Queenstown Adrenalin Rush

Friday November 18, 2011
The day dawned bright, chilly and full of electricity. Neither Tracy nor I slept very well last night. Not sure why, but maybe it had to do with the fact we were anticipating today. We walked down to the i Site & Vic signed up for the Shotover Canyon Swing & we both signed up for the Shotover River Jet Boat. They call Queenstown the "adrenalin" capitol of NZ. They are not kidding. There are any number of ways to throw yourself off a cliff or a bridge with a bungy cord. You can ride fast in a jet boat on a rocky river through narrow canyons at 80 km. If it's not enough to go mountain biking, you can go "Heli-biking." In fact, you can combine any sports activity -- hiking, biking, skiing, climbing -- with a helicopter. Amazing. These people can't seem to go fast enough or high enough. Vic opted to throw himself off a cliff into a canyon over the Shotover River -- not once, but twice. There are a number of ways you can throw yourself off the cliff. The launching point is a platform. Once you step off the platform you drop the first 60 meters before you swing out 300 feet over the canyon above the Shotover River. We boarded the bus & drove about 10 minutes to the site of the event. We had a Swedish family with us & Andreas & Vic were both going to jump. Emory the driver told us the most scary part would be the last mile of the gravel road to the jump site. He wasn't kidding. Vic was feeling a little nervous, but amazingly pretty calm. Vic decided to jump jump first. In his words - they explained how this would work & wanted to know what way I would like to take the leap. Being a conservative type of guy, Vic opted for the "cut away" method. They strapped him into his harness & he was gently pushed out off the platform where he hung for a few moments before they pulled a strap to let him go. But, before all of that, you get to pick your own music for your trip down. He picked BTO's Taking Care Of Business. He stepped into the harness, double checked each hook & strap. They clipped him onto the line & walked him over to the end of the platform & then explained how he would take his first canyon swing. He looked up into the camera, leaned out over the edge waved at Tracy and stepped to the edge. He hung there for several seconds & then said bye-bye & pulled the strap.
"I felt nothing below me. It went mind blanking fast. In 3 seconds you've dropped 60 meters & reached a speed of 150KM. What a blast. It was so quick, smooth, easy. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was so good I decided to jump a second time." This time, backwards off the platform. I picked Staying Alive by the Bee Gees for the second jump.". We will post the video on "You Tube" and send out the link in a separate post.

After Vic got his adrenalin rush, we went on to our "Shotover Canyon" jet boat ride. Jet boating began in NZ in 1955. They only need about 4" of water to ram thru the intake valves that power the boat at very fast speeds. In fact you really can't go slow (very similar in principle to Tracy's luge skills). We loaded our boat & Quinn our captain took off up the river (it really doesn't matter which way you go if you only need 4" of water). He then deftly did a 360 & sped back down the river. We careened at high speeds (Tracy immediately said she wanted a jet boat) as he pointed the boat now traveling 80KM/hr. at outcroppings of rock, sheer walls, tree trunks immersed in the river, thru narrow channels & over mere ripples of water only to violently jerk the wheel at the last instant sending us shooting in another direction. Just to add a little variety he would twirl one hand over his head signifying we were about to pull another 360 at break neck speed. All of this dangerous action caused everyone to smile widely, laugh uncontrollably & get very wet. All the time Tracy kept imploring him to pick up the pace a bit. I forgot to mention we were fashionably outfitted in a long black trench coat like rain gear, red life jackets (a lot of good they would have done us if we had hit any of the structures we barely missed) & no helmets. After 45 minutes of spins, near crashes & hysterical laughing we finished w/another 360 before we all broke into a cheer & clapping (maybe for Quinn or just getting back in one piece). Tracy wanted to drive the next trip on thru the canyon.

Having survived the jet boat ride, we headed back into town to take the skyline gondola to the top of a mountain overlooking the town. If you are the mayor of Queentown, apparently it's not enough to put in a skyline gondola. You also need to build mountain biking trails down the mountain so people can get their rush of adrenalin and then ride the gondola back to the top and do it again. You also need to build a luge track ( for carts that are sort of like a plastic low-to-the-ground go-kart) on the upper half of the mountain, so that folks can careen down paved tracks from the top. Pretty cool! We decided to try the luge. It turns out that Tracy is quite the speed demon, and beat Vic to the bottom on all her runs. We have awesome pics of luging for our Christmas card!

Having had enough adrenalin rushes for the day, we went back to our hotel and then to dinner. All in all a great day!