My terrifying, extreme, crazy Saturday!

OH MY GOSH.

This was by far the craziest, most fun day I’ve had here!  FINALLY I’ve met the kind of girlfriend I was hoping for since my arrival!  Marie and I had a wild adrenaline filled day.

 When you think of me, you usually think of a dangerous adrenaline junky, right?  HA.  I am terrified of heights, the kind of girl who threw up on a tire swing when I was little and still gets motion sick on playground swings.  Somehow my best friend convinced me that we should sky dive in college, and that was huge.

On Saturday, Marie and I could both check off extreme sports in New Zealand.  NZ is known for attracting thrill seekers with Queenstown (in the South Island) dubbed “the extreme sports capital of the world.”  We ventured to Taihape (about 40 minutes north) to partake in Gravity Canyon adventures.  A little fun fact- scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed just downstream on the Rangitikei River.

The view of the canyon from the Flying Fox 

I survived the Flying Fox, a zipline 574ft (175m) above the river achieving speeds of 100mph.  Screamed like a girl, but it was quite fun after the initial drop.  We joked that we felt like rescued whales being hauled back to the sea because of the garb we needed to wear.  We were harnessed in laying on our stomachs.

Then we did the bridge swing, a 164ft (50m) freefall followed by swinging to a stop in the canyon.  I found myself clutching my celery on the drive home in a death grip, and I was shaken up the whole rest of the evening.  This was the most terrifying experience of my life, even worse than skydiving.  Skydiving was so surreal that my brain couldn’t really process it.  This was me dangling over a river in a canyon waiting for a free fall.  As we were falling, I could feel my body raising out of my harness, and at that point I started kicking like mad, fighting for my life, as if that was going to propel me to safety.  There’s no doubt in my mind after that moment that I wanted to live!  I was so relieved to get to the nice swing part, and even more so to be back to the safety of solid ground.  I am glad I did it, but I don’t need to do it EVER again.

Amanda Schaller, survivor.

- more pictures to follow! -