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Published: December 2nd 2007
Thursday, November 29th, 2007 - 3:57 p.m.
Wow.
Seriously.
What we got ourselves into is called Canyoning. The one we wanted to do wasn't running today, so we went with another company called Awol Adventures. This one didn't have the natural water slide - but wow. I just looked at the brochure again to compare the photos on there with what we did today and though it is the same places, the same activities we experienced - it really doesn't do it any justice. It doesn't do the beauty, excitement, or challenge justice.
First we were picked up in the shuttle at our hotel by a guy named Tony. Along with Tony was Doug, Sam (a girl) and Geri (another girl) who were joining us for the canyoning. We stopped at the shop to gear up with our wet suits, booties/dive socks, and some regular, beaten up, sneakers (nike air, rebok, adidas...a whole floor of different sizes and colors to choose from that were wet and covered in dirt from the previous users). Then we were off. We drove a little more, the destination being about 40 minutes outside of Auckland, put on our harness and helmets then started our hike. Literally. Another up hill hike. The whole day was a challenge to my physical and mental fitness. It was potentially dangerous and an incredible work out. That makes me even more thrilled that I did it - I didn't pansy out nor was I physically unable to keep up and complete it. I feel really good. Physically and mentally.
So after the hike in our wet suits (stopping a couple times to catch our breath and drink some provided juice) it was time to learn exactly what we were doing. We did a test run of practicing what to do with the rope, where to put our hands, what not to do, how to position our feet...all the good stuff, then we jumped right into it.
Imagine a waterfall...an incredibly beautiful waterfall surrounded by moss and fern covered volcanic rock and rain forest trees...the waterfall has multiple levels, it'll go down for about 20 feet, have about a four foot platform where it extends out a little further then drops again, all together being around a 150 feet. Then imagine abseiling/rappelling down the waterfall...you've got on a helmet, a wetsuit, a harness around your waist and butt, you're hanging onto the harness with your left hand to keep it (your hand) out of the way, your right hand is behind you holding the rope in your fist and controlling how fast or slow you go down. Your feet are somewhere between knee and hip level guiding you along the rocks as the water at times is flowing next to you, and other times on you.
We climbed over boulders and rocks, through streams, and across rocky dirt hills with roots from the trees sticking out. If you slip and fall...you slip and fall...there's no padding, there's no man made paths to guide you, you grab rocks, trees, and green moss covered boulders to steady yourself.
At one point I was laughing at Tony, the guide, when he was telling us about his stay in the States. He went to Western, U of M, MSU, etc, to talk to kids about traveling Down Under to work and volunteer. He said he had to learn how to enunciate more so that people could understand him through his accent...because that's all Australian's and Kiwi's do...they don't enunciate. He said he also picked up a pretty good Valley Girl talk and as I started my journey down the 150 drop I said I'd like to hear it. So this manly New Zealander starts with,
"Oh my god! Like, you're doing really well...like don't forget to spread your feet a little more. And like..."
I was cracking up, and I really did need to spread my feet a little more for balance...suddenly I loose my footing and go sideways crashing into the rock and giving my noggin a good rattle. Thank goodness for the helmet, eh? I got straightened out, he didn't fall out of the Valley Girl character and gave me some direction to get going again.
At the bottom we dunked in a pool of water and swam under the water fall waiting for everyone to get down and start our next challenge. We stopped on some flat rocks for a sandwich and kiwi chocolate. I mean literally kiwi not just New Zealander Chocolate. It was really tasty.
One of the drops was a narrow waterfall that dropped pretty far down and water dumped on you the whole way. This very narrow area had extremely tall walls of rock surrounding you. At the bottom was a pool of water deep enough that you couldn't stand up, then had to climb up a massive boulder and pull yourself onto a gigantic tree trunk, slide over that, make your way down (i fell and wound up in a sitting position on one of the branches - no harm done), swim across to a bed of rocks. When we got out we had a little visit from a local Eel that lives in the area.
Next we climb more rocks, down into another pool of water where there was a small opening into a cave that you go left foot first, then your head, wiggle your way through and then head out of the cave to another spot that Tony told us we were going to go head first under a tree trunk and through a small dark space through rocks. We thought he was joking and that we wouldn't actually fit through.
He wasn't. So head first we went, pulling our bodies through the small area and then there was about a four foot drop that we put our hands down first, pulled our body through (wet suit and harness causing more friction and more difficulty), after our feet joined our hands on ground level we then crawled up a rock, and hopped down about five feet. We came to a drop off that required us to jump into the water below, curling up into a ball so so that our bodies wouldn't hit the surrounding walls for rock. The first one wasn't to bad, but the second one a while later my grip on my nose let go and I honestly felt like I had gotten so much water up my nose with that plunge that I flooded my brain and punctured a lung...I couldn't breath for a minute...I started to swim out of the way attempting to gasp for air and clutching my chest on my way up onto land again where I decided it must have been the shock from the cold water. The water was so cold it would literally take your breath away every time we got in it. After working up a sweat again the extreme temperature change thoroughly confused my body and senses. Alex fell over on the rocks and Doug had ear troubles that felt like he blew his ear drum during the plunge to the bottom. We survived though. All of us. The worst injury was actually Alex getting into the van. He clipped his ankle and it was bleeding pretty good...but he says he's fine.
