Dec 26 - Canyoning!

December 26th, 2011 -

I had no issue with jet lag, went to bed pretty late, and woke up at our alarm to mosey across the street to the Canyoning company. We confirmed we would be joining them for the day and got breakfast. Queenstown is a tiny town, roughly 2x3 blocks, the main portion of town. However, it is incredible. There are people outside everywhere, all times of the days. The beach area is packed with people, and one thing we really noticed about Queenstown was it seemed like...a bunch of hippies. There were people skating, there were people doing tightrope walking between trees, the style of clothing, all in all, it actually composed of an incredible atmosphere. So Tim and I grab breakfast on the main ped walk way / street in town. A scrumptious egg, sausage, bacon, some sort of tomatoes, and a coffee, and it was $25NZD each (About $20USD). Ridiculous. But, it was delicious and all the prices are marked up due to high season (holidays + summer) and simply being in Queenstown. This trip is definitely going to add up, but its going to be so so worth it!

We depart Queenstown with our tour company in a mini-bus for one of the most beautiful 45 minute drives I have ever been on. We drove alongside Lake Wakatipu the entire route towards Glenorchy. Let me tell you, this lake is just absolutely stunning, its interesting how I continually was blown away by how large it was, yet I reside less than 2 miles from Lake Michigan which is considered either the 2nd largest or 5th largest in the world, depending on which source you use. Apparentely, Wakatipu is the 95th largest in the world. You could see across it the entire time, but its length just kept going and going for the entire ride. The snow capped mountains in the background, the turquoise blue water, it was breathtaking.

Our bus makes a turn in Glenorchy, and another onto a dirt road, where we continue to pass sheep after sheep after sheep, mixed in with cows and a variety of other animals. There are seriously sooo many sheep in NZ! Eventually, we get to the Routeburn Shelter, where we learn, this is where we will be starting the Routeburn Track the following evening. We're met with a double water fall, an 80m (250') plunge, into a 60m (200') falls directly below it off in the distance on the mountainside. We gear up, swimsuit on, long john wet suit tank top cut off, a jacket wet suit on top of it, 'wet suit' socks, and then booties. We were also given a cap for our head for warmth, a helmet, and a butt slide (it has an actual name, but a butt slide is way cooler).

We track through the fast flowing river and up the nature trail and eventually onto the actual Routeburn Track, which didn't really set in until the next day. We make our way across a suspension bridge

and up to a bridge that is about 30' over the canyon below, and our guide jokingly points to a tree below and says, 'see that tree, that's where we're going to be jumping into that pit below, and throws a rock into the white water, formed by a 12' waterfall (which was below the tree height) and says, THAT is where you're going to aim to land."

Here is the tree in the left center that we put our foot on, and jumped into that white water directly below:

At this point we realize...he's not kidding, he's dead serious, that is our first jump. I was pretty much terrified, but not really at all at the same time. We got a safety talk and actually hiked up the stream a ways to 2 different waterfalls, with a stunning back drop, as beautiful as they come. We wade back down the stream/canyon to the jump and one at a time, we jump off of it. The catch being, if you 'jump' you'll go to far and land on a rock, so this is literally just a normal sized 'step off and fall' and then land on your butt to create as much surface area as possible to slow your fall....

I didn't think I was going to survive, despite having gone canyoning in both Costa Rica (lame, tame, no wet suit, and just a bunch of rappels (abseils, to the rest of the world), and in Slovenia, sketchy as hell with a guide who spoke little to...broken english, and the canyon could've been operated much more safely. Yet still, this was probably the most difficult jump as well as scariest that I had done. I brace my foot on a tree root, go over the jump w/ the guide, and slowly step off the edge, as I fall, I see myself trailing forward towards the rock ahead, but I listened to the guide (and he pulled the back of your harness as you stepped off the edge in case you jumped instead of stepped) and landed safely in the white water below.

From here, you could realize that where you jumped from is slightly undercut, and hence, why you really cannot jump off, but must simply step off. I swim to the side of the canyon and up the rock face, grab onto a safety rope, clip my carabiners onto it, and meander underneath the canyon walls, on a steep rock face, into a lower bowl and portion.

