queenstown v1.2

late night out for a midnight showing of pirates of the caribbean at world's end. no hidden treasure here. even later night due to our roomates returning to the room at dawn with their party pills wearing off. new hostel needed.

the next day lyds decided to come off the bench and score one versus death. her chip in was to experience the world's largest swing. the canyon swing, as it is called, is located in the shotover canyon and has its participants step off a ledge to free fall 60m and then arc out at over 100km/hr. her first jump was a mental challenge. she passed and took a huge step off. her second jump was called the elvis cutaway. they suspended her over the drop laying on her back (facing the sky) and then cut her away. on the second jump she swung over river rafters. what a scream. all of it is taped.

the next day we took on the shotover river on a whitewater rafting trip. note on the river: the shotover river rises out of the richardson mountains north of queenstown and picks up speed through its deepest and narrowest section - skipper's canyon. anyone want to guess where we rafted? skipper's canyon. with its grade iii-iv rapids. even the trip out to our launching point was an adventure down the winding and narrow skipper's canyon road. it is one of only two roads in new zealand where cars are not covered by their insurance. bumping gravel with a sheer rock face to one side and a sheer drop off to the other. no railing. one of the windows to the truck we took still bears scratches from rocks on the turns.

once on the river we took time to practice new positions and commands. examples are forward paddle, backwards paddle, hold on a.k.a. holy sh*t, oh no!, here it comes, etc., back to business, get to the bottom, lean left, etc. as we passed through the canyon we passed relics of the gold rush the happened here in 1862. abandoned miner's housing and equipment - haunted-looking and rusting now. very cool. the river was once even know as the "richest river in the world." we also saw mountain goats clinging on to what appeared to be nothing on the canyon's sides.

14kms of rafting through rapids such as mother-in-law, oh sh*t, the squeeze, jaws, the toilet, and miner's revenge. as we took on the squeeze we heard the command to get down to the bottom and lean right. our raft almost flipped in the storm and we pushed against the rock and leaned into the wave. we even lost one of the limeys in the front. i had to lift him back in to the raft by his lifejacket like the hoff. a lot of white faces after that. but a great feeling of euphoria. near the end of the trip we passed through the 200m of the oxbridge tunnel (all in the dark). as we exited the darkness we hit the rapids known as the cascade. it was like being in a bathtub.

leaving queenie soon to head north to auckland.

shooting the shoots like the maclean boys.

4 neil - death 0

burning down the highway skyline
on the back of a hurricane
that started turning when [we] were young.
- the killers