Shotover Swing

We spent a little under a week in the Queenstown area. We had previously been advised by pretty much every Kiwi that we met that Queenstown is "too commercial" and has been "ruined" by the "tourists". Being tourists ourselves, we couldn't help but feel slightly guilty as we pulled into town. People were half right, too. Queenstown is very touristy and rather commercial. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't rubbish, however.

Our campsite was the slightly oddly named QBox site. Despite the odd name, it was actually rather awesome and I feel obliged to plug it to the max on this blog. It was owned by a couple who had recently bought the land and used old shipping containers to build the buildings that housed amenities such as toilets, laundry and kitchen.

What about the town itself? Everything that we had read about Queenstown had billed the attractions as being exciting and adrenaline fuelled. Having already sampled the rather tame excitement of kayaking on Lake Wakatipu, we had to push the envelope a little. I decided that it would be a good idea to go on the Shotover Swing. This is billed as "The World's Highest Cliff Jump" and involves jumping off a cliff, freefalling for 60m and swinging across the bottom of Shotover Canyon.

Our host, Nick, picked us up from the office in Queenstown and whisked us up to the canyon in his 4WD minibus. The drive itself became pretty scary towards the end but we made it in one piece.



Before heading down to the jump, I decided to use the only urinals on site. Here is the one that I used.



On the way down, a sign pointed out the distances to all of the places that we might never see again in the event of a horrible bungee accident. I was particularly impressed to see Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobollantisiliogogogoch on the sign, although I'm not sure if the direction is 100% accurate.



We then headed down to the jump platform, which was at least as scary as it looks here. Lord of the Rings fans might recognise the canyon below; the Ford of Bruinen is set a few km further up the canyon (that's the scene where Liv Tyler is carrying Frodo on her horse and summons up the river waters to drown the persuing Ring Wraiths).



Nick cruelly decided that I was to be the first to jump so I was quickly harnessed up and standing on the jump platform before I knew it. This was intensely frightening and I wouldn't go anywhere near the edge in case they pushed me off it. After taunting me for my lack of jumping off, the jump master eventually agreed/ that my jump would be a cutaway. I was attached to another wire and hauled a few metres off the platform and suspended above the canyon. I was then invited to pull a wire above my head in order to be released. This I did and...

...

To be honest, I'm not really sure what happened next. I have a vague memory of a rush of sheer terror and I remember swearing uncontrollably. The next thing I knew, I was swinging around the bottom of the canyon, completely disoriented, with pins and needles in my arms. After a few seconds, I was winched back to the top and the ordeal was over.



Unless I wanted another go, of course. Which I did. I had to wait for everyone else to have a go (sadly not including Hannah, who had decided not to participate) before heading back to the platform for my second go. This didn't go as smoothly as the first one; the jump master told me that I wasn't allowed another cutaway and this time would have to jump off. This sent me back into panic mode and I spent the next 15 minutes being berrated and insulted for my refusal to go anywhere near the edge. I tried to explain that I have a slight fear of hights and, besides, it's rather unnatural to hurl yourself from the top of a cliff but to no avail.

Nick eventually came up with a compromise: He would hold onto the rope attached to my harness as I leaned from the edge of the platform. Then, when I was ready, he'd release me. Naturally, him being a totally swine and all, he dropped me as soon as I started to lean off the platform, leaving me swearing profusely and uncontrollably again on my way down. Again, I don't really have much of a memory of the actual drop, just a feeling of sort of "coming to my senses" afterwards, noticing that I was swinging around the bottom of the canyon, wondering what was going on. And that was that. I didn't fancy doing it again so I paid an extra $70 for a DVD of my (first) jump and we headed home. I swear I must have been in shock because the rest of the day was a bit of a blur. And I lost my phone.

Was it worth it? I don't know. I certainly wouldn't describe the experience as being enjoyable. Clearly I am not enough of an adrenaline junkie for this sort of thing because there was a little too much adrenaline. I would put it into the category of "things you do because you don't want to see yourself as the person who chickened out of doing that thing". At least I was successful in that. Sort of.