Next up, a natural water slide! This looks fun! Slide down, probably about a 20' slide, and into a 'big puddle' of water at the bottom, before hitting the boulder at the far side... now i said this looks fun until...the guide says, "OK, for this one, you're going to slide on your butt to the top of the slide, give me your feet, and you're going to go down head first...on your back." Our group of 5 stopped in our tracks and were like 'nope, not happening.' Naturally, we all did it, and it was awesome. Awesome enough to the point that we climbed back up and did it again.

We did more abseils (rappels) throughout various parts of the canyon, more slides, and more jumps. We even got to go behind a water fall in the canyon!

One of the 'slides' that we got into, became a slide INTO a waterfall, so you slid down on your back, and go off the edge within the water fall and land into a swimming pool sized gulley about 10' below. Some in our group definitely overrated here. This pool was great, we were able to climb up the side of the canyon wall, while being clipped into our carabiners, along the edge, to a 6m (20') jump into the 'pool of water' below. This was great, and then the guide said, ok, if your'e up to it, you can try the 8m (27') jump...but he needs to see that you are capable. So I obviously went up to give it a shot, the catch here is that, as you spring off the launching site, you need to clear Earth below you, before getting to the pool. So if you don't jump out horizontally enough, you will land on Earth below. If your attitude was non-hesitating, this would be no issue. Just jump, and don't stop yourself at the last second, and you will clear it with ease.

This jump was AWESOME. I couldn't wait to get back up and jump again. The super awkward kid in our group managed to temporarily dislocate his shoulder on the jump from flailing his arms on the way down. As a professional at shoulder injuries, I've learned to keep them protected and keep my arms in, close to my body at all times.

Next up...holy hell. The canyon drops about 30' into a pool of water, with a giant tree branch sticking up vertical in it, and then another 20' drop below. This one I said seriously, NOT doing this jump. But our guides have to get down there somehow, so either, 1 rappels the other, or one jumps. Being the insane-o's that they are, the one jumped, over this protruding tree branch in the middle and almost jumps too far to land against the far wall. He was OK and sets up safety lines, such that when we land in this water, we won't go off the edge below. How this works is a 'half' rappell, half fall, our guide lowered us to a point about 12 to 15' above the water, we gave him the OK, and he released the rope, so we would fall the rest of the way into the water below.

He had told me about a couple hand holds on the tree, and I was able to scale this tree branch, in the middle of this pool, to about 6' or 7' out of the water and sit on the top of it...cool stuff. The second portion of this fall, we were lowered against the rock face and basically dragged against it, along the water trickling down the edge to the area below. I was smiling so big and almost hit my face on the rock, that could've made for nice pictures for the rest of the trip...

We climbed across a bunch of rocks in the middle of stream/canyon, to a zipline, ziplined to the next section, and continued to make our way down through more water falls, jumps, and rappels.

As we exited the canyon, its simply absolute bliss. The canyon is stunning, forgive me for constantly reiterating how beautiful or stunning these places are, but it simply cannot be stated enough. The shear rock faces, and enormous size of the mountains and the trees lining them is breathe taking.

We make our way back to Queenstown, all in 1 piece, looking forward to our next adventure.

In Queenstown, Tim and I head to the beach to meet up with fellow hostelers to see if they're playing any more sports, as well as over to the rugby pitch (soccer/rugby field) where they said they might be playing, and eventually ended up at the world famous, Ferg Burger. Let me tell you, this burger is as delicious as they come and a must do when you're in Queenstown! To end the night, Tim and I walk around the town, bought a small pot for our multi day hike, grabbed our tickets for the Routeburn Track huts that we prepurchased, saw a few street performers, more hippies hanging out, and we borrow frisbee golf discs from the hostel, and go and play 18 holes of frisbee golf (disc golf). This is a national 'disc golf course' and was the first ever sanctioned in New Zealand. Apparently its quite big here?? We played late into the night, as it did not get dark until almost 11pm, and prepped for the Routeburn Track the following evening as we'd be checking out in the morning.