Aah the brevity of thrill rides is not exactly helped by their disproportionately high costs! But that seems to be the theme of my current holiday so why stop now? After all I'm almost done here in New Zealand and I'm about to return to Sydney to spend just under a week with my good friend Rob. Today's fleeting thrill ride was the Shotover Canyon Swing. If that sounds familiar it's because I've already been on the Shotover river, both when whitewater rafting and jet-boating. It seems that this river/canyon really is a magnet for adventure seekers. In fact I remember passing under the canyon swing whilst I was cruising down the river a few days ago.We were driven by bus to the site of the canyon swing and our group shuffled forwards to the launch pad. When I approached the places that my three Bungy Jumps were located just a few days ago I found that the staff were very reassuring. Although I wasn't so nervous some of the others in my group were and the staff were very friendly and encouraging to those who were having second thoughts. The same cannot be said of the canyon swing team. Every step of the way they were acting as if the last group didn't make it or that they didn't have any idea what they were doing.
My two jumps of choice were the "Chair of Death" and "Gimp Boy Goes to Hollywood". The chair of death involved being strapped into a chair with the back facing the canyon. The idea was for me to lean back and plummet off the edge at speeds of up to 150 kilometres per hour! Of course the crew were making sure that I didn't get off that easily. Instead of simply letting me go they were taunting me, allowing me to lean back then grabbing my harness and preventing me from falling. At one time one of the crewmen pulled me back at the last second with a cry of "Oh shit! I forgot about the safety harness!" Of course I wasn't falling for that one but I humoured them with a rejoinder along the lines of "oh you guys are evil bastards!". A couple of false starts later and what seemed like an eternity of taunts and stalling one of the crew pulled me back and told me he had to adjust something. Reaching forward he instead shoved the chair off the ledge and send me hurtling groundwards at breathtaking speed.
Of course one jump wasn't enough so I did another one. This one, as mentioned earlier, was called "Gimp Boy Goes to Hollywood". It involved being suspended upside down with my head looking up to face the canyon. Thankfully the boys were not quite so sadistic and they simply let me go once I'd gotten myself into position (after a quick photo). This time I got to see the ground rush towards my face, a more familiar sensation since I'd already done Bungy Jumping.Tomorrow's weather is apparently not looking to promising but that's fine because I've prepared a fallback if the outside weather turns out to not be ideal for outdoor activities. It never hurts to have a contingency plan does it now?
There I go!
There I go again!
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