Dangerous Driving for Kicks

“There are, perhaps, 20 people wedged into a small bus that’s winding its way down a dirt road in one of the steepest canyons I’ve ever seen,” the Toronto Star’s travel editor Jim Byers describes weaving his way toward Skippers Canyon and a jet boat ride. “There’s a sheer rock wall on my left that rises about 60m into a pale blue sky. On my right is a precipitous cliff that plunges nearly straight down to a distant, tumbling river. The road is rutted and pockmarked and pitted and awful, and we’re bouncing and jiggling away on what’s maybe a one-and-a-half-lane stretch with no guard rail. I swear we’re centimetres from death. But the driver isn’t breaking a sweat. We wait for the oncoming car to pass and then rattle and bump and crunch our way down towards the river and one of New Zealand’s famous jet boats. Compared to the drive, the boat trip is a piece of cake.”