EcoZip Adventures Waiheke

This is new! Though not to me, actually, having done ziplining down Bob's Peak in Queenstown, and also underground at Waitomo - but it's so new here on Waiheke that the locals are still coming to try it out, along with tourists from Texas this afternoon. It's had a lot of media attention already, so the Firstborn and I had to do it as civilians, paying actual money - quite a lot of it, too: $95 each. In return, you get a really classy operation. It's a quality job in every small detail from the neatly-aligned washers on the bolts holding everything together, to the fancy braking system at the end of each cable. Our two minders were cheerful and professional and friendly, and still getting fun out of riding the lines themselves.

We got trussed up into the harnesses, which weren't too uncomfortable (even for the men, who were advised to "make sure all your furniture is in the same room"), and set straight off on the three ziplines. The first was a gentle introduction, the second was steeper and longer and the third was much steeper and faster and ended thrillingly abruptly. The last two were over bush so close that I brushed over one treetop, and the views out across the island, city and both harbours would have been wonderful too, had we thought to look at them.

Perhaps it was because at Queenstown we did six rides, this one seemed a little short - or maybe it was just because it was so much fun that we wanted more. But it was a great way to spend an hour or so, including the time it took to walk back up to the top, along a gently zigzagging path through pretty bush. After which, the only appropriate thing to do was to call in to nearby Wild on Waiheke and sit outside by the neat grapevines to share a platter and a tasting tray of their boutique beers (the wheat beer was the best) and enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon.