Canyon Swing and rafting

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Had to do at least one adrenaline thing in Queenstown and had heard great things about the canyon swing. As the name suggests it is a great big swing into and across a canyon. Basically you are harnessed up and then choose which way (10 different options) to throw yourself off the platform that is 109m above the canyon floor. Attached to a rope rather than a bungy cord you freefall for 60m and then start swinging across the canyon towards the cliffs on the other side in a 200m arc. It is a very smooth transition from plummeting towards the ground to hurtling towards the cliff face but a whole lot of fun. Decided to choose this over bungy as sounded more appealing and had heard that it was as scary as the bungy.

Anyway the whole trip is great as the staff are really good fun and spend the whole time trying to scare you and mess with your head (although they are very good at helping reassure those that are genuinely really scared). We arrived were weighed, now instead of writing your weight on your hand they use a series of pictures to represent the weights (guess people might not want their weight written on their hand in semi permanent marker pen). Although after the guy drew on my hand his colleague looked at it and asked what the heck that was supposed to mean…..

Anyway then went down to the jump platform and got fitted in harnesses- now the guy is pretending to not know how to do up the harness!! Had got my camera with me and one of the other people had a roll of sellotape so we taped our cameras to our hands and set them on video mode to make a home movie of our jumps (this should be available somewhere on this page to view). Decided on how I was going to launch myself - backwards first jump. Get to the edge and get clipped in, had a look over the edge and it is indeed a long way down. Then the worst bit was when the crew hold onto your harness and get you to lean backwards over the edge for a photo to see how far down it is and to point out the large cliff to the right (“don’t put your hand out as you will hit it on the way down…” - actually going to fall the other way but hey!). This wasn’t really scary as I knew logically that I wasn’t going to get hurt, however didn’t know if the guy was going to pull me back and make me jump as he said he would, or whether he would just let me go for a laugh! He did pull me back and then said right just jump backwards, so I did… it was so much fun just falling towards the rocks and then swinging across towards the cliffs, a real adrenaline rush. Different to sky diving as you get a feel of ground-rush, where you can see the ground hurtling towards you. After swinging around a bit and checking out the views they winch you back up to the platform.

As the second jump was a lot cheaper and it was so much fun decided to jump a second time (could have spent all day there jumping but on a budget and all that). This time decided to go with the ‘gimp boy goes to Hollywood’ style, basically they hand you upside down and you arch backwards so you get a real rush as you fall. For this one they pull a pin to release you so having said he would count me down from 5 I find myself falling when he reached 3… apparently he carried on counting for the cameras as I plummeted towards the floor! This was a really good way to go as the ground certainly approached pretty quickly as you fall. So to sum it up Canyon Swing - whole heap of fun!

On leaving Queenstown I headed towards Mount Cook, spent a night in a hostel in Mount Cook village in the shadow of Mt Cook and walked up the Hooker Valley to the glacier that runs along the base of the mountain. All the glaciers here have lots of rocks and moraine on them so appear grey in colour but impressive nonetheless. The next day I hiked up to the Muller Hut which is an alpine hut on a plateau just below the summit of Mt Ollivier (1933m) which was the first peak that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed. Muller Hut is fairly basic but had cooking, water and toilet facilites and stunning views. Overlooking the Hooker valley with Mt Cook towering over the valley, also Muller glacier and Frind glacier run around the ridge that the hut is on and a whole ridge of snow covered mountains across the valley. Weather was stunning with clear skies, sun and no wind. There were patches of snow on the plateau and regular icefalls and avalanches on the other side of the valley to add to the views. As the walk up only takes about 4 hours there was plenty of time to enjoy the views from the summit of Mt Ollivier and watch the sunset over Mt Cook from the balcony of the hut, seeing the top of the mountain go pink was pretty special. Amazing clear skies at night and quite cold but, fine when wrapped up warm.

Got up early next morning to watch the sunrise which was very impressive, made even more so because the whole of the Hooker Valley and extending all the way across the plains towards the east coast was covered in low lying fog, while we were above it all with clear skies. Really stunning views and another clear day, I had met people who never got to see Mt Cook because of the weather when they were there so to have 3 days to see it was quite fortunate. Spend the whole morning just chilling in the sun on the balcony at the hut chatting to the other hikers, none of whom wanted to leave, it really was quite magical. Eventually had to wander down along with Aleks, David and Peter (all from the hut and reluctant to leave). Left Mt Cook village the next day as the weather started to break and the cloud came down, and headed to Rangitata Gorge for a spot of white water rafting!!

Went with a really great company, stayed there the night before and then the next morning had all the safety briefing and a spot of lunch before getting kitted up and heading out to the river. Area where we got on the river was used as a backdrop for Lord of the Rings (as was most of NZ so it seems) and was pretty impressive with mountains around and the river running through the open valley. First part of the trip was on flat water and a few grade 1 and 2 rapids which gave our guide plenty of time to instruct us in all that was required to paddle the rapids that go up to grade 5 (highest you can raft commercially). Learnt how to paddle as a team and steer the boat, shift our weight if were gonna capsize. Also 2 important positions to adopt - hold on and get down which means its gonna be big! Had to practice getting back in the boat and pulling others back in - water was a touch chilly, comes off the snow after all. Rapids then built up in intensity till we hit the first grade 5 rapid, got out for an inspection and the guide talked us through where he did and didn’t want to go…. Looked like fun. Then off we went, first one was quite short but plenty of fun, got sideways but didn’t tip and guide was happy with the line and the fact that we all stayed dry (actually that’s a lie, we didn’t swim but ended up with a lot of the river in the raft for short periods!! I was in the front of the raft which was lots of fun hitting the waves first, you wedge your feet under the tubes and kinda hope that you stay there.)

The other big grade 5 was much longer with several sections to it but we survived that one as well, and had a great time. The scenery is pretty impressive as you descend into the gorge with the sides rising up above you, and the water has a blue/green colour to it (glacial flour - fine powder of rocks eroded by the glacier at the head of the river that reflects the light in a certain way giving rise to the colour, this is common in the lakes in the glacial areas.). After the trip time for hot showers and a BBQ before being driven to Christchurch. A really good trip with great staff and guides, didn’t feel like we were just being rushed in and out as quick as possible.

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