Shitting a brick doing the canyon swing

So what is a canyon swing ? Well it's another crazy kiwi invention that is simply a huge swing suspended 109m over a river, it has a 60m free fall and then a swing arc of 200m. Wow. My thinking was that since the kawarua bungy has only a 40m jump height then the canyon swing was bigger and better. Check out the site at http://www.canyonswing.co.nz.


Jacquie decided not to do this rather insane activity so in the morning I kissed her goodbye (for I feared certain death) and headed out to get the bus to the swing. After a 20 min drive we reached the swing site and I managed to see a few people jump - wow, you see them leave the platform (screaming like banshees) and then after what seems like ages they appear at the bottom of the canyon before being winched back up. Gulp. After about a 30 min wait it was my turn, there are about 30 different ways to jump of the platform (forwards, backwards, flips, upside down, lying down etc), I had already decided to just run and jump superman style - my thinking was this would be the closet to the feeling of a bungy. I felt nice and relaxed while waiting as it looked like a lot of fun, but when it came to me standing on the edge of the platform i shat a brick and was in a state of panic. The guys who work the swing tried to persuade me with words of encouragement like "I thought all you Scottish were supposed to be tough", yeah well this Scotsman isn't so tough when standing on a ledge looking at a rushing river below 100m up. After a couple of false starts, god knows how, I just did it. I took a run and then jumped off.......


Christ, it was so scary that leap off, but as soon as your out there free falling it becomes so quiet as you plummet to the canyon floor and then at the last minute you swing out in an arc. What a feeling, then before I knew it I was winched back up to safety. It was so much fun I decided to do it again. They guys who operate the swing have a rule that if you went forwards on your first jump you have to leap a different way for your next jump, so after some discussions I decided to do the "Elvis cutaway". This involves having an extra harness being attached to your front waist which allows you to actually lie horizontal as your suspended over the canyon. You face the sky and tilt your head right back so that your looking at the canyon floor, then after posing for a picture you are released. For this jump, I felt no fear just excitement because as opposed to the first jump I had absolutely no control over when I would be released (similar to the sky dive) and therefore no apprehension.


It was such a rush to fall, and see the platform shrink above me, then look down and again see the canyon floor come hurtling towards you at 150kph. Before I knew it i was in the swing of the arc again, this time however I was completely upside down swinging like a pendulum. After bobbing around for a few minutes I was hauled back up again and the fun was over. I can't say how much fun this actually was and if anyone is in Queenstown then you simply must do this, trust me it's amazing. After the exhilaration of the day I came back to Jacquie and bored her to tears and since I had survived what I feared was certain death it was decided that celebration drinks were the order of the day. We ventured out early to take advantage of the happy hours, met a nice English couple (Steve and Liz) and ended up having quite a session with them. All in all a most excellent day and a great way to leave Queenstown on a high.