NZ 2011: #08. CANYONING.

Almost a week since we reached nz! :D time really flies but thank God there’s still 3 more weeks. Missing home a little but that’s not an issue because it’s the whole point of traveling!

Anyway, we woke up in a carpark by the black sand beach of Piha today (: it was an amazing sight – in the night time we couldn’t see it, but in the day I was super amazed by the black sands and the waves that came pouring in over and over again! Super nice. Washed up a little and went to walk at the beach for a while to take some shots before heading back to prep for our canyoning!

where we slept for the night

PIHA :)

lion's rock.

super strong waves

The canyoning office turned out to be about a km away so we were really almost there last night – but thank God we weren’t able to find the place such that we could actually park at such a nice location! Parked our camper somewhere close by andden went to the office, and soon we were gearing up and all ready to go!

I don’t really remember the name of the instructor, but I shall call him M for convenience sake.

M is quite a nice guy to talk to! Just that he’s really impatient at times and he walks super fast. He drove us to the place where we were supposed to trek and soon we made our way to the top of the waterfall, approximately a 45 mins climb up with a tea break in between (chocs and orange juice!) Once at the top, we did our final checks and YAY the first activity, a 30m abseil by the side of the awesome waterfall!!! :D Thank God the 3 of us are now super pro at abseiling after yesterday’s caving this was so much easier. But the rocks were slippery making it a little difficult to slide down safely. Eventually we all got down and it was another abseil, but a short one of approximately 10m. Andden another abseil which was OMG 50m long down!!! GOSH. That one was a little too crazy. At the top I was a little nervous but once I started coming down and looking at the view below I could only scream with amazement! :D herny looks super small from the top while belaying me hahaha.

making our way down!

the first abseil

belaying herny haha

crazy darius haha

When I finally got down, I actually screamed vulgarities because we ended up in the water up to our chest area and the water was FREAKING COLD. Took a long time to get used to the water while belaying darius down. Freaking, freaking cold roarssssssssssss. But somehow thinking back it was damn shiok haha.

we completed the 50m waterfall!!

After that, we gathered at some corner at ate our lunch which was awesome sandwiches packed by M, andden went over downstream to our next challenge – another waterfall!!! Along the way I was jumping across the rocks and there was a time I ran straight into a branch that was sticking out, and that branch now gave me three cuts near my left eye and it was super painful! For a moment I was so afraid that the branch actually poked my eye but turned out it was just around the area! What a close shave! Herny helped me remove those wooden splinters that was in my skin and there was actually quite some blood gosh. In the end the very garang me just continued on (more like I don’t have a choice plus I really wanna complete this) and we headed towards the waterfall!

This time it was at a gorge, really narrow, and the water was really strong! And so M told us that we were going to be lowered down through the waterfall instead of abseiling (since it’s really dangerous because it’ll be difficult to control while in the water) and seriously that was damn scary! You couldn’t see where to put your legs cos the water just kept flowing, and the suction of the waterfall was no joke. I was afraid I couldn’t breathe thanks to the water and the end I was sucked in so badly that made me a little frightened. But somehow I managed to walk sideways and got out of the waterfall and YAY I’m done! :D waited for the rest and soon we were walking through the water, climbing over rocks, going under through small holes, sidewalking on steep rocks while being held on by the safety line, and finally, on the top of a large rock overhanging a cliff.

super strong rapids.

omg this was quite scary!

LOST

how GORGEous!

squeeeeezing

And guess what we had to do there.

We had to JUMP!!! Initially we wanted to try the higher one which was like 5m high, but cos we had to jump to exactly that spot which was deep enough we didn’t want to risk it. We decided on the slightly shorter one and ONE TWO THREE down we went! :D actually it was realllyyyyy scary but reallyyyyy fun. A sense of euphoria once you’re down into the water!

after the jump!

Then we walked further downstream doing basically the same stuff as always, and finally we reached our finale, a jump 5m down which required you to run down slope before jumping so that you won’t slide into the rock face down o.O I took a couple of moments to actually psyche myself into doing it and the first time M said 1 2 3 I really couldn’t jump at all, but after a short little while he counted again and down I went! :D GRADUATION!!!

Super duper funnnnnnnn (: absolutely loved the jump hahaha. I’m really an excitement seeker! And oh yah, darius was super zai! We knew he was super scared but eventually he managed to jump and before that he even screamed “FOR DAPHNE LEONG!” hahaha. The power of love! :D

And with that, we ended our canyoning experience in the land of the kiwis and trekked back to the road, removed our gear and M drove us back to the office. (: shiokkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

After that we took turns to bathe in the guys toilet (I really didn’t want to but the girls toilet couldn’t work and I didn’t want to waste our camper’s water supply) and M was again a little impatient and even went all the way to the toilet to get the wet suit from me andden I heard from darius he actually drove over to the camper to get the rest of the stuff. O.o siao one. It wasn’t even 5! And err the canyoning was supposed to last for 7.5 hours but it turned out to be only about 5 hmm. Don’t really wanna give him good reviews online anymore roars.

spot herny

too awesome for words

After cleaning up, we drove back to Auckland and spend an hour in town looking for a good parking space, and eventually thank God we found one somehow! Cheap and good. Hahaha. Dressed up in preparation for some clubbing through the night and then went out for some dinner. We had jap food with sake! :D a few sticks of yakitori and some sushi andden a don each (: quite full after that, not very, but couldn’t bear to eat anymore cos it was seriously quite pricey. Our bill turned out to be more than what we’ve spent on 4 meals if we were to cook ourselves o.O

helloooo the land of sails!

But nice la. It was good meal! After stoning a little we walked over to K Rd since lonely planet said that it has some clubs over there. It was a long walk, and in between we went past a hotel which we happily walked in for a toilet break haha. Anyway we looked like tourists and so I guess its fine. (: the toilets were damn shiok haha.

Continued walking down K road and found a couple of bars and clubs, but seriously, nothing very much interesting. We walked in to the most happening club we’ve seen and in the end the bouncer told us that it was gay club OMG. O.O the most happening club in town is actually a gay club?! Gosh. And we went in and there was only a couple of people dancing and drinking and that’s about it. I think it’s like 9pm in zouk or something, just that it’s a lot smaller. Booo.

So after 5 minutes we walked out and continued walking down, jojo got a calling card, andden we went back to our camper after flagging down a cab. Everyone was visibly tired. So we quickly set up the bed and washed up, and within 15 minutes we were all fast asleep.

+ guaishou's! :D