Day 72 on the Road
Swinging, Ziplining and Climbing in Adrenalin Forest!
On today’s episode of New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year where the NZPocketGuide.com team are doing 365 Days: 365 Activities, we are climbing in Adrenalin Forest in Wellington!
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So today we’re going to Adrenalin Forest which is an obstacle course through the trees. they have seven different courses we have three hours to as much as we can.
Wake up in the morning in the lovely Moana Lodge. This afternoon we are going to Adrenalin forest the cool thing about Adrenalin forest is just off State Highway 1 we’re there in no time. We’re ready to get our shot of Adrenaline in the forest. Once we get all our gears set up we’re going through the safety briefing so Sonny knows that we’ve used those kind of clips already. We used them actually when we did the Black Odyssey Tour with the Black Water Rafting Company back when we were in Waitomo. They’re those kind of magnets clips that just clips on the wires . So the forest works as such: there are seven different courses and each course is made of a bunch of different activities and activity would be for example rope swing bridge or whatever that is and you’re gonna go from one tree to another then you’re going to unclip and do the next activity and when you’re done all the activities off this specific course you’re back on the floor and you go up to the next course if you dare.
So after the safety briefing we do our first you know two or three levels just to get the hang of things and then we move onto level three which is maybe about a third of the way up the trees. And already at level three Robin is shitting himself. Level three. It’s kind of embarrassing. But anyway, we just let him get on with it. Sonny who has been our camera man I’m just having a chat to him and yeah meanwhile, Robin’s yeah about halfway across the obstacle we’re having a chat for a little bit longer like whoo, conversation dies down because we’ve been talking that long, look over, yep Robin’s moved to the next step. Still chatting along. All in all, it’s a very lengthy process. How am I supposed to pass that one. This? Yes.
So level one and two easy peasy and we tackle level three where it gets a slightly bit higher. Anything that is above my own height it’s going to start scaring me and I know it sounds ridiculous but I have a rational fear of height. To start with it’s dead easy it’s just thin bits of logs that are really secure in place there’s wire ropes that are really secure just basically these earlier levels the obstacles are very secure you don’t feel like you’re going to lose your footing too much. When you move onto level three things get a little more unstable things are starting to swing about a bit we have a rope bridge with just bits of ropes to step on obviously that’s not very stable then we move onto like these swings with two logs in crosses attached with some rope so you are literally swinging with the weight of your body to get to the next one. I’m actually enjoying it quite a lot it it’s er I’m scared as shit as usual but the course is actually pretty challenging and very varied. I mean, you know, every activity so far we’ve done is pretty different than the previous one so it’s actually quite fun. I just wish I wasn’t you know frozen to death by terror of heights. But aside from that I’m having a blast.
So most of the time I’m going first to to reassure Robin I turn around to see how he’s doing and again that fear in his eyes – I’ve never seen anything like it he’s just not blinking and I can see him struggling not looking down but he yeah he’s doing the worst thing you can do if you’re afraid of heights which is looking down. So he’s just shaking his whole body is shaking which is making the obstacle shake even more. Laura is probably doing alright. I can see her doing some poses or having some fun you know while she’s doing the obstacle she is still talking to guide over there or asking robin are you doing alright? Are you doing some pictures or anything? What are you doing? Just be scared like normal people you’re instinct tells you to be scared right now so be scared.
We keep on going like that from one activity to another and making our way all the way to level six. On level six things get much tougher we are really high in the trees so basically each level goes a little bit higher in the trees and the activities are much much much more challenging. So to be fair I won’t really comment on what’s happening to me because I’m completely blacked out I’m going through the course without any recollection of what I’ve done. I mean I am so terrified right now I have no idea what’s happening to me I only remember that there was some ziplines and that wasn’t too scary it was a great accomplishment and it was really fun and something that I would really definitely do again and again it’s under 50 bucks you have three hours to do as much as you can in the forest it’s definitely an amazing value for money and a very fun activity it’s an amazing day out I cannot recommend it enough to people that come and stay in Wellington.
We get to the UFO discs. I get so stuck here. Oh my God. I fall straight away I’m trying to climb back up the rope I fell pretty helpless right now but Robin is none responsive I don’t know what Robin’s doing right now. This is the only time he starts to talk “Come on Laura you can do it.” He’s shouting some words of encouragement he can see there is just flying foxes ahead so he just wants to get to on with it and get down as quickly as possible but I’m holding up the whole crew here. After that ordeal, I’m relieved because I can see some ladders going down the trees we are now making our way down to the ground.
We’re just going to hold onto the rope so she can’t move along.
Oh my God that was so hardcore.