Helicopters, Rafts and Whitewater!
31st July 2006
We are now in Queenstown, after driving the short distance from Wanaka (makes me laugh every time, immature I know!). Queenstown is the ‘adrenaline’ capital of New Zealand, home of the worlds highest bungee jump, and all sorts of bungee spin offs (canyon swings, running bungees, inverse bungees, etc etc…). In winter time (i.e. now!) Queenstown becomes a ski resort, with loads of skiers and boarders heading up into the nearby ‘remarkables’ mountain range for some action on the white stuff.
So far we have resisted the temptation to bungee, instead getting our adrenaline fix today by undertaking a white water rafting trip. We both fancied a challenge, so have waited a couple of days for the correct conditions so we could access the Shotover river, a grade 5 whitewater river (grade 1 = a lake, grade 6 = death), passing the opportunity to raft the beginners Karawau river.
The only way you can access the river at this time of year is via Helicopter, as the rapids are located in a remote gorge, so today, we officially became ‘Helirafters’! The helicopter ride was a first for both of us, and after an initial few bumps as we passed low over the top of the mountains, the flight was really scenic as we made our way up above the river, through the narrow gorge that we would later be rafting.
After a comprehensive safety brief, where we were worringly informed that ‘not everyone has made it back from this river’, we got together with a group of Aussies and an American lass, and jumped in our raft, with our guide, Ryan. When taking our seats in the raft, Ryan asked for a couple of confident people to sit up front, where apparently the ride is roughest, without hesitation Charlotte volunteered us for this role and i had to smile and go along with the ‘confident’ masquerade.
We headed off down the river, tackling rapids with names such as the ‘toilet’ (where one boat lost 4 rafters, all survived however!), the ‘mother in law’, ‘pinball’ and ‘Goldminers revenge’. As we were upfront, we were responsible for setting the paddling pace on the order of our guide, who was at the back of the raft steering. On successful completion of the ‘toilet’ rapid, he exclaimed, as only a yankee could ‘ great job on the toilet you guys’ – cue immature laughter from the Brits!
We survived all the rapids without losing any of our crew, although we both chose (along with one Aussie) to tackle one of the lesser rapids outside of the boat, by floating downstream in our wetsuits, which was a good laugh despite the cold!
At the end of our time on the river (just over an hour!) we relaxed in the sauna back at the rafting HQ, where we also warmed ourselves up with a brew and a sausage roll.
We are having a great time here in Queenstown, it is a really cool place. Infact, we are loving it so much, we have just booked ourselves 3 days snow boarding, it seemed like a safer bet than tackling the bungee!
Tags: New Zealand, Queenstown, Rafting, White Water Rafting
Chris and Charl
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