Wanaka: Canyoning

Agra is believedsite of an ancient Hindu Kingdom, but the city
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January 7, 2005:
The canyoning people came to grab us at 9 in the am. We drove out to a field with cows and sheep and I couldn't imagine that this was the place that we were supposed to do the canyon... AND then I spotted the swath of trees cutting along the side of this mountain which hid the canyon... and an amazing canyon it was. It was a steep canyoning with abseiling opportunities, cliff jumping, and white water shutes. It was alot of fun, but the water was super cold-- fresh off of melted snow I guess. The water had cut a deep swath in the bedrock of this mountain which was the setting of our daylong adventure.

Journal Continued:
It began with suiting up. Thermals, wetsuit, protective jacket, wetsuit booties, tennis shoes, climbing harness-- you were set after that. Still the water was ice cold. You felt it when you hit the water. The first drop was scary... I was first in line... I slowly let myself abseil down into a 20 foot drop of water below me. I was very scared -- but the gear held and I made it. The next stop was a jump... 11 meters (33 feet) straight down into a small pool carved out by the waterfall. Josh and I were set to do Big Daddy... one guy- Luke -- jumped before I did and it looked like he came dangerously close to the rocks. I was worried about not jumping far enough and hitting the rocks, I also worried about jumping too far and hitting the rocks. You had to jump just right.

Journal Continued:
From where I stood, it looked like I was jumping into a plate sized puddle of water. Then it was my turn. I stood up and was terrified. I looked at josh... I looked down, I paused, I took a deep breath and jumped. About halfway down I got really scared. I thought I was going to hit the rock and I must have jerked because when I hit the water, I was butt first. I actually thought that I had hit the rock because I hit the water so hard. The wind was knocked out of me and my hand hurt from slapping the surface of the water so hard. It made an impact. I signaled to josh not to do the big daddy jump. My confidence was blown at that point. It really hurt. Josh did the little jump which was still 9 meters. Evidently he hadn't gotten any of my signals. He just chickened out. Which to be fair... was the smarter of the two choices.

Journal Continued:
The rest of the canyoning was rather uneventful after that. Mostly just fun. There were a few more jumps, lots of fun slip and slides, and alot of abseiling. I think that I would have enjoyed everything alot more if the water weren't so cold. Another fun one was a tandem slide that Josh and I did together. It was very bumpy though and I somehow bruised both my hips. I guess it is a dangerous sport.

Journal Continued:
By the end of the day, I was very tired and a little beaten up. It was nice to take a shower, and get cleaned up and get something tasty to eat.

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