Sleeping in on her birthday? Did Lindsay forget who she married? So....February 15th and we were up at 7 and on the road by 8. We drove out of Queenstown, and as the sun peaked over the mountain tops we made our way northwest along Lake Wakatipu to the town of Glenorchy. The drive was beautiful and it is here that I got my favorite shots of New Zealand.
We arrived in Glenorchy and met up with our tour group for the day. Months prior to this, I had asked Lindsay what she wanted for her 31st birthday. She knew we were going to be in New Zealand, essentially the birthplace of adventure sports, so her options were nearly limitless. She decided that jumping off cliffs into snow melt icy water would be the ideal way to spend her birthday. So that is what we did. From Glenorchy we drove up into the mountains, geared up in wetsuits and hiked up part of the Routeburn tract to a waterfall by the side of the trail.
Before we knew it, the guide was calling out for the birthday girl to get to the front of the line. Imagine if you will, a natural, 20 foot rock slide at about a 60 degree angle, roaring with snow melt. The guide helped us to the top and then announced, "OK, so we are going to go down this on our backs head first....birthday girl, get up here." Needless to say we all nervously laughed since the entire idea of sliding backward and headfirst was ludicrous! In fact, I couldn't even imagine a better scenario for a spinal injury. Before I could get out my last chuckle, Lindsay was grabbed by the ankles, swung around and heading down the slide, head first and on her back. Scary. I am not ashamed to say that I may have peed a bit in my wetsuit at that moment. Soon, however, we were all doing the same and loving it. For the next two hours we jumped, swam, rappelled, and slid through the rocks and icy water of the canyon. By the end we started to get pretty cold, but we were all loving it. At the end of the canyoning section we hiked back to the van, went back to Glenorchy, and ultimately returned in Queenstown in the early evening.
After a long hot shower back at the super fancy apartment, Lindsay and I got all gussied up to celebrate her birthday in style. In town we had a nice glass of wine at a lakeside wine bar and then made our way to dinner at a restaurant called the Bunker. The moment we walked in and and sat down next to the roaring fireplace, I knew I had chosen that restaurant wisely. We were greeted with a couple of glasses of birthday champagne while we evaluated the menu. Ultimately we shared a gnocchi appetizer, a lamb dish, and a pork dish with a wonderful bottle of wine. The food was incredible. Lindsay was happy, ergo I was happy. Overall I think is was quite a memorable birthday.
The waterfall pictured below is where we went canyoning.
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