Skydiving, canyoning, and running

Saturday, December 6th

At 7:40am, we woke up to sky dive. Bernice and I weren't too nervous since we did it before. Steph was ok since she survived bungee in Zambia. Alfio was nervous because it was his first time and he didn't do any high heights thing like this before. The day looked beautiful and clear. Perfect day to jump out of a plane and chance life.

When we arrived at the sky dive site at the airport, we were given a prep video to watch. It looked pretty awesome. Then we had to sign our life away and decide if we wanted to get the video or not. I opted not because it was another $100, and I can spend that money doing something else. They gave us clown suits to wear, and strapped on our harnesses. Pretty wild. I was psyched.

My diver was Eugene from Hungary. He liked the red chute because it's the color of Ferrari. A pretty funny dude. We got our stuff strapped on and climbed into the plane. The plane was really tight, we had to slide into our seat like sandwiches going up to 15,000ft, the highest altitude without need for an oxygen tank. Well, if you stay there long enough you would need one, but we didn't. Eugene pointed out the highlight spots of Wanaka. It was a beautiful aerial view. The lake, the mountains was wow. We saw Mt Cook, Lake Howard and Wanaka, and the longest river in South Island. I wished I had a camera.

Eugene was a jokester too. As Steph's diver was tightening her harness, Eugene said it's too loose. I think they gave you the XL by accident. Then he tugged on her harness saying it was really loose. He also told her this was his first jump. In the midst of all this joking, we smelled a foul foul foul smell. Steph's and my guide quickly opened the window vents. We didn't know what it was...jet fuel...but then why would they open the windows. Later we found out it was Alfio. He ripped one on the tiny plane. Really smelled like rotten eggs.

Then it was time to jump. Alfio went first, then Bernice, then me, and then Steph. We flipped out of the plane and it was free cruising from there. I wasn't scared because the ground was so far from us. Also, I did it before. It was more of a scenic ride for me, and indeed it was scenic. It was beautiful. Mountains, lakes, trees, rivers, land. Unbelievable.

I was pretty hyped up after the skydiving. I was ready to do more and have fun. I'd decided to try to do the canyoning that afternoon and go swing with Bernice, Alfio and Stephanie. We quickly went back to base backpackers and asked for them to reschedule Nilesh and I. Bernice, Steph, and Alfio decided to go rock climbing. Now I have a free morning to do whatever before leaving Queenstown. Shall I bungee and canyon swing again or shall I rent quad bikes for off roading? Tough decision.

Our excursions were starting at 1:30pm, at Queenstown and the drive is supposed to be about an hour and five minutes. It was already 11:30am when we sorted the new schedule out. We grabbed a quick bite at a bakery by the lake in Wanaka. I had a delicious chicken pie. I also ran across the street to take a few scenic shots.

Needless to say we were pressing for time to get to Queenstown. Alfio was driving pretty fast. We love seeing sheep on our drives. Apparently there are 30mn sheep and only 3mn people. At one point we all said....whoooaaa. The car was swerving. Alfio tried to give us some excitement by giving us a mini earthquake experience.

Making to Queenstown on time didn't seem possible. Thankfully our excursions were willing to wait for us and pick us up at our YHA lakeshore hostel. For canyoning (canyoning.co.nz) we signed up for a half day at the twelve mile delta. It consisted of slides, scrambles, jumps, abseil/repels, and zipline in to a canyon. It was really cool, although I almost killed myself several times.

They provided us with wetsuit gear (body suit, jacket, socks, booties), life vest, harness, and a helmet. My helmet was DJ and nilesh's was tod. Our first activity was climbing up to the canyon. Our Scottish guide was running up this mountain and I was barely able to follow him. When we reached to the top we zip lined across and the abseiled down to the green room of the canyon. That part was pretty easy, although Nilesh was a bit worried about the small sap tree being the support for our zipline. It was a bit scary because we could see the tree shaking.

The coolest thing we did was the 6 meters horizontal hydro slide. Pretty gnarly. The difficulty rating system for our obstacles were cruisy, wicked, or gnarly. Literally we sat down with our ankles crossed and our hands holding on to our vest straps and he dropped us down the slide. I didn't really know what to expect but it was really cool. Once we hit the water we had to swim to the side. I already warned the guide I'm a weak swimmer so he immediately swam towards me and grabbed me to the edge. I felt more confident of my safety after he did that. Actually everyone was very nice looking after me. Batman (another traveler's helmet) and Nilesh helped me swim to shore on the other courses too.

FYI - the water was freezing. Ice cold. Thank goodness we had a on layers of wetsuits.

There was also a 50 meters horizontal water slide where we lay on our bellies with hands out and feet out laying down like a log. We're supposed to go with the current. Easier said than done. I turned a corner and completely did a 540 and landed on my back. I was yelled at by the guide to get back on my belly. It was hard to hold the position and stay on my belly.

