Thursday, October 09, 2003
100+ hour weeks are what my life is of late. exciting in some ways but all consuming at the same time. this past sunday some snow junkies and myself got wise and decided to back mathieu up in his wild plan to charter a plane to the south island for a day of heliboarding. at the mere mention of the word 'heliboarding' i instantly turn into pavlov's frothing dog...initially i wasn't gonna go. mathieu organized hard, rallied the troops and when i finally got wind of it, i HAD to jump aboard.
the trip went down but not exactly as expected, which was completely fine by me because it still meant a day of freedom from the 7 day meat grinder i was experiencing at the moment.
7am sunday, the phone rings. it's mathieu. weather is not looking good. we discuss and ultimately decide to head south and figure things out when we get to wanaka. my three hours of sleep isn't allowing me to enjoy this day of freedom quite like i had imagined. seemed i was yawning every twenty minutes or so. once we all arrive in wanaka, it's decided that we will in fact NOT board so alternate plans are made (shotover jet boating and bungy jumping take the place of heliboarding).
all in all, it was a fun refreshing day. a slight snow fell in and around queenstown while we were there which made it feel like a little bonus. we all enjoyed the shotover jetboat ride (my fourth time doing that activity) and then proceeded to the [ Kawarau Bridge ] for a little adrenaline boost. the nevis location was booked as that would have been our first choice. it's nearly three times as high as the bridge and if you're gonna jump off a bridge, you might as well go all the way! the reverse elevator was my jump of choice. that's where you face the guys and hang your heels off the edge of the platform while grasping behind your neck. at the specified count, you hop off backwards and preceed to fall straight down (like an elevator...get it)...the trick is though, to remain in eye contact with the guys on the platform while you drop. that jump jerked me at the bottom so i'll not be revisiting that one again. 8 jumps and counting. i love that crap!!
after we all jump (mathieu and brett two times...and get this, brett gets dipped up to his waist in that frozen mountain runoff water...he's obviously a bit nuttier than the rest of us) we've got to make a bee line for the airport where our plane is waiting for us. we've gotta be in the air before 6pm. we arrive in fine fashion and before long, we're off and headed north again. as we crossed the straight, we were blessed with this very soothing sunset:
upon arriving home at 8pm, i promptly brushed my teeth and jumped in bed for some much needed down time. 12 hours of sleep did me fine and the next day i felt golden again. my partners in crime were: ken, mathieu, brett, tomo, erik and keith. thanks everybody...that was an epic day!