The rush continues in Queenstown
Alan and Me, about to drop 420 meters over a canyon.
After our incredibly terrifying adventure on the Nevis Arc (canyon swing), we couldn’t help but feed the need with a 4WD through the mountains, a jet boat ride, and a whitewater rafting trip on the Skippers Canyon.
Veiws on the 4wd bus
First we were picked up by this funky tank-like tour van with off-road tires. We were driven through harrowing roads just wide enough to fit the van, overlooking green canyons interspersed with giant rock formations. We saw a few sites which were used in the Lord of the Rings, most notably, the gates of Mordor. We also found out parts “Wolverine” were filmed around Queenstown. The area is full of gorgeous scenery, surrounded by endless lakes and rivers, fields of grazing sheep and cows, with large plots of grapevines everywhere. The many waterways reflect the surreal blue skies which are dotted with fluffy white clouds here and there, and the contrast with the brown/green mountains makes it all seem like a photograph from the pages of National Geographic. As I said in a recent post, it’s some of the most beautiful land I’ve ever seen.
Our crazy, scary drive ended at the Jet dock.
On the Skippers Canyon Jet
The Skippers Canyon Jet is a large boat that can be driven in very shallow rivers. Somehow they manage to drive this thing at very high speeds through water that is as little as 2 feet deep. It’s totally open on the top, so we were instructed to keep all limbs in the vehicle and hang on for dear life! The rider proceeded to fishtail us around the canyon so that it appeared we would nearly hit the cliffs that rose out of the river bed. And then he would do these donuts, splashing us all and scaring the crap out of us at the same time. It wasn’t nearly as scary as the swing, but it definitely got our adrenaline going.
Getting wet on the Shotover River
After some time on the jet boat, we were dropped back to shore for our whitewater rafting trip. The Shotover river rapids are mellow, since it’s summer and the water is pretty low in most spots. The steepest rapid was probably 3-4 ft. Luckily we didn’t have to paddle much, and the ride was fairly leisurely.
Sunset in Queenstown
We came back to town a little damp and pooped but made our way to the Queenstown gardens, where they play frisbee golf and relax on the shores of Lake Wakatipu. By the way, Alan calls frisbee golf “folf.” I never heard that before. Anyway, we walked through the gardens and along the lake front and there were tons of people out in their swimsuits just chilling on the beach; a DJ was there playing music on loudspeakers… a great mix of breakbeat and hip-hop. Finally we grabbed some mince meat pies and headed back to our hotel to watch Lord of the Rings!
Check out all of the photos here.