Canyoning in Wanaka

December 30th was spent canyoning outside of Wanaka. We were scheduled to do the "Big Nige" trip, but the water levels were so high that they only let us do the "Niger Stream" trip, which was pretty extreme with the amount of water pumping through the canyon! When we first arrived, we had to hike up a hill with all of our gear. This might have been the most difficult part of the day, but the scenery was nice!

Then we put on our super thick wetsuits, helmets, and harnesses and started our adventure. We got to abseil down a few large waterfalls like the one seen here.

We also got to do some ziplining, some cliff jumps (including one really high one!), and some sliding down water chutes (including one head first!). The sliding was my favorite part.

Sometimes you didn't even know what the bottom looked like; you just had to trust the guides and slide down into a big pool of water at the bottom. The canyon was awesome; it was like a naturally occurring water park!



















Canyoning made for a really fun day full of adventure, and we're so glad we did it. I'll end with a video of Zack doing one of the jumps with an oh-so-graceful landing!

Watson's Bay

So we're in Sydney this week until next Wednesday.  Zack is busy working out here, so I try to have a few adventures on my own during the day.  On Tuesday, I took a ferry over to Watson's Bay.  This is a suburb of Sydney set right on the Pacific Ocean (the Tasman Sea).  I did the cliffside walk and took lots of pictures.  It reminded me a bit of the Na Pali Coast in Kauai, Hawaii, but this was more rocky instead of green.  There were strange things I didn't expect like cactuses and daisies with blue centers.  The water went on forever, and it was quite blue.  On the way back to the ferry, I walked through some neighborhood streets, and the houses were amazing.  Very California-ish.

The most well-known area is called The Gap. In 1857, a ship called Dunbar crashed here, thinking it had reached the Sydney Harbour. All but one person died, and the anchor of this famous ship is on display in this area. Now The Gap is famous for being a suicide spot. Apparently about fifty suicides a year take place here. There are fences that are supposedly hard to get over and Lifeline signs telling you to "hold onto hope" and emergency phones and all sorts of preventative measures. Rather morbid.

On the ferry ride back, I got a few cool pictures of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. So I'll leave you with those and go figure out today's afternoon adventure!