We were picked up at the motel for the canopy tour at 1145. The tour (http://canopytours.co.nz/) lasted about 2 hours with a 20 minute drive to and from. What an AWESOME experience!! We had 6 zip lines and 2 swingbridges that gave us a bird's eye view of the virgin forest in the Dansey Road Scenic Reserve. Of course, Anna took to it like a duck to water – Kent was a bit more hesitant, especially on the last 2 zip lines that were a bit longer and higher than the others. The rest of our small group (10-person limit) got a huge kick out of watching each other (and us!) flying through the forest. The 2nd swingbridge was short and didn't have handrails. Rather, we had an extra strap and we able to strike a pose halfway across (Anna chose the backward lean while Kent went with the Superman forward lean). We've included some of the photos we downloaded from the tour company.
In addition to the adrenaline, the company also supports conservation measures (http://forestrestoration.co.nz/), in particular trapping and disposing of predators (e.g., possum, stoat/weasel/ferret, rat). They took out 800 animals in their 1st week of trapping. The result: more birds in the forest and the capability to re-introduce rare birds (New Zealand robin and eventually kiwis) back into the forest. In fact, we had a robin follow us to a couple of stops along the conservation trail portion of the tour.