After we got our gear off and dry clothes on, we headed to a black sanded beach called Piha. Geri and I climbed Lion Rock, a land mark and piece of history for the Kauri culture. It was an incredible view and the sand
was black as descibed in the brochure, from the volcanic ash, and it was very soft to boot. Then it was time to head home.
Talking to Geri made Michigan sound a lot more interesting...she couldn't grasp what it would be like living somewhere with such extremes from hot, muggy, thick aired summers to the snow piled up winters that you have to blow dry your hair so it doesn't freeze when you go outside in the morning after a shower.
It's starting to kick in...my jaw is sore (probably due to the water plunge), my brain still a little rattled from the clunk, knee is sensitive from a layer of skin being rubbed off from the wetsuit, and muscles sore here and there. But my goodness...if you ever make it here, call up Awol Adventures and head to the Piha Canyoning adventure - you won't regret it.
Saturday, December 1st, 2007 - 10:51 p.m.
We're now in Tutukaka (I'm not joking). I still don't know how they pronounce it to know if it sounds as ridiculous as it looks. It was about a two hour drive from Auckland. We're staying in a pretty nice hotel that's painted with warm brown, yellow, and orangeish colors - the view from our room is a harbor filled with boats. Alex and I went to the local dive shop and signed up for a day trip tomorrow and then ate dinner at a local restaurant. Everything closes around 6 in Auckland and Tutukaka. In some parts of Australia and here we found that a lot of places close around 2 and don't open again until 4:30 or 5:30. Want to eat? Tough luck. I wouldn't be surprised if even their Denny's wasn't 24 hours. A lot of countries are like that though...it's not convenient like in the states, but they work to live, unlike us who lives to work.
The drive here was beautiful. Rolling green hills with grazing cows and lamb, a blue-green river. We made a lunch stop at the Dome Lookout where there was a cafe with a dog laying outside next to a chunk of raw meet and a cat roaming inside. It was a cozy restaurant with good food.
Unrelated - Cadbury chocolate is popular in both Australia and New Zealand. I've only seen Cadbury advertised around easter time in the states...here it's their Hershey's and Nestle. It's used for all the candy bars and plain chocolate bars. It's smooth and silky like dove chocolate - I like it a lot better then Hershey's.
My co-worker Johnny's birthday was yesterday...I'm killing time until it's late enough that we can call him.
Still having a bit of trouble with my ear and jaw. It's getting a lot better though. I think I got water trapped inside, when I tried to equalize on land it just gurgled and my hearing would clear up then slowly fade away again. It's getting better, I spent dinner equalizing and when we went in the hotel pool a lot of air came out of my ear with ease under water so I think it'll be fine for diving. Just in case I took tylonal and sudefed. At least my jaw isn't hurting as much.
Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 - 2:12 p.m.
We woke this morning to a horrible sounding alarm...I think any alarm, be it the alarm clock, microwave, or buzz on the washing machine is god awful. The alarm clock here has 16 buttons on top of it...I don't think early mornings should be this challenging...I started hitting every button, but the only thing that happened was the alarm stopped long enough for a voice to say,
"Please evacuate to the nearest fire exit" and then the alarm continued where it left off. It was a quarter to six in the morning, we bluried eyed found our clothes, shoes, and glasses then joined the crowd of bathrobe wearing, frizzy haired people making their way to the street.
Apparently one of the cooks burned some toast.
After the fire department came we made our way back to our rooms to try to fall back asleep. We woke up again to a short alarm that went right off and then again around 11 we were up for good when we had to evacuate the building again for another false alarm. They weren't sure what was triggering it at this point.
From there it was newspaper reading and shower taking...it's after 2 p.m. and we still haven't left the hotel room (by choice). A lazy day much needed after a day of diving yesterday. This was much different then any dive we've done. They say that if you learn to dive in cold water you can pretty much dive any where...well, we learned to dive in the tropics and that made this anything but easy.
We started by gearing up in our 7 mil suits (we're used to a 3 mil...nice and thin)...it's tough to move in that thick of a suit. We had hoods for the first time as well and twice as much weight due to the thicker suit making us more buoyant. We got in the water and the dive master actually had to grab my tank and pull me down. I couldn't exhale long enough to sink from the shock of the cool water and it felt like my hood was strangling my neck. We did one of the longest dives to date for us - 51 minutes. This, unlike the tropics, is all volcanic rock and quite the opposite of the "no touch" rules we're used to, here you can touch anything and everything except for the scorpion fish (they sting). Even the jelly's don't have stingers here. We grabbed the stems of the kelp (orangy looking seaweed that reminds me of the shape of rhubarb), pulled ourselves under and through it along with cave like swim throughs...those are my favorite.
The second dive I got down on my own and with ease, but was ready to split a half hour into it - freezing - my hood was to tight and kept sliding back on my head exposing it to the water. They greeted us on the boat with hot chocolate and soup to warm our insides. We considered doing a second dive today to some purposely sunk ships for diving until we experienced the cold and decided one day was enough. I love wreck dives...it's more fun to me being able to swim through and successfully control my buoyancy and not hit any sides, tops or bottoms.
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Wendy
non-member comment
WOW!
Sounds like one Hell of a time!!!! Glad your expierencing stuff that you normally wouldnt. Thanks for keeping up with the updates!