"My scariest Trip" a Skippers Travel Page by kiwi

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Skippers' Canyon

The Scariest trip I've ever had was in the South Island of New Zealand. I went to Queenstown for a few days to visit friends. It is a ski resort and I don't ski. My friend said I had to do something, so I signed up for a winter trail bike ride. Sure, I come from a farm and can ride a trail bike. They gave me a small 100cc XR Honda. My feet could touch the ground and I was pretty comfortable in the seat. Some of these m/cycles can be very high and not so easy to manoeuvre at low speed when you have short legs like me!

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Anyway we headed up Skippers' Canyon, out of Queenstown. No trouble I could keep up and I could handle this beast. Well......that was until we got into the heavy stuff. No, not snow, but frozen dirt! There had been a 4wd up there before the big freeze and it had made ruts in the track about 12 ins deep and they had frozen. But they didn't just lead ahead like a rail track, they criscrossed and you had to drive that m/cycle up and over into the next rut.

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The road here looks nice and wide and smooth. The worse was to come.

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Shotover River, Skippers' Canyon

Now that doesn't sound very scary, but I haven't mentioned that either side of the track (at times) and one side all the way went down several hundred feet to the river canyon below! Picture above. I was supposed to be sightseeing but couldn't get my eyes out of the ruts! My hands gripped the handlegrips tightly oh and did I mention it was at times snowing and my fingers were frozen!! Eeeek! To do any sightseeing I had to actually stop and look but didn’t take any photos during the hard parts.

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I stopped at the Gold Miners’ Museum for a rest and to regain my composure for the return journey. The others continued up the valley to their destination. I headed back at my own pace and was very much more relaxed this time knowing I wasn’t holding anyone up.
I live on rolling farmland and didn't have the skills for this. The thing that peeved me the most was the young teenagers with me, fearless as they were, skooting along the tops of the ruts and oblivious to the raging river and canyon to the side.

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The end of the day and back to the road to take us back to civilisation. Phew! I had survived!
(Remembering I spent several years riding road bikes, 10 years skydiving and yes I have done bungy jumping. I know what fear is and when I said this was scarey it really was!)