Canyonz

Ok, so possibly the coolest thing I've done so far in New Zealand, right after dune-boarding, has got to be Canyoning. The trip, location, and company were all suggested to me by a friend, but I didn't have much of an idea about what exactly would be involved other than something about jumping off of waterfalls. Sounds good, right?
The company running the trip- cleverly named 'Canyonz'- picked us up right in Auckland city, practically down the street from where we live. There were ten of us in all who planned the outing together, and we were joined by six other individuals from Australia, France, and New Zealand when we were picked up in the city. Our guides, four Kiwis with a serious love of outdoor sports, drove us over to 'the shed' about half an hour out of Auckland where all the equipment was stored. As we drove, the surrounding scenery slowly changed from city to suburb to a scene out of Jurassic Park. The two lane road narrowed with every impossibly sharp corner we rounded until the bush on each side was scraping the outside of our little van. We finally pulled up to - surprise surprise - a shed. A very big shed, to be exact. With a goat pen next to it. and a dog. And a cat.

So we walked towards the shed/petting zoo and were given instructions on choosing our socks, shoes, helmets, harnesses, wetsuits, jackets, and shirts. All of the gear was still wet from use from the day before, and most of the shoes and socks were slightly worn down. But who needs shoes when you're jumping off 20-foot ledges.

Getting Ready

Two of our guides

When everyone had changed into bathing suits and their rash guard shirts, we shoved all of our gear into the body of the wet suit, made a makeshift back-pack sort of contraption, and stuffed ourselves back into the van. A few minutes later we arrived at the site where our adventure would begin. It was a parking lot. Or was it? Our guides led us to a barely noticeable path leading into the forest, and that's where we began our thirty-minute hike to where our canyon began. No sooner had the first person taken their first step that we began slipping and sliding everywhere. The path was narrow, muddy, filled with deceivingly deep puddles, and downhill. Hilarity ensued as we all tried to keep our balance and only a few of us completely wiped out. Twenty minutes later, the path took an uphill turn, and we struggled, panting, up the last bit of trail.

Ready to start the hike...we thought

Everywhere around us there was the sound of rushing water and yet there was no water to be seen. Finally, we went around a corner and came upon the source of the water. At first all we could see was an unimpressive little pool. Also deceivingly deep. After getting all of our gear on, we stepped-and fell- into the first body of water: the start of Blue Canyon. The thing about canyons is that there isn't much in the way of sure footing. You have to to your best to keep your balance and just laugh your ass off every time you fall on your ass. Which is frequently. But struggling to maintain my balance was a very good distraction from the FREEZING cold water we were submerged in. Our wetsuits did little to combat the shock as they were not all the correct sizes and left a lot of baggy room and holes for the ice water to creep into. Nevertheless, we pushed on like ungainly infants taking their first steps.
This is where we got to the good stuff. Down the river a ways was the first notable waterfall. Our guides explained the two types of jumps we would be executing: a controlled and a free jump. Free jump sites meant the water we jumped into was impossibly deep. Controlled jumps meant it was not. This first waterfall was a free jump, and we all did front flips, back flips, and an occasional flop. Basically, it was AWESOME.

Approaching the first waterfall

Backwards slide, anyone?

Over the next few hours, we made our way further down the canyon, and came upon our first abseiling, or rappelling, site. This action was slightly less awkward to carry out then our tramping waist-deep in the water, but was still made comical by the fact that our feet would not grip to the slippery slimy walls of the waterfalls we made our way down. As each of us made the descent, we did so jerkily as we struggled to let enough rope through our hands to lower us but not to drop us to our deaths (just kidding there was a back-up safety system). As the last of us newbies came down, we watched the much more experienced guides come down gracefully in a seemingly single motion.

Abseiling the waterfall

Before we knew it, it was lunch time! To my delight, there was chocolate involved as well as sandwiches and some strange hot tea to warm us up a bit. And then we were off again to do our final few jumps and abseils. Towards the end of the trip, I chatted it up a bit with one of our guides. He told us that he led these trips every day, and that is was an awesome job but it took the fun out of the actual activity a bit. I knew from experience that doing something, even if its something you love, for work, turns that activity into an almost meaningless thing. Still, I envied him and his profession.

A little meditation on the falls

And, sadly, our adventure came to an end. We piled back into the vans, exhausted from walking up the same trail we had come down by, and headed to the shed. Not one of us stayed awake for the short drive back, and our guides were nice enough to drop us off right next to our dorm, which was fortunate because I don't know if I would have had the energy for the walk home.

The gang

Walking the trail back