2/12/08: Battling the Canyons

Today was truly fabulous! We woke up and at 10:30am the canyoning people picked us up, which is what we did today. On our drive to Routeburn, which is near where they filmed Lord of the Rings, our van broke down and started smoking while we were on a steep uphill incline. Yikes! Luckily another bus came to get us. When we arrived on site we put on our gear, a wet suit, booties, life jacket and helmet. We Traveled to the head of Lake Wakatipu to a hidden spot in the Routeburn Valley. A canyon is different from an ordinary stream because the narrow passages are created by erosion into bedrock, creating beautiful sculptured walls and spectacular waterfalls. Canyoning involves traveling down creeks or streams within a canyon y a variety of means- walking, scrambling, climbing, abseiling/rappelling, jumping and swimming. We walked through some streams at the bottom of the mountains and from there we could see waterfalls in the distance further up the climb. The water was freezing! That is because it is coming from the melted snow at the top of the mountains. It was a crystal blue, similar to the color of the Caribbean water, but it’s fresh water! We hiked up the mountain and that’s where the fun began. We started out by climbing up this canyon and we laid down on the rocks on our backs, headfirst and slid completely down, similar to a slide with the pool of water at the bottom. The frigid temperature takes your breath away. We walked through the canyon to our next spot where we were instructed to jump in specific spot at the bottom of the waterfall, roughly 30ft down. We were instructed to look up at the sky to help us “sit in a chair.” There were huge rocks on either side and we had to keep our knees up so we wouldn’t hit the bottom. Once we plunged into the water, the strong current took us along the canyon. We were in the water for about 3hours and I wish I could do it all over again! This is the highlight of my trip so far. Tonight is low key back at the resort. An early morning tomorrow when we will got on a jet and funyaking (inflatable kayaks down the river!)