New Zealand: Day 17

Gold rule

January 19, 2013

The weather behaved rather oddly today. When I awoke at 7am it was mostly cloudy with a bit of clear sky visible in the far distance. It started to drizzle around 8:30am, but as soon as we were out of the city, the cloud cover vanished and it was sunny and clear. A few hours later we drove back into Queenstown to find more overcast skies and a light drizzle. A few hours later when we left Queenstown again, once again the clouds cleared up to reveal a beautiful sunny day! But when I returned to Queenstown at the end of the day, the city was blessed with good weather, with cumulus clouds scraping the tops of the Remarkables. Temperatures were a comfortable 70s throughout the day. The weather in New Zealand reminds me so much of Seattle.

Queenstown bills itself as the adventure capitol of the world, and this may not be hyperbole. I spent the entire day on one adventure after another. It is appropriate that a mountain range called the Remarkables oversees this town. Bungy jumping? You have numerous options. Skydiving? At least two companies are able to satisfy that desire. Whitewater rafting? Three companies compete for that business. Jet boating? Where would you like to go? Paragliding, hang gliding? We've already covered that. Off-road biking, all terrain vehicles, motorcycles -- especially for wilderness use -- all are available. I guess if I had any complaint at all it's that the town is occupied by a rather young group of people. I saw very few families with small children. I felt my middle agehood press upon me like never before. But do you think I'm about to let something like that inhibit me? You don't know me very well!

I purchased a combination package of adventures called the Nevis Awesome Foursome. It was eleven hours of thrills, thrills, thrills. The very first stop was the Nevis Bungy, a 134 meter drop, the highest in New Zealand and the second highest bungy jump in the world; 8.5 seconds of free fall. Our little group were the first jumpers of the day, and lucky me was the first jumper -- because I weighed the most in the group at 98 kg. "Wot," says I, "I go first because I'm the fattest one here?" Everyone laughed at my mock attitude of being offended. "I wouldn't put it that way," said the staff person, "but that's more or less true. We go in descending order of weight." So I was strapped into a full body harness, and my legs were bound together. I was instructed to pull a bright green strap on my second bounce up so that I would take an upright seated position as the winch lifted me back up to the platform rather than hanging upside down for the duration. I sort of wiggle-walked to the edge of the platform, and given final instructions: I was to spread my arms wide and lean forward so that I would fall head first after the staff person tapped me on the shoulder three times.

Tap, tap, tap. I didn't hesitate. I wanted to do this. I leaned forward and fell into the void. Earlier one of the staff had asked me if I was nervous, and I held my thumb and index finger about an inch apart and said, "just a little." I remembered the gut wrenching rides at amusement parks where you are carried up to the top of a column and then dropped, with your body near the ground and your stomach still somewhere a few dozen feet above you. I was worried that the Nevis Bungy would be 8.5 seconds of sheer terror, 8.5 seconds of that awful feeling on the amusement park rides. But it wasn't like that at all. I was determined to keep my eyes wide open for the entire experience, and I did, as I watched the ground rush towards me. I felt complete and total exhilaration. Yes, I was thrilled to my very core. I could feel the muscles in my face contracted into a broad smile. Once again I was flying, and it was wonderful. Later, standing on the platform as the other jumpers took their turns, my eyes actually brimmed with tears as I recalled the incredible experience. I wanted to do this again. And yes, my friends, I have photos and video that I will share with you when I return to the States

The bus took us back into town, and I had about an hour and a half to wait for the bus to take me to my next adventure: the Shotover Jet Boat ride. "The Station," the center of all this activity, had numerous Apple Internet-enabled computers available for customers' use, so I checked email while waiting. Then before long it was time to go. My travel planner had said the Shotover Jet Boat ride was a "must." The driver of our bus, when we stopped at the landing site yesterday, also was very enthusiastic.

They were not wrong. We sped along the rapids of the Shotover River at speeds of 85-90 km/hr. Our pilot took special pleasure in making near misses of the canyon walls. The craft seemed to skim along the surface of the water. The pilot told us the boat only needed four inches of water in which to travel. The boat churned through a thousand liters of water per second. We did the water equivalent of wheelies, making a number of 360 degree turns in the water. Fun! Exciting! Thrilling! And too short; I think the trip lasted about 20 minutes. I can only imagine how much fuel was consumed; I forgot to ask. And, yes, I have photos and videos of this adventure, too, but they also will have to wait until I return home because I don't have a way to post them with my little iPad.

