Canyoning Queenstown

A few years ago, I gave my husband a Canyoneering experience in Arizona for his birthday.  It was such a great time we wanted to try it in Queenstown.  On the morning of day two of our New Zealand holiday, we found ourselves in the lobby of Canyoning Queenstown for registration and a safety briefing for the Queenstown Adventurer half day outing with our guides, Alex and Derek.  Then our group of 12 hopped into the van to drive to their base camp closer to the canyon where we got geared up.

✓  Neoprene socks
✓  Wetsuit
✓  Hiking boots
✓  Harness
✓  Life vest
✓  Helmet

Then we were off! From base camp, there was another short drive to our starting point of Queenstown Canyon.  After a short hike uphill, we did two zip lines across the canyon before we repelled (abseilled) down into the canyon where we got to finally touch the water for the first time.  The water was cold, but it was a welcome treat after we had been sweating in our gear for the last 20 minutes.

For our first little waterfall our guide Derek told us to sit down with our back to the waterfall, cross our arms over our chest and fall back to slide down the waterfall head first and backwards.  Is that crazy enough for you? Basically, this was just a precursor of things to come.  For the next hour and a half, we abseiled, jumped, slid, swam, crawled and climbed through refreshingly cold water surrounded by the beautiful canyon and lush green forest.

It was exactly what we expected.  Our guides were great and catered to all levels of ability.  I do wish they took more pictures.  They didn't let us take cameras so our hands would be free.  They did allow the helmet GoPro, so we only have that footage.  Some quality group shots would've been nice to have.  It was a big group of 10, with varying degrees of swimming abilities, so it was slow at times.  The waiting could get chilly if you were in the water.  If we did it again, I'd want a smaller group, or at least a group that I knew, so that we could kill the wait time chatting or messing around in the water.

Other than that, I'd definitely recommend Canyoning Queenstown if you're in the South Island of New Zealand.  I'm looking forward to doing some more canyoning when we get back to Arizona.  Here's the video of our time in the canyon.