Canyoning in Wanaka and Rob Roy Glaciers

I have been to almost every part of nz already so far, and Wanaka is still my favourite place here. Its situated beside a lake, and surrounded by super scenic snow capped-mountains all around it. Its not that small a town that makes it too quiet, but then also not so big that it becomes overcrowded. There are also lots of things to be doing in the area man. After going through Wanaka, I kinda regretted spending so much time in Te Anau. Should have spent more time here instead. But well, Te Anau was also a great place.

Woke up all excited for the upcoming canyoning trip. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I expected at all. It was basically just going through the canyon, and mainly rapelling down, a few slides and a couple of jumps. Oh and there was a flying fox at the end. It was still a good experience though. And the scenery was great!

As we were in the water most of the time, we were all wearing a 5mm thick wetsuit, with neo prene shoes and a hat too. After gearing up, really feel like a ba zhang. haha so hard to move around. But once in the water, it got better. And I'm really thankful for the wetsuit man. The water was super cold even though its in the summer.

Group photo

interesting rappel, cos you are supposed to rappel off the line

Short clip of a slide

Us having lunch

The unique lunch table

The hostel I stayed at (cannot remember the name) is damn nice. It comes with a mini-cinema in it and every night, they will play some movie on a large projecter screen. Very cosy place also. Talked with some other travellers who went to the Rob Roy glaciers that day, and decided to go for it after they told me how good it was.

So, I drove up the 30km to the starting point of the trek the next day. OMG it was the worst 30 km of driving man. Not only was it on gravel road, it was also super duper bumpy. I had to drive at like 20km/hr most of the time la. And even then, my car was jerking about so much I feel worried for it man. After 2/3 of the way through, I reached this massive ford. And it was half flooded with water. Biangz...I was about to turn back already man. You know if is dry not so bad, but with water, I think the car will just stall after a while man.

Just as I was about to turn back, this other car came by. His car is much bigger than mine so I think is ok to cross. Haha so what I did was to practice my Race 5 skills of hitchhiking! Lol so I just parked my car somewhere else and took his car in. Total driving time for the 30km was 1.5 hours.

Oh well, anyways the guy I hitchhiked with and me did the walk together. We had a very nice conversation together. He's a Swiss, working as a biologist, and also an avid mountaineer. Cool right. Haha he was telling me about his trips climbing the various mountains in the Swiss alps, and the difference between glaciers and ice etc. Really learnt a lot about mountaineering from him.

Anyways it was about 1.5hours walk to the viewing point. I didn't want to slow him down too much, so was walking at a pretty fast pace throughout. At the end, he still looked super fresh la. Haha I think it was just a stroll in the park for him loh. The viewing point is actually still quite a distance from the actual glacier itself, but the view is still very nice. Haha at least the car drive was worth it. And because we were early, there was barely anyone there at all. It was really very peaceful and quiet there, with all the majestic mountains and glaciers all around. Plus the weather was perfect too with a bright sun and blue skies.

After about half an hour, more and more people started coming to spoil the serenity of the place and we decided to go back. The car park when we came in was almost empty, but when we got there, it was almost full with 30-40 vehicles la! with 2 people on average in each car, the place had anywhere between 60-80 people in it. That's nz in the summer.