Skippers Canyon Rope Swing

April 27th, 2011

Today was my only day off work this week so I wanted to make sure it was a day off well spent. The weather forecast was for a massive high pressure system over the South Island which would normally mean a speed flying and paragliding day but we had something else in mind, a rope swing. I'm sure you're thinking woopty doo but this isn't you're typical rope swing we are talking about here.

   

In an area called Skippers Canyon about a 20 min drive out of Queenstown you will find yourself driving on the edge of the iconic Shotover River canyon cliffs. Along the way you pass white water rafting and jet boat operations running regular trips for tourists, historic gold mining locations and 2 graveyard bungy jumping sites, the historic and retired Pipeline Bungy and the rarely operated Skippers Bridge Bungy.



Andrew's First Big Leap



The 70m high Skippers Bridge is where we built our rope swing. The typical sites you see on the drive in were hidden in the 6 am Autum dark. When we arrived at the bridge first light was yet to arrive and melt the frost lying in the canyon. I am guessing temperatures were a degree or two above freezing. We unpacked, gathered gear, made a quick breakfast and got straight into setting up the swing lines, hauling and reset systems. Two hours and a bunch of white knuckles later the sun hit the bridge and our faces as we threw the last rock into a duffle bag attached to the swing line. Everyone manned their postions and the first countdown began. 5...4...3...2...1... Derek had dropped the 50kg+ bag off our intended jump line as we watched all the cirtical concern areas. One of us watch for clearence from protruding rocks on the cliff part of the swing line, one watches the swing's anchor point and swing angle and the others watch for clearence of the opposite canyon wall which we would be swinging towards. Clear... clear and... clear and it meant one thing, go time! 

Ozzie's Text Book Swan Dive

Derek's First Gainer

There were 8 of us swinging and Legs did it twice. It took us roughly 30min to swing, retrieve and reset the system. We had 3 GoPros, a handycam and a 200mm camera capturing all the action so instead of me talking about it any longer you can have a look at what went down today.

Video Coming Soon...

The Crew (Left to Right) JD, Derek, Legs, Faye, Tek, Rambo, Ozzie and Andrew