swinging and splashing

today´s goal?!?

Pumping adrenalin into veins!!

So we entered Canyon Swing office at 9:00am. Reservation all done before we hopped on a van to get driven to canyon close Queenstown. After short ride and 350m to walk, we finally arrived swinging location. Well, Flora was quite tensed, cause it was first time she ever faced this situation, in fact of her fear of hights! Brave girl!!

Swinging is different to bunge, cause U can start in different positions, and U feel power of gravity much more.

Some facts:

• Free fall of 60m before swing starts
• acceleration up to 150 km/h
• reach highspeed in 3 seconds
• bouncing of 200m

sounds great, doesn´t it?!? Believe it does!! :-D

So first Flora fought her fear by starting in "cutoff"position. This means sitting beside the plattform, and secure guys cut off the rope - and off she gone :-D

I had chosen "backward" start, that means hands behind head, leaning back holded by secure guys as long they mean it´s worth to hold U :-) Goal is to hold position as long as U can ... fucking awesome!!

backward swing

Thirlled and full pumped with adrenalin we aproved offer for second swing. Thist time Flora jumped "forward" out from plattform, and i did the "chair of death". By chair of death U take a seat on an platic chair, get belted on them, and..... lean back the edge till... jep, till U fall and get kept by gravity after a few spins .... AND believe this is really an undescribeable feeling.

chair of death swing

And of course ALL 4 swings of Flora and me are banned onto videomaterial :-)  Aja, my action cam also captured amazing shots, too. With a wide smile across face we returned back to town.

Form the swinging kick - we decided to do the shotover on the river as well. This 500 PS speedboat does 360° spins on water and reach highspeed at 70km/h. OK, this doesn´t sound impressive I know - BUT this all take place in a small river-canyon very close to riffs and rocks!! Flashing moments, facing rocks passing by half an meter your head!

shotover by a 360° spin

What an awesome day ...

tomorrow follow hopefully my greatest adrenalin kick ever...
So fingers cross that weather well be clear  and fine in the morning ...!!

on a horses back

wuuuuiiiii ... Manuel on the back of a horse!!

two words: Impressive experience!!

.. but let us start at the very beginning...

Bus picked us up at hotel und after a short drive of about 30min, we arrived Glenorchy from where our next adventure basically started. We booked a combo ride for Lord of the Rings and the River Ride.

1) Lord of the Rings Trip:

Well, as the only one with NO RIDING experience at all, our guide Meggy set me on a really FAMOUS horse. OSKAR - the horse which was ridden by Rohans in the movie Lord of the Rings :-)

Once on the back I got a short instruction done by Meggy. And it was a really short instruction indeed: quote: "It´s all as easy as that - Break like this. Start moveing like this. Lead the hores by this ... great - THAT´s it, u´ve got it - sweet!"

WTF?!?! :-)

But nevertheless my first riding experience was really great - I have to say - one horsepower - is quite enough.

Oskar - me, myself and I

Back after 2 hours seeing all locations/scenes which were used by Peter Jackson´s movie, we staid for lunch at city center, waiting for second session to come...

2) River Ride

Well, the river ride was different but impressive, too. Why? Because, on the one hand we rode through a few cute riverarms and beautiful nature, and on the other I´ve upgraded my personal skills from horse-walk to trapping :-)

Any instructions?!
Guess!?
Yes, there were...

This time Zoe instructed during trip all newbies ...

"... hold rein in one hand tight. Other hand grap hear of horse. Move u´re body up and down to rhythm of the horse... actually u will bump on the first time - but don´t worry :-) ...guys ready?! let´s go..."

So now all male blogreaders hold on attention! If u ever be in same situation - watch out and keep your balls :-D

Aja, at the second trip i rode WILSON, a horse which played in Narnia and was ridden by King ... man I lost his name .. but those who know the movie actually knows whom I finally mean ... I´m confused by an awesome day ...

Wilson - me, myself and I

Adventures with animals are so amazing...I love it...!!! And if I ever climb up a horeses back again, and teacher will ask for any experiences so far.... hell, I can proudly say... "Jep man, I caught up some experience in New Zealand. Hanging aorund on a Rohans horse, or King "still haven´t his name in mind" horse, too"  .... lovely isn´t it?!? :-D

from nature to adrenalin

So we left this beautiful place of New Zealand and drove towards Queensland. After some stopovers we arrive at our hotel at 3pm.

So it was really enough time to explore the nice little city. And believe this city is just made for people like me. One outdoor shop follows another!!