We also did a jump into the canyon. To get there we had to zip line half way on top of the canyon and then abseil down ourselves to the water. Once I dropped into the water I had to swim to shore. That's where batman from San Diego saved me. We then have to climb up to the top, strapping our harness to the safety rope as we climbed. Reminded me a bit of rock climbing. When I got to the top I had a choice of 10 meters or 6 meters jump, of course I was going to choose the big one.

When I got there the guide said I had to jump in with my knees bent and then swim towards the wall. Can I just walk out? No, you need to jump or else you might hit the shallow part and bump into the rock. Can you jump? You have to jump. Ok ok got it. I will try. You have to jump. Ok got it. I'm scared. Do you want a countdown? Yes, one two three - jump. Bam into the water. Absolutely cool. Nilesh came saving me. I went up again with Nilesh. The guide said to me good job on the last jump. You jumped really far. Same drill as last time. Countdown please? One, two, three, jump....flop bam! Ouch! I fell on my left side and banged right into the water. It knocked the wind out of me for a bit, but thank goodness for the life vest to break the impact of my fall. He is my friend. Everyone looked pretty shocked that I was still smiling. I saw the video clip afterwards and it did not look pretty. Ouch!

We also had to do superman dives into a pool of water. We were basically in sitting position and then you dive out by pushing off your legs. First one, I was fine. No issues at all. Second one I almost died. My head only missed the rock by a few inches. Apparently I don't have good aim. The guide quickly came to save me. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm quite a water hazard. Almost killing myself several times.

So this was all pretty intense for 2 hours being wet in the canyon. It was nice to be out in the sun again. At the end of the canyon, Nilesh was looking for rocks to bring home. I helped him look and when we both looked up again, our whole group was gone. Disappeared. They left without us. They didn't realize there was only a group of 7 now, missing two. Nilesh and I found the main path, which opened up to many other paths. Man we're lost in the middle of the rain forest in New Zealand with wetsuits on! Nilesh was calling for our group, but no one heard us. He then proceeded to call out Marco, hopping for Polo to scream back. Eventually he just picked a road and we walked hoping we picked the right one. Luckily it was the right path and we eventually caught up to our group.

Boy I had tons of fun. They dropped us back at the tour center to watch some pictures and videos we took. None looked that worthy of purchasing. Nilesh was pretty hungry by then, so we went to Fergburger for a snack before dinner. I heard it's supposed to be really good. I wanted to share one with Nilesh so that I didn't ruin my appetite for dinner. He insisted to have his own meal. So we each got our own burger. I had the tropical swine, which had bacon and pineapples. It was nice, but not the best. I couldn't finish all of it, neither did Nilesh, we both left some of the bread behind. I'm slowly but surely getting fat, so I better try to eat more healthy.

We walked along the Lake Wakatipu back to our hostel. It's beautiful here. The mountains and lake are unreal. People were just chilling by it drinking beers, throwing around a football. Nilesh and I did some rock skipping, Nilesh was much better than me. He can skip it 5 times. I am lucky if I get one skip. By then it was time we got back to the hostel, Steph, Bernice, and Alfio just arrived 10 minutes before us. They had a good climbing day. Steph said it wasn't as hard as Thailand or China, but they learned how to belay. That's pretty cool.

Alfio was all about going on a run. They must of not worked so hard if he wanted to run. My legs were sore from the glacier hike and the climbing today, but I still went since I felt bad for eating so much in New Zealand. We actually all got geared up for the run. I didn't have an ipod so I tried to run with Nilesh. He is actually an amazing runner, despite his smoking and drinking. It was hard keeping his pace, but he was nice enough to slow down a bit for me. We ran around the lake, and then Alfio started heading uphill, hell no...I kept running along the river and Nilesh stayed by me. In the end Alfio caught up to us when we rested. The three of us ran for a bit, and then Alfio wanted to do another circuit. Nilesh and Alfio went while I just ran back and stretched in front of yha. I also hopped on the swing waiting for them. Alfio ran 5 miles, and he said I ran a bit more than 3 miles. Not bad. It was pretty fun with beautiful scenery, mountains and lake. Amazing!

Shower was quite necessary at that point. One by one we got ready to head out to town for dinner. No way I was eating another huge meal, so an appetizer will have to do. We went to a thai restaurant and I got a soup that was pretty nice.

Being pooped was an understatement. Calling today just adventurous is also an understatement. We were all in desperate need of some sleep, so we walked back to yha and got ready for bed. At first we wanted to watch a movie, but eventually got too lazy and just chatted in bed. At 12:30am, we called it a night. We had to meet our tour bus at 7:40am to go to Milford Sound the following morning.