As a true adrenaline junkie, Queenstown is a place that makes my heart skip a beat. Next to the lightning bolt shaped Lake Wakatipu and surrounded by beautiful mountains, the whole city breathes adventures and can rightly call itself The Adventure Capital of The World. After my bungy jump at Kawarau brige and our white water rafting on the Shotover River, I put on a harness to climb a Via Ferrata.
Via Ferrata is Italian and roughly translates to ”iron road”. And that’s exactly what it is, iron bars screwed into the rock to create a way up. Via Ferrata is, in a way, the easier version of rock climbing. You don’t need climbing shoes, rock climbing skills or really strong arms. Via Ferrata is basically a ladder up the rock face. It’s something I’ve never tried before since I always been doing the real rock climbing. But while I’m in Queenstown I thought, if there is a adventures to try, then I will be trying it. Leanne is pleased to just do the rafting and is more than happy to skip the Via Ferrata.
Therefore I booked a morning on the cliff for my self with the company Canyon Explorers. The day starts early, about 9am we head towards the cliff which is located on the hill just behind central Queenstown. Once standing below the rock face, the guide Andee from the US shows us how we safely are going to climb the wall. With harness, helmet and rope ready, we clip ourselves into a steel wire with our carabiner and the journey can begin.
These cliffs that we are climbing in Queenstown have been carved out by 1000 meters deep glacier that extended out from the Southern Alps. Pretty cool to think of while I’m standing there overlooking the beautiful surroundings.
It’s not as easy as I first thought, it actually requires some strength and balance here and there, but it is really fun. More fun than I thought it would be, probably because it isn’t that easy. And I like a challenge.
The view over Queenstown is amazing with the lake and the mountains in the background. The higher up we get, the better the view. Time flies and so do we up the wall. On the way back we zipline between the trees as an end to this adventure.
This climbing adventure is a collaboration with Canyon Explorers. All blog posts written before and after this trip is my own opinions and I would never write something that I don’t stand for. All posts are written by me based on how I experienced it.
