Scary stuff, that wasn’t scary at all.

Okay, so I did mix  up the days, there is a lot happening and I get confused sometimes. Okay I get confused a lot. But don’t act surprised about that, if you know me you already had that one figured out.

So after Wanaka, that came after Te Anau. I went to a place that isn’t even really a place called Makarora. It is more like 5 houses close to each other. And that is it. Then a bit further out is a separate house off from the road that still counts as being in Makarora, and 4 km further there is a Holliday park and the helicopter speedboat thing.

I was in the house of the road. An amazing place, so quite. And the mountain views where amazing. Hosts where also great and crazy in a good way. Even made me pancakes for breakfast, dutch style after I taught them how to make the batter. Quite happy about that.   

Then the dreaded day, the Siberia experience. That meant a helicopter ride to a valley in the middle of nowhere. A three hour hike and last a speedboat down the river back to Makarora.

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The three hour hike was the only thing I didn’t dread. Why, really why do I do things like this. What is the fun in doing terrifying things and paying to get to do them? Am I crazy. Again yes I know I am, but not that crazy right?

Okay, went there early, filled out all the forms that if I did happen to die or get injured it was my own fault and I did it voluntary. And then the helicopter. It was a small one, the insides where coming apart. ( bit of the upholstery kept hitting me in the face). And we had to go up in the air in that thing? Pilot went all “no worries” yeah right, keep saying this. You do this everyday and are really crazy.

But nothing to it, up into the helicopter I went. Back seat, but the doors are made of acrylic so still plenty to see. Lots of noise, pilot turned on the engine and started the rotors spinning then went off to do something else, leaving me and two hikers in the helicopter? WTF? Okay pilot came back. Turned on the headsets so I could hear what he was saying and up we went.

And miracle, the first five seconds where dreadful but then it was amazing. The views, how fast it went. Even saw some mountain goats ( they have a different scientific name but I was in a helicopter going fast, forgive me for not remembering.)

We landed on top of a mountain where there was a glazier, so totally against me believes I even put my foot on it, so yes I have visited a glazier and stood on one. ( even if it was just one foot for the picture). Then off to the Siberia valley. At least it wasn’t as cold over there as Siberia can be. And the hike started off okay. Along a river, slightly climbing, in a nice grassy meadow. Then all of a sudden, a little stream with some rocks in it. And I had to cross. Nobody told me anything about crossing streams on slippery rocks. But again I managed. Then the real nasty surprise came. Climbing. What everybody told me was a gentle incline was a stupid real mountain that I had to climb. I am Dutch remember, I do not do mountains ( okay I will in a  helicopter from now on).

Only way out was up, so climbing I went. It was slow going. But I thought I was doing fine. Until I got passed by some Australian mountain goats in human form who left me as if I was standing still. To be honest I was standing still to catch my breath. Onwards and upwards it went, until even worse it started going down. Fast. Steep, and still those little streams with only  a few slippery stones to step on while crossing. ARGGGG.

So of the three hours I spend 2 going up and down, then finally the last 20 minutes was a nice walk along the river again. And then there was the speedboat place. No speedboat yet. I did it in only 2,5 hours. Even slow, constantly stopping me did it well within time. YES.

Now the last hurdle, the speedboat. I don’t like roller-coaster, I don’t even like the merry-go-round. I could have said no to the speedboat but then it would have taken an other 5 hours walk back to my B&B. that was a bit to much so on the speedboat I went. Last row of seats close to the engines, I know by now that that is the most stable part of a boat because the most heavy part of the boat. Lifejackets on. And off we went. And again, hold the presses it was fun. Even going sideways in the bends of the river was fun. The 360 was fun, ( okay don’t over do it, the 360 wasn’t as terrible as I thought it could be). But I survived the dreaded Siberia experience including helicopter and speedboat without shitting my pants.

I might be an adrenaline junky after all.