Today was off the charts! We went on the Shotover Jet Boat ride and chased it with the Canyon Swing over the Shotover River. We have some still photos and will follow up with the videos when we get back to SoCal.
The Jet Boat had 700hp with twin 350 Chevy motors and this mother hauled. The jet boat ride is 25 minutes long. We donned our waterproof, knee length jackets with a dozen or so others and climbed into the fire breathing machine. We proceeded down the narrow, winding river with rock canyon walls and as little as 6" of water below our boat. The driver would punch it and get the boat up to 85km/hr while coming ever so close the rock walls. Sometimes dude would casually put his right index finger into the air and rotate it in a little warning circle. This meant we were within a few seconds of doing a 360. We did this about 15 times. Our kinda fun.
The next thing we had planned right after the boat dealio was the canyon swing. If you enjoy free falling for 60 meters while going 150km/hr, we highly recommend this activity.
This is considered to be the world's highest cliff jump. It was 109 meters high and you swing over the river for 200 meters.
Someone said, "Even Chuck Norris would be scared". The couple before us got all harnessed up, proceeded to the edge and took forever to go. We started to see the boyfriend was panicking. His girl was game, they were harnessed together, he was super nervous. One of the operators said the guy will go, people do this, it's normal. He said one person a month gets to the edge and chickens out. Well, today was that day. Ya know when you try to give your dog a bath or stick the cat in the carrier? Ya know...the feet claw into anything to stop them from the doom of the shower or the cat carrier? This dude was doing the same thing. It was getting dramatic in quick order as the operators had he and his girlfriend shimmy on their backsides to the edge. We had our popcorn popped and were tuned into the high drama. The crescendo was about to unfold. The couple was now going into the final stage which is to leave the safety of the metal platform to dangle right next to it before they are cut loose. This was where his left foot had to finally release it's deathgrip on the metal railing. At this point they are dangling, he realizes that they are dangling and now starts shouting uncontrollably at the operators to "get me the f@#k back!" several times. As they and his girlfriend tried to calm him down, "get me the f@#k backs" got more desparate, the volume raised. The meltdown lasted for 20 seconds or so until they reeled the two back to safety. Now you have some context. The soon to be posted video is nuts.
In the mean time, here is a shot of the kid who went right after us just after they pushed him off the ledge:
