Still Queen

Nov. 24

I thought I was going on a simple jet boat ride. I even booked the company whose boat did not hit the rock. One person is still in the hospital, by the way. They picked me up from my apartment which overlooks the lake and the Remarkables mountain range, a large craggy, saw tooth range. I have gorgeous sunrises over the lake and the sun stays on the mountains across the lake until almost 9:30 each night.  The whole wall of my apartment is windows overlooking this stunning array. I don’t know how I’m going to go back to dark, cold Wisconsin. Our driver said we had about a one hour drive and I inwardly groaned thinking of all the bus tours I have taken the last few months. But as we pulled away from town I smiled to myself as I saw the scenery and realized I would finally get to sit back and actually enjoy the ride instead of focusing on the driving.

They have few funny quirks on the roads in NZ . The first is the one lane bridge. If I hadn’t read about it I probably would have just driven over and caused a head-on collision. I don’t know if they are too cheap to build a two lane bridge or don’t have the engineering know-how, but you can be driving along in a good size town and come upon a bridge just wide enough for one car. A round sign will have a red arrow going one way and a bigger black arrow going the other way. The black arrow has the right of way. So you have to look across and see if anyone is on the other side before you start through. You can get big traffic back ups. It’s really strange. They also don’t bother with guard rails. I think it’s a form of population control. They must have the most dangerous roads per car in the world and the least amount of guard rails. Mountain roads, gorges, canyons, cliffs, you name it, they just don’t seem to see the need for them. And when they do put them up, they just use wooden posts and that bent metal rail which at 100kph ain’t stopping anything. And the best thing I saw was when the highway man was repairing one of the metal barriers over this famous gorge and he was replacing the metal with wooden boards. I felt so much safer.

Our little bus made its way to an area that had been the center of the gold strike in the 1800’s. The road into this area is famous and pointed out in many of the guide books, but I’m not allowed on it as rental car companies don’t allow their cars on unpaved roads.  Actually, I wouldn’t have made it a tenth of a mile. We drove into canyons and cliffsides with no room to spare next to the bus wheels. I was looking straight down sides of mountains or inches from the hewn rock of the cliffside.  I would have started crying if I was driving because it was so terrifying and once you start there was no turning back. But not being the driver I actually enjoyed it. We had to go this long route so we could get down to a special river filled with rocks and bends and twists through cliffs for our jet boat ride.  Arriving safely at the bottom we suited up in rain gear and life jackets (no helmets) and climbed aboard our jet boat. I made it into the front seat on the edge. The ride was great; speeds up to 80kph, 360 degree spins that showered us with water, racing through narrow openings in the river, under cliffs, through rapids along boulders and under old bungee jumping bridges. My hair was soaked and we all screamed and laughed quite a bit. On the way out of the canyon we stopped and walked out on a wooden suspension bridge that used to be used for bungee jumping. It was about three feet wide and 320 feet above the river and swayed as we walked. Very cool. We got to throw huge rocks in the river while making a wish and hear them slam into the water like the boom of a shotgun. On the way back I asked a young man who was alone what he had been doing – he did not think I was a stalker! And he said he had done the zipline, something I had been interested in doing. He also reminded me the weather was going to change so I should do outdoor stuff today.

So, once I was dropped off it was on to the Zipline outfit on the peak in town. Once again I went up in the gondola and found the outfitters. They have six tree house stations on the mountain and they take you on an eco-tour as you progress down the mountain from easy to more difficult. The last zipline is the steepest in the world. You can opt for just the first four, but what’s the point in that? There are 7 in our group, three couples and me, and we get all harnessed and helmeted and start off to the first line. The young man on the jet boat tour had assured me it was easy so I wasn’t too scared until I started thinking about how young he was and his definition of easy. The hardest part the first time is walking off the step in to mid- air. You have to tell your brain it’s ok, there’s a line attached and this will be fun. And it is fun about 2 seconds after you feel the cable grab your weight and you start flying through the trees the wind in your face. The next hardest part is letting go of the cable and flinging your arms out wide and screaming. Actually the screaming came quite naturally to me. Next I tried going upside down off the platform. I only made it halfway back, but it was pretty fun. Then the next platform I tried going off the steps without holding onto the cable –another really tough head game. I balled my hands in fists like the guide suggested and I did sort of bring them in front of my body, but I never grabbed the cable. And the last thing I tried was tucking like a cannonball to get more speed and with my added weight from the cruise I really got some speed going, especially on the final, steep line. What they didn’t prepare me for was the 20 minute mountain walk to the last tree house station. Again I had to tramp through the woods on the mountain, only this time is was like straight down on treacherous, rock and root strewn paths at breakneck speed. My knees, back and thighs were screaming. I am not hardy. After three hours on the mountain I crawled home, filled a really hot bath, climbed in and resolved to do nothing but sightsee or shop tomorrow. I’ve had enough adventures.