canyoning

went canyoning yesterday. had a huge breakfast (was kinda required) and then i went to the meeting point downtown. james - awesome guy - was my guide. the drive to the nigel (stream where we did the canyoning) took about 45 min and then we sorted out all our gear and got changed. we then walked for about half an hour to the starting point.it was great! absolutely fantastic. a mixture of swimming, wading, walking, sliding and of course abseiling in the canyon - not to mention the jumps!!! =) the canyon was mostly between two and three metres wide - great fun, sometimes scary too... =) we were a group of 6 including the guide... there were, i think, 3 groups in the whole. our group was the the guide (james), an american and a british couple and me. anyways, the water level was already high when we got there - 12. on average its below 10, but since it had been snowing and was raining like hell the water had risen to 15 within the few hours we were in the canyon - gives you even more of a thrill!!! =)the water was thundering like hell!
just after we had started (after our very first abseil) there was a decision to be made: if we wanted to jump or abseil on the next 'rock'. the first jump was 12 metres high, and i actually really wanted to do it, but then i decided not to because the rock was too pertruding down at the bottom and i didnt know if i would manage to jump far enough... so i abseiled like 3 to a ridge and then jumped down from there... which was still 9 metres - didnt look like it, though, would have guessed 6. anyways, it still was freaky, because the pool you have to land in is only 3 metres in diametre... =) but its so much fun, seriously!!! =)the jumping itself is actually less terrifying than falling through in the air thinking 'what have i done!?'...
the water was bloody freezing! james told me it was about 13 degrees, so even with all your gear on, youre still bloody cold after 4 hours or more!!! and after 2 hours already i desperately had to go to the toilet... but what could i do?! all i can say now it that my blsdder suffered for like 3 hours! anyways, the most exciting moment was when i had to abseil and then slide down a rock as the last person... when i fell into the pool i wanted to climb onto a rock at the side where the others were waiting when i slipped... the water swepped me away of course - it was pretty strong. i was drifting towards a spot where the currents wasnt fun anymore and which we didnt pass in the water and was already on the edge when james leapt after me... just in time!!! him and one of the others had to pull me back... all the time i basically couldnt do anything cos my limbs were so stiff from the cold... that was a nice adventure, though! =) at the end of the day we finished off our 'tour' with a last jump - 7,5 metres high and which i did twice - and a flying fox (seilbaehnli) we were finished at about 4.30 and still had to walk down to the vans and got changed. there was also late lunch waiting for us and a nice cup of tea. =)it was bloody awesome!!! all the way back to wanaka i was talking to this australian from one of the other groups. hes half australian and half mexican and hes the hottest guy ive ever seen - let alone spoken to!!! gorgeous. =)

anyways, the evening was really nice as well because i joined ramon and courtney (managers) and some others upstairs, had nice dinner and watched starwars episode 5... and of course i was pestering everybody with questions cos ive never seen any of the starwars movies before...=) went to bed after a long, exhausting, but gorgeous day!!!

p.s. random thing: ive already been asked heaps of times if i was south african?! whatever.