Jan 4th - Wandering in Wanaka (Pamela)
Before we headed into the hills on the Routeburn Track, we had a great day in lovely Wanaka. Matt and Jo braved canyoning (more on that later).... whilst I had a day to myself. After a leisurely breakfast and nice chat to my mum, I headed off on a really pretty walk along the shores of Lake Wanaka. It was a stunningly clear day so the white mountain peaks were vivid and the lake water completely clear (unfortunately the water was freezing so I didn't brave a dip)! After an hour I reached "waterfall creek" - couldn't find any waterfalls, but did enjoying watching lots of locals launching little speed boats for a day on the lake - looked like a wonderful way of life!
On the way back I spotted some vines and so made my way through them to the very cute and beautifully situated Rippon vineyard. I worked my way through 10 different varieties - all of which were delicious :-). Found that their London supplier is just done the road from my office which was good news! Had a lovely chat with the girl who was running the tasting - who turned out to be the main organiser of the 2009 world winter games in New Zealand! She was trying to persuade me to work on the games with her....!!
I wandered back into town for a late lunch and some shopping before meeting up with my travelling companions that evening :-). Over to Matt for tales of his canyoning experience....
Jan 4th - Canyoning from Wanaka (Matt)
Whilst Pamela was meandering around Wanaka, Jo and I set ourselves up for a day with considerably more adrenaline when we booked a trip canyoning on the Niger river - or 'Big Nige' as it was billed - in Mt Aspiring National Park. An hour's drive out of Wanaka, we parked up next to an innocuous-looking stream that gently trickled across an alpine meadow. But 50 metres away the meadow turned into a steep hillside, which we started to slowly trudge up in the blazing sunshine once we'd kited up - wetsuits, harness (with a strong PVC gusset!) and knackered old trainers. The long slog up the bill was made easier by our guide, James, allowing us frequent stops to catch our breath whilst he explained about the geological formation of the valley, the farming practices that had led to its current population of flora, the background to the political battle between the farmers and the New Zealand government as some of their leased land is returned to the Department of Conservation.
It must have taken a full hour to climb up to the start point where we re-familiarised ourselves with abseiling techniques. As well as Jo and I, there was an American couple in our group, and all of us had some abseiling experience (although my last go must have been at least 15 years ago!) but none of us had tried this with the added complication of running water!
The first abseil as just a simple slope down into the canyon down a dirty, rocky slope - no running water yet(!) - but cooling off in the river, we could see - and definitely hear - our first waterfall. Clipping onto the safety lines on the side of the canyon as we waited for the abseil line to be set up only added to the tension, but it didn't diminish Jo's bravado and she stepped up to be the first of us to abseil into a waterfall... I watched her safely clip into the ropes, lean back into open air, then play her abseil rope out to move with quick calm efficiency 20m down to the bottom of the waterfall and onto a flat rock where she signalled to us she was okay. 
Now believing this was going to be easy I rushed to be next. I soon realised though, as my feet moved from dry rock to bare rock with water flowing over it, and then to slimy algae-covered rock, that concentration was important to avoid a slipping and tumbling into the rocks at the side or underfoot (although a safety rope on us ensured we were never at risk of falling to the bottom). And I certainly wasn't as quiet as Jo on my trip down - within a few feet, the abseil route brought my head into the path of the flow of the waterfall, when the heavy blast of cold water helped me instantly recall that this river was fed by snow-melt rather than spring water or rain. Some played out rope and a few more steps further down though - and by the way its hard to choose your footing when a waterfall in your face makes it hard to see - the angle of the rock changed and the challenge changed to maintaining footing on the slippery rock and judging when to reach over to the flat rock at the bottom. The two Americans followed us down with their fair share of bumps, slips and squeals, and then the four of us waited whilst James rigged a new knot for himself and then bounded down the waterfall with just two effortless jumps. With us still watching open-mouthed he then gave a sharp tug on the rope until it suddenly slackened and he could then pull and recover the same rope he'd trusted to hold his weight just moments ago.
In fact, one of the things I enjoyed most about the trip was that Jame
s wanted the day to be more than just an 'experience' and that we should learn something as well. So he was keen to explain tricks like recovering ropes (I think it was some kind of overhand knot that's jammed in a figure-of-eight, and apparently it's very important you check you're abseiling down the right end of the rope!), or alternatively how to do a double rope abseil. He also complimented us when we spotted and fixed our own mistakes when setting up the abseil, or on our technique as we descended.
The rest of the morning we made slow, careful progress as we prepared and tackled different abseils down new waterfalls. One required us to turn round mid-abseil, and then control the abseil whilst sliding down on our bottoms and backs! The next required us to jam our feet into a crack and lean into a side wall. Another needed us to place our feet into eroded holes in the rock hidden by the overflowing water. And another required us to cling to the side of the rock whist changing abseil ropes mid-decent, then almost invert ourselves whilst resting our feet on the top of an rock overhang, before swinging free and descending in free air. Each drop had a different challenge, and after each one we had the satisfaction of looking up 20m back up to the top to see what we'd accomplished, whilst the sunlight breaking through the leaf canopy beamed back at us.
We stopped for a quick lunch of biscuits and hot herbal tea - quite strongly stewed by now - before continuing with the second half of 'Big Nige'. We now tackled the abseils with more speed and confidence, but there were still surprises waiting for us. Once we had to jump the final metre of the abseil into the water. Another time, as we descended on our backs again, we found that the abseil rope we were using was shorter than the abseil and all of a sudden we slid out of control into a pool below! And on one abseil we were offered the choice of jumping 12m into the pool below instead! None of us took up the offer though!
There was also more variety in the afternoon, with more slides and jumps as well as abseils. Where the water had carved its way through a mix of hard and soft rock, it had formed a natural water chute, and though the distances were usually short, by mixing feet first and head first approaches - and poses for the waterproof camera and video James brought along - we laughed our way down to the exit point of the river. But even then there was one final surprise waiting for us - after we climbed out of the canyon, we got to cross back to the right 
side of the canyon on a zip-wire so we could access the path we'd taken on the climb in.
All in all, we'd been in the canyon for over 5 hours, giving us a full day of adventure, and a yearning to try some of their other expeditions on more technical canyons with more water. Well, I'll have to save that till I come back one day...
Matt
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