Canyon Swing

 The jumping platform hanging out over the Shotover River.

 The view from the gondola.

The luge track.

Wednesday, January 13th.

Jan Eric and I were up early and had a really good included breakfast before he headed out for a jetboat ride up the Shotover Canyon and I headed into town to meet up with the Shotover Canyon Swing Company. It is billed as the world's highest cliff jump. Four Chinese tourists, two Australians and I were briefed and driven up the mountain to a lookout high over the Shotover Canyon. This is similar to bungee jumping but not only do you drop 69 metres you the arc out in a big swing and back and forth for a few times before they haul you back to the platform. The Kiwi guides delighted in teasing and having fun with us as we took our turn on the platform. There are a number of different positions or styles you can try, but I opted for the straightforward leap into the void. Again I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be. They asked me a bunch of questions, gave me a gentle push when I was looking for the edge, but caught me and pulled me back. Finally I stepped up and leaped off the platform. It was an incredible feeling as I dropped and lots of fun swinging back and forth. When I got back to the platform they asked if I wanted to go again and I said sure. I asked what I should try next and Nigel said try backwards. So I went through the whole thing again and had another great ride.

After they brought me back down to town I decided to try a burger at the restaurant that Max had recommended, called Fergburger. I walked by it last night and it was lined up down the street. This place is similar to Weber's on highway 11. The line this early in the day (11:30) was doable, so I waited and ordered a Little Lamby burger, lamb with mint jelly and the fixings. It was very good.

This is a very attractive town in beautiful surroundings. It looks like an alpine village and there is skiing in the area in the winter, but in the meantime there are lots of activities to do here from really chilled out to adrenaline driven ones. There are dozens of booking companies here and they are all really good at fleecing the tourists.

Then I decided to go up the mountain in the gondola to see if our paragliding activity was going to go ahead today. I was told not from that location today but from across the valley and they could fit me in at 4:00. This didn't seem right as I was supposed to meet the company at 2:15 to go. So I decided to do two luge runs down the mountain on a little non-motorized go cart. That was fun as you raced down a track full of twists and turns.
Continued on next post.