Scaring myself to death

Trip Start Sep 01, 2005
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Trip End May 11, 2006


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Saturday, January 14, 2006

Queenstown is said to be the adrenalin capital of the world. Pretty much any outdoor activity you can think of can be done here. There's lots of different bungee jumps, jet boating, skydiving, luges, rafting, rapid boarding, heli biking, paragliding; the list goes on and on.

The one I chose was the Canyon Swing. As the name implies, you swing across a canyon, which in itself doesn't seem to bad but first you freefall for 60m then swing in a 200m arc across the Shotover canyon several times before being winched up. The platform is bolted to the side of the canyon and the drop below is 80 or 100m, it looked like a long way. There's several different ways you can leave the platform, forwards, backwards, upside down etc. I decided to jump off forwards but realised this is one of the most difficult as you have to jump yourself rather than be released, it took me a couple of minutes to psych myself up to jump 01-First jump
01-First jump
 . I think I was so scared that I lost the ability to scream. It was such a rush I had to do it again, this time backwards and upside down. I videoed both jumps, the second time taking my camera with me but the videos are far too big to upload. I've taken some stills from the videos though. I wasn't going to do a bungee jump but I think I might do that as well now.

I left the car crashing Swedish girl when I arrived here. She was going on to a 4 day hike which I didn't really fancy doing that much. She was a nice person and quite attractive but we didn't get on that well. I think she got offended when I put Bill Hicks on in the car. Errrrr, what's that about? I also have a but pass so it doesn't make sense to pay for petrol costs........and possible die at the same time.

I think Queenstown is one of the most popular destinations in New Zealand because of all the activities available to do here. I don't like booking accommodation ahead but have had to do it quite a lot due to how busy everywhere is. I forgot to do it for Queenstown. I arrived on the worse day possible, Friday, and it was so hard trying to find somewhere. Although very busy and touristy Queenstown is still quite nice; situated on the edge of lake Wakatipu and surrounded by mountains.
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