New Zealand - Canyon Swing

I seem to be on a right role with the blogs from New Zealand but there is so much to do and therefore alot to report back.

We were back in Queenstown for an overnighter en route to Fox Glacier and also to see if MBNA had managed to send my card through. There had been no delivery at the hostel so I gave them a call to discover that it had actually be sent to Queensland Australia and not Queenstown New Zealand - easy mistake I suppose..? So we're back to square one but after many apologies I was assured that my request would be handled with the upmost urgency.... we'll see.

So what to do, we had an afternoon in Queenstown to kill so I decided to satisfy the adrenalin junkie hiding deep inside in me with something thrilling. Bungy jump? Jetboating? Nah.. there was a new kid in town - The Canyon Swing.

I signed myself up for a 3pm jump and after a short bus ride out of Queenstown with 7 other equally nervous looking people we arrived at the world highest Canyon Swing. Standing at 109 meters it involves throwing yourself off a edge of a cliff into a Canyon in whichever style you feel most comfortable. There is a initial 60 meter freefall before the cables kick in and then you start a 200 meter swing over a canyon at speeds of 150 kph.

I was the third person to jump from our group and was feeling pretty good about it. The first person popped off the edge no problems but the guy before me just froze and stayed on the edge for ages before he eventually went. Then it was my turn, the guys who run it are really funny and have abit of banter with you as they do the final checks and get you cabled up. Then your lead to the very edge and given the Ok to jump. I had decided to go off forwards which I don't know whether was a good or bad strategy but I figured if I'm going to throw myself down a Canyon I may as well have a good view of it.

The trick is not to think about it so as soon as I got the Ok I just went for it and chucked myself off. It was all over pretty quickly but the feeling was amazing. It felt just like I had thrown myself off a cliff and was falling towards the ground pretty bloody fast. The different between a Canyon Swing and a Bungy is that you don't feel the mechanism kick in after the freefall so it isn't until you feel yourself swinging outwards in a giant arc as apposed to just falling straight down that you know it's done it's job.

The Canyon Swing

After I had finished swinging and was winched to safety I went to check out the photo's and DVD they take during your swing but was too alarmed at how much I was balding to part with $55 as a constant reminder.

All in all I was well chuffed I challenged myself and did it and I dare say I went to bed that night with abit of a satisfied grin on my face.