Dec 28 - The Blue Canyon Experience

Woke up to cloudy skies again.  We hiked our way up to the Sky Tower (15 min. from condo) for pick-up at 10 by Canyonz for our Adventure through the Blue Canyon.

There were 10 "adventurers" braving the canyon.  A gent (estimated 35 or so) and his dad (57 - Di asked the son) from Brazil, a college kid and his programmer buddy from Wisconsin (estimated 20-somethings who do triathlons), a guy and his girl from Australia (estimated late 20's) and us (62 and 60)... it was a fascinating group.

The canyon is 40 minutes West of Auckland up a very winding road.  The rain started when we stopped at the staging area.  We picked our helmets, changed into swimsuits/shorts, put on the wet suit booties, picked shoes (they were all rather beat up Croc type shoes), were given our wet suits and climbing gear, wadded the suits up if we didn't have packs,  got back into the vehicle and drove a short way to the parking lot.

Rain got very heavy - the picture says it all - and we started trekking down the 300 meters to the way up.

Then we hiked the 40 minutes UP to the starting point, had one last "pee" before donning the wet suits, had an offer to turn around and go back, and took a "before" picture.

Drowned rats - even before the canyon

Ready to go!

While we hiked up to the top and while we were getting ready, the rain became relentless.  Javier and Connie, our 2 guides, seemed a bit nervous - and rightly so.  The river was way higher than anyone - including them expected.  Here is the map of the Blue Canyon and what it is supposed to be like (hover your mouse over each 'jump' or 'slide' or 'abseil' for a picture).

The first few of the 'Jumps' were fine and fun... though only the group jump preparation photo turned out. The slides were fun and Lee even went head first on the second one.

Lee's Slide

Prep to "Group Jump"

 

Di and Javier Halfway Down

After the slides and another jump came the first of our Abseils/rappels and the guides had a large discussion about this one.  The usually have the abseil from the left - as you face the descent, but the water was flowing so hard over that side that we had to go to the right.  For some reason, they decided that I should go tandem with Javier... it was probably an OK idea, but I started feeling a tad wussy.  He said, "No worries, it's just because the river is quite rough."  I'm glad I went first and with Javier because the bottom part of this 2 part abseil was incredibly slippery.  Lee lost control there and banged up his hand against the rock.

What was exceptional about the lower pool is that there is a very large Eel living quite well there.  I believe Javier calls him "Roscoe" and Roscoe came up to meet us.  Javier talked to him, held out his hand and the eel actually stuck his head out of the water and allowed Javier to pet him!  Di was the only one to see Roscoe.  Javier lifted him and let him slide through his hands - this eel was about 3 - 5 inches in diameter!  Amazing!

By this time the river had become a raging torrent and too dangerous to continue the normally scheduled slides and jumps, so the rest of the descent down the canyon was hiking/abseiling down the bank with river crossings at shallow spots. Somewhere during this last 3 hour descent, Di lost both of her shoes and Lee lost one. The wet suit booties provided some padding for the feet but the rocks in the river bed and the roots and gravel on the paths were brutal on the soles of our feet. Two days later the bruises were still vivid. 

We had some floating (feet first) along the bottom of the canyon - that was fun unless your butt crashed into the rocks or the rocks got caught on each other and you were forced to muscle your way over them with your arms.  Then we forded the river a few times and started back UP to the vehicles, (only 450 feet in under a half mile).  There were makeshift stairs, but the thighs were rather wobbly.  It felt like this part took forever, that was probably just the thighs and feet fighting back.

There was a lot of gravel in the dirt so our feet got pounded even more.  We decided that if it had been a sunny day, it would have been hot and humid on the hike back and that would have been much worse.  We 3 elders were the last ones to get to the parking area - probably 5:45 pm and we were beat!  But we were very proud that we made it. 

Javier and Connie said they have had other people come on the trip and some had cried or gotten angry when it got difficult.  I guess they had expected me to get that way by losing my shoes and being my normal "slow and steady and cautious" self.  They said they appreciated my attitude.

We changed, found bruises and injured areas we didn't know we had, and looked at the pictures they took.  Because they were rushed with the weather and trying to get us all through the canyon before dark, the pictures didn't turn out so we all got a disk of them without being charged for them.

The drive back to Auckland was rather quiet and the walk back to the condo was pretty stiff - thought the real pain of it all hadn't fully hit yet.

We showered, cooked hamburgers on the grill, had some wine and went to bed.  What a day!