Adrenaline? Keep it coming!!!

Queenstown, and a Starbucks
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Queenstown is decribed as the adventure capital of NZ, and if you've seen any of our previous entries in NZ, you'd agree that that's quite an achievement!

It's a really nice town, in fact so nice, we're still here.  Anyway, as soon as we got here we started finding out about what there is to do.  We had heard that there's three must-do's here and we wanted to do all of them - The Shotover Jet, the Canyon Swing, and Luging.

We booked the Shotover Jet and Canyon Swing for the following day, and went out for dinner.

The Shotover Jet
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The next morning we woke up earlier than we needed to, looking forward to a day of pure adrenaline.  First stop, Shotover Jet;

The Shotover Jet is basically the fastest jet ski ride in the world. It holds about 10 people and speeds through Shotover Canyon at 80km/h closer to the canyon walls than you could ever imagine, and doing 360 turns along the way (some of which were done in the middle of the tiniest gorges).  It was incredible!! And to add to it, Yaz and I were given front row seats right next to the driver!  I tell you, hurtling torwards a cliff face at 80km/hour is pretty terrifying from the front seat, especially as the driver only swerves to avoid it when you're sure you should have already hit it!

After the jet ride
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After three runs through the canyon, each time faster and faster, we stepped off the boat (or more like stumbled off), a bit wetter, and a lot shakier, and headed up to the bus stop to await our transfer to the Canyon Swing.

We had mixed emotions about the Canyon Swing.  Yaz was really nervous about doing it, and I was truely excited! Basically the Canyon Swing is a jump into the huge Shotover Canyon, attached by a couple of ropes and harnesses, kind of like an upright bungy jump, but apparently a lot scarier.  It has a 60m freefall into the canyon before the rope catches and you're left swinging at the end of it.

A very worried looking Yaz
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As I said, I wasn't particularly nervous about this one, that is until the transfer van started taking us higher and higher up the canyon.  We finally made it to the location of the swing and took a peek over the edge into the canyon, which may have been a mistake.  Yaz's legs turned to jelly, and my head started spinning.  We were given instructions and weighed etc, and even made to fill out a disclaimer form...! Finally we were at the platform and ready to do it - well, as ready as you can be to hurl yourself off a cliff edge.

Hmmm, not so sure about this...
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There are many different types of jumps you can do, and each has varying difficulty, or scariness levels.  I was first up, and decided on the pindrop method (basically jumping off and keeping my arms by my side the whole way down - apparently one of the hardest).  They hooked me in and stood me on the edge of the platform, the whole time messing with my head, telling me how dangerous it is, and to be careful of the cliff edge coz if I hit it, it's game over. Anyway, obviously none of this was true, but when you're about to jump, all kinds of things are going through your head.  So anyway, my feet were on the edge, and I was apprently ready to go, I went to jump, but couldn't do it.  Every instinct in your body tells you not to.  It's not even remotely like a skydive where you don't have time to think about it.  These guys let you stand there for as long as you want, and the longer you do, the harder it gets.  Finally I had to count myself in to force myself off the edge, and I can't even explain what it feels like, but I can say that's it's possibly one of the scariest things I've ever done....!

Yaz isn't too sure either...
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Yaz was next up, and she opted for the Forwards jump.  Again, she found it tough, standing there on the edge, and even backed away a few times, I could hear her on the video-cam saying 'I cant do this'.  It was pretty hard for her especially as she has a fear of heights.  Doing the sky dive she was surprisingly cool as a cucumber but I dont think jumping off a cliff, on your own, was her cup of tea. But finally she plucked up the courage and jumped... and what a scream!!

Yaz's forwards plunge!
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She came back up looking a bit worse for wear and vowing never to do it again.  I decided to go for another one, and this time try a backwards jump.  As soon as I was strapped in, Yaz decided to go for a second!!! Anyway, pretty soon I found myself on the edge again, and wondering why!?!?  Backwards was pretty scary, watching yourself fall away from the platform, not knowing how much longer you'll be freefalling before the rope catches.  I came back from it with the shakes, and those pics you see are surprisingly clear considering how much my hands were shaking....!

Jelly legs after the jump....
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For Yaz's second she opted for The Chair.  Basically they strap you to a plastic garden chair and make you lean back on the edge of the platform until you lose balance and fall.  Its similar to the memories you have as a kid at school, rocking on your chair....except this was over a 109m ledge.  It looked pretty terrifying and while taking photo's I actually heard people saying "OMG she's doing The Chair"!  Anyway, they messed around with her for a bit, pushing her back and forth, until finally they let go... and I thought the last scream was loud!!!!

Going, going...
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That evening we needed some stiff drinks to get over the days events, although we were shattered, and the next morning we were booked in for a tour of Milford Sound, so a relatively early night for us.