Well afer an big - and i mean really big - burger at fergburger we go to bed, because tomorrow will be a loooong day on the back of an horse. :-)

sunset reflecting at the window

glacier experience

After a plenty of time we startet glacier experience at the pickup area in front of the hotelat 3:00pm . Now it was a bigger group (56 persons) and after a short ride by bus (15min), and a short walk through a beautiful nature (20min), we arrived at the glacier lake.

Groups of 14 members entered the boats and off we went to feel the freezing watertemperature (2° !!!) and lick ice from one of the swimming icebergs. Also we get a lot information about the different stages of ice and how lake and glacier come "alive".

After an boatride of about 45min we set back to hotel. Belive or not, it was really impressive to feel 300 year old ice - and even taste it!!

Well tomorrow we leave Mount Cook towards Queenstown to release our "adrenalin beast" :-)

guided walk

The guided walk was pretty nice. It was just a group of 4  persons at all and sp we got a lot information by our guide Phurenje about flowers, history and stories round Mt. Cook. He even served us some tea from Nepal at an old chalet in the middle of nowhere.

Phurenje preparing tea

After 3 hours we returned to hotel. Cause there was a plenty of time, we inhaled nature, lay in sun and find our personal middle :-)

aja, ... by the way - normally there is bad weather, but our guide mentioned, we are lucky people to have walk in such a beautiful weather. Normally it rains for a few days, or wind goes very strong.

from sea to highest mountain

Back from dolphin swim, we drove from Kaikoura directly to Mount Cook. This is the highest mountain in New Zealand (3745m). With a few stopover along the tour, we arrived at 18pm at Mt. Cook Hermitage. Jep - we are lucky people indeed, cause room number 09 has an faboulos mountain view. :-D

60km before final destinaton Mt. Cook Hermitage

Having shower and get ready for dinner we were almost tired after this exciting but looong day.

Back in our chalet we fall soon asleep. Next day we have booked a guided walk into mountains, and as an second highlight a glacier experience, as well.

window view from our chalet - Mt Cook behind the clouds right hand side

Soooo from 1 metre above seasight we got finally onto the top (OK almost on the top :-))

snorkeling with dolphins

WTF?!? .. it was dark outside, as we left B&B in Kaikoura. At the encounter we got wet suit, swimming mask, snorkel and fins to put on. By bus we gone to South Bay entering a motorboat.

Actually they use not technical equipment to find the dolphins. The crew did it by searching horizon with their eyes. But i guess, they even know the spots to catch them up ;-)

got' ya

closeup

Finally finding them, we had to prepare at the back of the motorboat to leave by an signal horn to swim with the dolphins.

Man - I just can say - drive to New Zealand and experience on your own. It is not possible to describe that feeling, if curious dolphins spinning around u.

OK... the noise u have to do to get them interested in you, sounds really funny. And the spectators left on the boat had really fun, watching this scene of people bobbing up and down and doing some crazy sound.

On boat crew served cookies and hot chocolate. Some of the participants felt seasick, so they friendly denied the offered service :-)

Last but not least, after three times stopping to get in interaction with dolphins, there was the possibility to shot some picture after changing back to casual wear.

 By the way - videomaterial is really impressive. This will remind me forever...!!

from north to south

It was not as hard as expectesd to get up at 6:00am. It took us only 15min from hotel to Interislander ferry station. It was a really easy checkin with car, although we had an upgrade done by ACE Car Rental offiver in Auckland and helt no written confirmation. The open amount of payment was managed directly at the checkinpoint. So we hadn´t to leave car at all. :-)

On the ferry we placed ourselves on the sun deck - and believe - sun was shinning but it was real fucking windy. Nevertheless, some of you might know my effective way to bring sun shinning :-)

After about 3 hours we docked on in Picton, we moved towards Kaikoura.

hmmm... actually tomorrow is another day to get up early in the morning - tomorrows goal ... one of my personal favs on this trip - SWIMMING and snorkeling with wild DOLPHINS ...!!

sightseeing Wellington

Getting up really late (almost midday) we left hotel to explore city. A short walk along Cuba Street, we got up hill by Wellington's Cable Car.

Having a really good coffee togo ... and actually I mean a really fucking awesome good coffee ... we walked through Botanic Garden of Wellington.

Strolling through Wellington by nice and warm weather, we passed a very old and beautifull Jewish Cementry, saw centre and had a short rest at the docks as well. Because the weather was so great we drove the Shelly Bay again and inhaled the atmosphere and vibes of the landscape. Guess I have fallen in love with this beautiful country...

Back after 7 hours exploring the capital of New Zealand, we get ready and prepeare for tomorrows set over to the south island. Hmmm... well, the early bird catches the worm! We have to get up at 6:00am to checkin in due time onto Interislander ferry.

... so hang on to participate in MY GREAT adventure ...

new years eve

... Flora, me myself and I wish all readers a happy new 2012!!!