Right next door to the Shotover Jet Boat ride was the Queenstown Rafting Company, the operators of our final adventure of the day. I changed into my bathing suit that I had been lugging around with me all day, along with a change of clothes (I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I wanted to be prepared for all eventualities). We then put on a wet suit jumper and a wet suit jacket. For those of you who don't know what a wet suit is or why it has that name, I'll explain. A wet suit is made of semi-permeable neoprene rubber. Water penetrates the wet suit and forms a thin layer against your skin; your natural body heat then quickly warms this thin layer. In this manner, you can actually be quite comfortable in very cold water. There may be a moment of discomfort as the water first penetrates the suit, but this quickly passes. In addition to the wet suits, we were given life jackets and helmets. I also was given some twine to keep my glasses from flying off my face.

But for those of us who had chosen the Nevis Awesome Foursome, we had one additional adventure awaiting us before our whitewater rafting trip began. Most folks on the trip were driven in mini-buses to the site where the rafting trip began. The Nevis Awesome Foursome included a helicopter ride to the site! The helicopter pilot made sure this was a thrilling adventure as well. He would head directly for a mountainside and then at the last moment tilt the craft at a 45 degree angle and fly away. He did this several breathtaking times. I had ridden in a helicopter only once before, but, while this was a shorter ride, it was far, far more exciting. It, too, was over too soon.

We landed at the site where the rafts were to be launched, to the envious eyes of those who had arrived by ground transportation, and then received a final rafting safety lesson. There was quite a crowd of us, but there were plenty of rafts and guides as well. The lead guide assigned groups of four, then groups of three, then groups of two to rafts. I was left by myself. "I'm a party of one," I shouted, "and believe me, I'm quite a party!" He laughed and assigned me to a raft. The Shotover River is a Category 4/5 river; I had never rafted down a river that was more than a Category 3. I requested -- and obtained -- a seat in the front. My ride down the Tongariro River had taught me that was the most exciting place to be. Our guide repeated some of the instructions we had heard earlier, but she had us actually practice them by having us jump out of the raft, show that we knew how to float properly if we should be thrown out of the raft, and know how to pull someone back into the raft if s/he fell overboard.

The rafting trip was quite a thrill. We went through numerous rapids. It had its beautiful, peaceful moments as well as we traversed the calmer parts of the Shotover River. We even saw a group of wild mountain goats clambering over the canyon walls. Our guide was very entertaining; she had many stories to tell. She even had spent some time in California, and was familiar with the American River which is where I had done my first whitewater rafting ride. At one point we novices all had to get out of the rafts and walk a few hundred yards while the guides took the rafts through a particularly difficult section of the river. Even the guides had trouble navigating this section of the river, with one flipping the raft, and another getting stuck on a rock. The most exciting part of the ride came towards the end when we passed through a tunnel of several hundred yards, with a drop of about ten feet at its end. Whee! We were thoroughly soaked. Alas, the end of the ride was only a few hundred yards further. The Tongariro River ride had lasted considerably longer. And yes, again, I will be getting photos and video, but they won't be ready for pickup until tomorrow afternoon.

My day of adventures was over, but I have many great memories, and if those memories should ever fade, I will have photos and videos for refreshing my memory. I returned to the hotel just in time for dinner. We started with a delicious puréed sweet corn soup. I chose the spicy Asian noodles with vegetables as my main course, and dessert was a satisfying lemon meringue tart. I dashed off as soon as I finished because I wanted to return to the rafting company's headquarters and put in my order for the photos and video, as well as get a ticket for a dinner cruise tomorrow night. I succeeded in the former, but not the latter; the ticket office was closed. I also was disappointed that I would have to wait until tomorrow to get my rafting photos and video. I opted to have them delivered on a USB flash drive. It was only $10 more.

But one more unexpected thrill was awaiting me. Throughout my travels in New Zealand I have been drinking Coke because my preferred soda was not available. I stopped in at a convenience store just down the street from the hotel to buy some more Cokes rather than pay the ridiculous prices of the hotel's minibar. While I was perusing the refrigerated section looking for Cokes, I found ... DR. PEPPER! I buy Dr. Pepper by the case, and I had been missing it. I truly was thrilled -- perhaps not quite to the extent of the thrills experienced earlier in the day, but thrilled nonetheless -- and I grabbed four cans. Ah, what a satisfying way to end my day! But I'm not finished with Queenstown yet. Weather permitting, I have plans for more thrilling adventures tomorrow. Stay tuned! Unfortunately I have no photos for you today. I did not take my iPad along with me because I did not want to lose "my precious" along the way. Plenty of photos and videos were taken by others. You'll have to wait just as I will.

Gold rule

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