Have a Healthy Holiday in Queenstown

Our guide ‘Sparkles’ is amped up, his excitement beaming brighter than his purple glitter helmet. “We’ve never been out when it’s this high,” he announces. “This is going to be exciting!” He lets out a nervous high-pitched laugh that makes me wonder if he believes his own words.

After a night of heavy rain, the morning rafting trips had been cancelled and now we’re the first group to head down Queenstown’s fast-flowing Shotover River.

My heart was already hitting maximum BPM, and palms clammy, after a precarious rollercoaster van ride along Skippers Canyon Road – a narrow gravel track that slices through sheer rock faces and falls away, almost vertically, into the canyon below. No hire car insurance will cover you if you drive it, being rated one of the world’s most dangerous roads.

*Read the full story on PDF here.