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Yesterday was rafting, and Dad loved it. It was a class 2 to class 3-, nothing hard, but a nice 2 hours on the water. Got tossed about a bit, but the only swims anyone in my boat took were voluntary. Best bit was the end, 170m of tunnel followed by a sharp drop and turn.
In the afternoon, I busted hump driving 160k to a hiketo Rob Roy glacier, 3-4 hours listed. We got there at 6pm. Zoom we went up. Didn't make the trail end before the sun dipped behind the mountains, and allowed common sense to turn us around. Got some damn nice photos on the way tho.
Woke up this morning and had a nice 2 hour hike up one of the ridges overlooking Queenstown, then hustled 50k to a nice ranch and spent the afternoon on a low HP vehicle. Mine was about 10 years old, just under 18 hands, and answered to Jaffa. We were out for a little over two hours, and while most of it was at a walking pace, I did get to try and enjoy second and third gear. (that would be trot and canter...)
Sadly we had a quad from china with us, all women, who knew nothing of horses and little enough English, so we had several spills, one onto a rock riverbed, and a mini-stampede when two let their mounts get up to a gallop. With all that, we didn't up to speed as much as I would have liked, and the little Danish girl (maybe age 6, but already posting quite well) and her mother were rather incensed.
Dad had a blast, as he hadn't been riding in *cough* 50 or 60 years. But he still remembered enough that he handled his skittish ride well, and could read his mount's attitude and body language very well. He saw the ear twitches of his mount and had him reined in hard even before the two gallopers had gotten up to steam.
To keep things easy on the guides, they only referred to us by the horses names, so I was Jaffa for the afternoon :-) The guide I rode with was Jules, but I was reciprocating and calling her Charlie by the end of the ride. I also got to act as hitching post each time she had to dismount and dust off one of our disasters, since Charlie and Jaffa got along well.
Tomorrow we start towards Christchurch to get my dad on a plane. Then I have five days to play around on my own. Do I head back to Nelson in the north, Queenstown in the south, or try for some place new. Very likely that I will drop the car and just travel by bus as that is a lot cheaper for a single...
In the afternoon, I busted hump driving 160k to a hiketo Rob Roy glacier, 3-4 hours listed. We got there at 6pm. Zoom we went up. Didn't make the trail end before the sun dipped behind the mountains, and allowed common sense to turn us around. Got some damn nice photos on the way tho.
Woke up this morning and had a nice 2 hour hike up one of the ridges overlooking Queenstown, then hustled 50k to a nice ranch and spent the afternoon on a low HP vehicle. Mine was about 10 years old, just under 18 hands, and answered to Jaffa. We were out for a little over two hours, and while most of it was at a walking pace, I did get to try and enjoy second and third gear. (that would be trot and canter...)
Sadly we had a quad from china with us, all women, who knew nothing of horses and little enough English, so we had several spills, one onto a rock riverbed, and a mini-stampede when two let their mounts get up to a gallop. With all that, we didn't up to speed as much as I would have liked, and the little Danish girl (maybe age 6, but already posting quite well) and her mother were rather incensed.
Dad had a blast, as he hadn't been riding in *cough* 50 or 60 years. But he still remembered enough that he handled his skittish ride well, and could read his mount's attitude and body language very well. He saw the ear twitches of his mount and had him reined in hard even before the two gallopers had gotten up to steam.
To keep things easy on the guides, they only referred to us by the horses names, so I was Jaffa for the afternoon :-) The guide I rode with was Jules, but I was reciprocating and calling her Charlie by the end of the ride. I also got to act as hitching post each time she had to dismount and dust off one of our disasters, since Charlie and Jaffa got along well.
Tomorrow we start towards Christchurch to get my dad on a plane. Then I have five days to play around on my own. Do I head back to Nelson in the north, Queenstown in the south, or try for some place new. Very likely that I will drop the car and just travel by bus as that is a lot cheaper for a single...