move on. While in the changing room, I realized that in my rush in the morning I had forgottan to shave under my arms. I'm not showering everyday, so I didn't even think about it. After a moment of panic, I realized that there were plenty of Europeans there and that for the day, I was European. Now that that was sorted, I could move on. They also made us put on the neoprene bootys. This really creeps me out. I don't even want to think about what was on my toes. From here, we were given a wetsuit jacket to put on (this solved my underarm problem) and then a spray jacket to wear over that. Then the helmet and onto the bus we went. Now, all of the guides at this point were making jokes as they were giving instructions, once on the bus, they kept talking about this road we were going to be taking and how it's the second most dangerous road in NZ. I did not believe them at all...then we were on it and OH MY GOD!!! It was literally a single lane gravel road cut into the side of the mountain. It was developed in the early 1900s for the gold miners and I don't think they have done any upkeep since. There were times that I was holding on while looking straight down the side of the mountain and the driver was just at the edge with the bus (with 20 people on it) and trailer of 4 rafts in tow. I found this all quite exciting...trying not to think of the downfall, but there were some older women on the bus saying their prayers and looking at the floor of the bus the entire time. The guides made jokes the entire time saying that they having only gone over the edge a couple of times and that hopefully Rich (our driver) would be ok because this was his first try at it. This all really got the old ladies going. I thought they were going to have a heartattack on the bus. Once at the river, we were given the standard instructions on rafting and then split into groups of 6. I had made a friend on the bus - shocking I know - so Izzy and I buddied up and we were put in a boat with a couple from Luxemburg (the only people I have ever met from there) and a couple from Hong Kong. Tim was a large guy - 6'4" to 6'5" and seemed to be very experienced with this sort of thing. We shoved off pretty quite and he made us practice all the different types of paddling and safety procedures. He joked that we were going to be fine and not need to use any of it, but that just in case. He razed other boats that were having early difficulties. This was Karma and later in the day, it was going to catch up with us. The river was at a grade III, so it was quite easy for the most part. The only problem we had was that our group did not understand the concept of paddling hard through the rapids. They would all stop paddling to hold on. The scenary was lovely! The river sits in a very steep canyon with huge rock bluffs. John, you should have seen the moon rocks here. The largest I have ever seen! The river is said to hold the most gold in it and was commercially mined for several years. There were pieces of old mining equipment everywhere. It was quite cool. Several waterfalls coming down the sides and of course, beautiful trees and forest. We encountered out first rapid and did ok. Then we floated along again and before coming up to our next rapid, Tim stressed the importance of paddling and following his command. The river takes a pretty sharp turn and there is a huge rock in the middle. It is just enough under water that you can hit and get stuck. That is exactly what we did. We hit this rock with the side of the boat. I was flung backwards but was able to stay in the boat. Water immediately began to rush into the boat and Tim began yelling instructions. Thank god all the people listened. We were all stacked on the right side of the boat holding on in hopes that we would not be shot out and sent down the rapids. Had we fallen out, we had jagged rocks on one side and a solid wall of rock on the other. It would not have been pretty. One of the other boats signaled that we were dangerously stuck and five other raft guides arrived immdediately. One was shouting instructions to us incase we fell out of the boat telling us how to swim/float and where to go. The others were talking amoungst themselves trying to decide the best case cenario. I was giggling and making jokes the whole time. This was great! I have no fear of water/boats/swimming, so I figured they would figure it all out and it would be fine. In true Kiwi form, they were doing some joking as well. Giving Tim a hard time for not being able to miss the rock and what not. I asked if this was a Tea break, since ever time you have an activity in NZ you are served tea. They finally decided that the safest thing to do was to take us all out of the boat and then try to lift the boat off the rock. All with white water rushing past. One by one, the other large guide through us a rope and then we had to roll into the water and another guide would grab us and then we had to climb onto a rock and wait. The other guides were tying off ropes in order to create a pulley to help lift the boat. Once on the rock, I asked whether or not we were going to be albe to finish the rapids. Team Hong Kong seemed quite startled by the whole thing. After another 10 minutes or so, they finally freed the raft. All the guides seemed to exhale at the same time. This was no laughing matter as I found out later on that day. They decided to let us back in the boat at this point and we were able to finish the rapids. I couldn't believe it. We actually made it through. All the other boats of people were watching and waiting for us on the other side. Now all the guides were giving Tim a hard time. And I felt like I had gottan my moneys worth! The next part of the river was quite calm and we were able to watch people do the canyon swing. This is a 100 meter high wire swing that you can do. It looked really cool and I was pissed that I didn't sign up for that! It's the only one in the world. I may have to go back. Don't worry mom, I'm not doing a bungee jump! The last part of our rafting adventure was going through a long cave. It was quite dark in the middle. On the other side we hit our last bit of rapids and they were good fun. We successfully made it through and I think secretly, Tim was thankful. Once back on shore, we had to turn back in all our gear - back to pretending I was European - given a hot shower option and then some warm food and drinks. It was nice to sit in the lawn and enjoy the afternoon sunshine. Tim told Izzy and I about all the guides heading over to a bar in town for happy hour. I decided that since it was still my birthday in the States that I could and should continue to celebrate. Many of you may have heard about Kiwi's and how they like to drink and party...well, they sell 40s at the bar. I hope that is a good indicator. I was planning to stay an hour, seven and a half hours later, a couple of bars and lord only knows how many beers...I was heading home! Needless to say, I wasn't even close to keeping up with the group and it made for a very tough morning today. But Kiwi's are good fun!
I was up at 6 am this morning to catch the early bus to Te Anau. I can't tell you anything about the scenary because I was so hung over that I slept the whole way. I think 28 is going to be a good year!!! I am planning on doing some activities while here and more kayaking and taking in Milford Sound.
Just when I think the trip may even out, it gets better again. Much love to everyone at home...Courtney
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Rachel
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Damsel in Distress!
I'm sure Team Hong Kong was not as thrilled as you were to be hanging out on a rock in the middle of rapids of ice cold water. Sounds like you got a nice sampling of the local flavor... with a hang over to boot! Keep writing the blogs because it gives us poor shmucks in the States something to do at work. Love ya, Rach