As many of you may know, New Zealand is known for it's wild, adrenaline pumping adventures. They have an appetite for adventure and extreme sports.
Today I had a truly New Zealand experience. It was one of the most amazing days the Traveling Hillbilly has had. I went canyoning in the Waitakere Forest. We hiked, jumped into pools, slid down rocks and abseiled down waterfalls. I met some great and fun people, a couple who were fellow Californians. It was a truly exhilarating experience!
The hike itself was quite an adventure. We hiked for just over an hour before we got our first jump into a pool. The first 20 minutes was down hill and the rest was a constant uphill climb. The climb was tough enough, let alone carrying all our gear (wetsuit, harness and helmet) as we hiked through thick brush, over rocks, through the streams. Thank goodness there are no snakes in New Zealand!
By the time we got to the top, we were hot and thought we were ready to jump in the ice cold water. But that first dip was shockingly cold! The rest of the day, was spent jumping off rocks into the pools below, abseiling down/through waterfalls and sliding down rock waterslides.
After a couple of hours, we stopped at the bottom of a waterfall for a quick lunch and met Unger, an eel that lives in one of the pools. There were actually a couple of eels in the water here. They are scary looking things. After our quick bite, we continued on.
The only bad part of the day, was the last 30 minutes of the hike back. It was uphill and if I thought the gear was heavy earlier, it was really heavy wet!
All in all a great experience that was all the better because of the great people we had in our group. When we got back to the city, a few of us went out for drinks and toasted the surviving our adventure. We then headed out to dinner. That’s one of the best things about traveling on your own, you get the chance to meet some great people and make new friends.
Something is going to have to come off the Traveling Hillbilly's Top 10 list.
Hey you may even be able to see a video of our adventure soon...
3 comments:
Sounds like you are having a great time and what and adventure! Wish I was there to share the wine experiences....drink an extra glass for me. I love you. Tracee
I am so jealous Gwen-ie. I just returned from a week in freeeeeezing Chicago (literally, below freezing). So you petting koalas and avoiding kangaroo poo sounds perfectly divine and I am envious!
Meija
Sounds like you're having the adventure of a lifetime. Keep it up. Really glad you're having so much fun. It sort of makes our time in Maui seem awfully tame.
Mom
Post a Comment