Wild, wet & hairy

It was snowing when I first stepped out of the motorhome at about 8:00 in the morning, not the best weather for what I was intending to do rather soon. You might just see the blurry white bits in this shot across the campsite from our motorhome:

But I'd already paid so there was no turning back now. I left Barbara snug and warm in bed and walked ½ a kilometre down the road to the first activity. Does this give you an idea of what I'm about to do?

A nice gentle little boat ride!!!! Here's a previous boat loading up:

The boat then sets off:

And comes back a few seconds later for a photo opportunity:

It may not be too obvious, but the boat is travelling sideways at great speed, the driver is also waving while steering with the one hand, and the rest of us were trying to hang on with just one hand while waving to the camera. That's me nearest to the camera in the second row:

And then we go belting off through the frighteningly narrow Shotover Canyon, missing the very solid rock outcrops by inches:

skimming over shallows with just a few inches of water:

and bouncing hard across the white water where rocks punctuate the river's progress:

You take the warning to keep your hands inside the boat, very seriously after your first close encounter with a rock wall; in fact, I was frequently ducking in case the overhanging rocks hit my head!

But it was really cold. Snowing some of the trip, and getting wet whenever we did a 360° spin, then blasting across the water at 50mph. It took me some time to recover the feeling in my hands in the adjacent cosy café:

And then the minibus came to take me away,

and after a really hairy drive up a narrow mountain dirt track with a sheer drop on the one side, rock walls on the other, and only just enough width for the minibus, we got to a relatively safe area. I got trussed up in something akin to a straight-jacket and then these mad New Zealanders pushed me out to the edge of a platorm very high above the Shotover River I'd previously been uncomfortably close to:

And then laughed when I fell off!!!!

Fortunately, even though I fell 180 feet straight down, the thin cable I was attached to eventually started arresting my fall and converted it from rapid downwards motion, to rapid horizontal motion across the canyon and up the other side. When I'd finished swinging, they winched me back up, and I was so upset by the experience, that I actually asked if I could jump off again!

Here I am, looking very windswept, about to jump off facing downwards this time so that I can see the drop:

Every bit as alarming as falling off backwards as I did the first time.....

And then I found Barbara who had been to Arrowtown:

Straight from the wild west – of America! You could pan for gold, and the buildings looked as though they were from the set of a Western film. Not as exciting as Cha's day, but better on the nerves.

Then it was time to move on up the west coast. Up some alarming hairpin bends:

This involved going over the Crown Range Summit Pass, at 1,076 metres, the highest sealed road in New Zealand, hence we were up above the snow line:

And Barbara found that we'd parked next to a car with a very appropriate numberplate, given that her email address is baa.lyne@gmail.com ....

And we've finished up at Haas (http://www.haastlodge.com) for the night.

written by  Saros on May 9, 2009 from Queenstown, New Zealand
from the travel blog: The Hairy Animal 2009 World Road Trip
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