New Zealand is now world re-nowned for being the home of adrenaline sports. The kiwi’s have a proud history of finding new and inventive ways to throw themselves into the air in ever more death-defying manners. While we were in Queenstown we had a heart stopping moment while watching one of the paragliders. We were sat in our gorgeous rental apartment on Queenstown Hill, enjoying the astounding view of Lake Wakatipu and watching the paragliders float down from above the Gondola. We were just commenting on how far over the Lake one of them had flown when we noticed something fall from the chute. A human figure. In the next 3.5 seconds our heart felt as though it were in our throats. We managed a shout of “Whoa”, terrified we were watching a horrible accident but were too far away to do anything about it.
In the next second a second parachute opened out from the falling figure who deftly manouvered themselves to land gracefull on the shore. We’d just witnessed a base jump from a paraglide.
If it’s adrenaline pumping adventure you’re looking for then New Zealand is the perfect place to start. We indulged in our fair share of crazy adventure antics while we were in New Zealand and I would highly reccommend all of them. Here’s what we got up to:
1. Paragliding over Queenstown (without the base jump)
Wow, wow, wow this is a stunning experience. The beautiful scenery combined with the rush of flying freely (admittedly while strapped to some guy you met only minutes ago) is incomparable. The noticeable thing to me was how quiet it is up there; absolute peace (apart from my shrieks of delight as we enjoyed some g-force turns.)
Mark of pride after completing the jump
2. Whitewater Rafting on the North Island
There were literally white knuckle moments as we rafted our way down the Kaituna. This river is known for having the highest commercially raftable waterfall in the world at 7m. The advice we were given was: “Put your oar inside the boat, sit down in the boad and hang on like mad to the straps. If you get separated from the boat, you’ll likely be underwater for a while so take a big breath!” I have never hung on so tightly to anything in my life. Awesome fun.
White Water Rafting the Kaituna
3. Bungy Jumping in Queenstown
This is the one crazy sport that I have no interest in at all. I hate the feeling of falling and I have a wonky spine anyway so it’s not really my idea of fun. Alan, on the other hand, is fast turning into an addict. The ledge, looking over Queenstown was his first big jump. He’s described the noise he made as he jumped as that of a ‘dying swan’:
Bungy Jumping the Ledge, Queenstown
4. Jet Boating, Queenstown
If Alan is a bungy jumping addict then this is my mum’s fix of choice. Carbon fibre boats whizz up and down a canyon in water as shallow as 10cm at speeds of up to 85kph. We spent the entire time giggling. Amazingly good fun.
Jet Boating the Dart River
5. Skydiving over lake Taupo
I swore I was not interested in doing a Skydive. Why, I would ask, would anyone want to throw themselves out of a perfectly serviceable airplane? I blame New Zealand. I think the adrenaline culture is contagious. It turns perfectly normal people into someone willing to trust their life to a stranger with a big kite. Lake Taupo at sunset was a particularly stunning location to risk death.
SkyDiving over Lake Taupo
6. Skyjump, Auckland
Again, this one held no interest for me. But Alan couldn’t turn down the chance to plummet towards the earth with just a few cords to ‘control his descent’. At 192m, this is no laughing matter and he looked more than a little peaky when he got down. He did walk away all in one piece after the experience though, so no complaints here!
Skyjump, Auckland - Can you see the person shaped figure, just stepped off the ledge?
7. Luging, Queenstown
At first glance, this looks like a relatively tame activity. And probably for most, it is. That’s not the way we do things though. It’s basically a toboggan with wheels set off down a windy hill. If you want to go slower you pull the steering handle towards you. If you want to go faster, you push the handle further away from you. The men in my family saw this as a gauntlet and endeavored to use the brake as little as possible. Luge-rage blinded them to reason as they raced to reach the finish line first. An innocent rider was left cowering as two grown men assumed the most aerodynamic racing position they could and charged past on either side of her. She was not alone in her victimisation as I, the beloved daughter and girlfriend of these terrors, found myself run off the road and pushed up the verge. Never mind jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft, this is the most dangerous activity I did in New Zealand!
Luge-rage, Queenstown
What have been your high-adrenaline travel experiences? Which of the above would you do in New Zealand, and which do you think are the invention of mad-men and should never be tried? Pop some comments in the box below!
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You failed to mention I did the Sky Tower too!!! Also that we couldn’t be sold some of the Luge Pictures because Alan might have crash or something.