Author: Fiona Tibballs

My name is Fiona Tibballs and I am passionate about the benefits of leaving your comfort zone. I do it myself as often as possible. I am so grateful for the opportunity to share stories about courage on my blog.

Being You

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Words by Fiona based on an interview with Julie

“More concerned about the success of others than their own personal gain” are the words that caught Julie’s attention in the job ad, and I am not surprised as that describes her accurately! 

The fact that Julie was living in San Francisco and the ad was posted by a friend in London about a job in Sydney, it was all too far fetched? However, the idea of getting the job had Julie dreaming about Sydney summers. Quickly followed by ‘who do I think I am? I can’t do this. I’ve never been a tech founder. I’ve worked in start-ups, but you’re crazy.’ 

Serendipitously, Julie then read an HBR article about men applying for jobs when they only have 2 of the 10 criteria, so she decided to at least have the conversation. And ignore the imposter syndrome rearing it’s ugly head. 

Julie has a name for her ‘imposter voice’. I think we all have that voice that says we are not good enough? Julie has named hers Beatrice. Well, Julie quietened Beatrice by taking things one step at a time. ‘You know what, I’m still going to have this conversation. I’m going to talk to Annie. I wasn’t really looking to move or take this job and I was just having the conversation. So, I just kept saying yes, and here I am. 

‘Annie flew me down here [Sydney] when I had my interview. She turned on all the works. It was January so the sun was out. We walked from downtown to Rose Bay and I went stand up paddle boarding in the bay with the Harbour Bridge behind me crystal blue water. She flew me up to Brisbane and I met with Steve Baxter aka Shark of Shark Tank, I had no idea who he was.  

I just decided to show up as myself. We were talking about investing in start-ups and I said “there’s market-based solutions for social impact. We can we can do good and make money at the same time.” And again I did not know Steve Baxter at that point. And I couldn’t understand why everyone was on the edge of their seats hanging on my every word! Steve said “No, no, no, we make our money first, then we give it away”. Which was fine. I’m glad that I showed up in what I believe but also knew not to have continuing argument with him. Steve and I are good friends now.’ 

This was not the first (or last) time Julie stepped out of her comfort zone! Julie helped set up the Salesforce Foundation after meeting Marc Benioff and making such an impression with her advice about his plans that he offered her the role! She moved from Atlanta, where she had been a student, teacher and technology specialist over the span of 12 years, to San Francisco based on the regrets she would have if she didn’t. ‘There is nothing I have to lose’. 

Julie has found that being around the right type of people and energy is really important to her resilience but learning to not try and control things and focusing on seeing the glass as half full help her to bounce back when she finds herself ‘curling up’. 

I asked Julie what drives her to step out of her comfort zone, and her answer was as beautifully original as she is ‘Knowing that there’s support and trying new things. Creating new synapses. Being able to be creative and try that try new things. Being unique. Trying to be the only one doing it so I’m not compared to anyone else. So you don’t have to have that judging. And not being afraid to ask…..’ 

‘When I was in school I was a technology specialist in the middle school. I was the only tech specialist in that school amongst all the teachers. You couldn’t really compare me to anyone else. That’s maybe a safety mechanism. I’m protecting myself. There’s no other bar. I have to set the bar.’ 

I think that is fabulous motivation for trying something new! 

Julie finished off with her passion about celebrating failure. 

‘I’ve become more comfortable [with failure] and when I do talks I get people to be more comfortable with the little tiny mistakes and being okay not to be judged. Think about your body when you make a mistake and what happens – you physically curl up and you change your whole body. Think about times when you won a race or completed something – your body goes big. 

‘It’s a totally different feeling and you can move on and continue. So, next time when you make a mistake how crazy and odd would it be to trick your body into celebrating and throw your arms wide open? It is counterintuitive, but if you physically celebrate your failures you feel differently about them and are more able to go on.’ 

Thank you so much Julie for sharing your story and viewpoint. 

Reflections on nearly a year of Climbing Lava

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Words and photo by me (Fiona)

It was this time last year when I had some forced time off work, and found myself in ‘planning mode’. That is what I call what happens to me when I have time to think. It is not always a good thing! I came out of the 5 weeks juggling too many items. But it can be awesome. 

One of the fabulous things that came from those 5 weeks was this blog.  

This blog gives many things to me. A chance to hear amazing stories of courage. A way to step out of my own comfort zone every time I ask someone to be interviewed. I am even getting used to rejection! It provides me a platform for sharing some of my own experiences. It can be a networking tool. And a place to give a voice to those that want to share. 

Thank you to all who have supported me during my first year – especially to those who agreed to be interviewed before the blog even existed! And a particular mention to those brave enough to share their story with me and then to have the courage to say actually they did not want it published. 

Please keep sharing your stories. And I look forward to the next year of climbing lava! 

Flying out of your comfort zone!

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Words by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Lynne Cazaly

Often I interview people who are regularly stepping out of their comfort zone. Lynne fits firmly in that category. Our chat covered many fabulous subjects – including her starting helicopter lessons! 

Lynne started by telling me about one of the first time she recalls doing something outside of her area of expertise – facilitating a workshop for the Australian Junior Chamber. “I was getting more and more into speaking and then someone said, ‘Oh, would you facilitate a workshop we’ve got coming up’ and I said yes, thinking it’s probably just like emceeing, right. Once I started looking at what is facilitation I realised ‘Oh, my God, what have I got myself into’ and many times I wanted to ring up this guy and say ‘You know what, I’m not doing it. This is so not my area of expertise. I don’t know what I’m doing. This is not for me.’ But I had this incredible pride as well. I thought how can you bail out on something? It’s like someone’s seen potential in you or is giving you an opportunity and here you are saying no.” Lynne went ahead. And nailed it. 

Facilitation is now very much within Lynne’s comfort zone these days, so she seeks out other opportunities. Like a helicopter flying lesson! “I’ve been a massive plane aviation geek for a number of years, and a few weeks ago, I had my first lesson in a helicopter. I love a helicopter ride, but I’m usually more interested in sitting in the front seat watching what’s happening rather than looking at the scenery. So my 2020 step out of my comfort zone (or fly out of my comfort zone) will be getting a helicopter licence.” 

Lynne is motivated to spend so much time out of her comfort zone because “we don’t usually feel achievement without challenge”. As Lynne described her first lesson her face lit up with joy. “Even in that first lesson, I learned so much about what makes the helicopter go up and forward and sideways and I was doing all that very quickly. There was an incredible learning curve and incredible achievement in just the first 90 minutes!” 

Lynne and I chatted about other times she has recently stepped out of her comfort zone – such as talking to CPAs in 6 different Australian cities. Then we talked about how she feels leading up to something new “Usually a couple of days before I will be thinking about it a lot while I’m doing other things. And I tend to imagine, do some sort of mental rehearsal. [On the day] I feel pretty good in the morning and then about half an hour to an hour before I get really nervous. That only lasts for a little while and I take some deep breaths and as it’s getting closer and closer to the time I really love that feeling of the anticipation. Instead of nervousness, it’s anticipation. That’s what I would call it.” 

I asked Lynne about what she would tell someone about the benefits of stepping out of their comfort zone if they were reluctant to do so “It gives you a different perspective and a different experience. If you imagine you go to a restaurant or cafe and you order the same thing all the time, because that’s what you like getting from there. The next time you go, your job is to order something different. And that’s stepping out of your comfort zone right there. It’s looking at the menu and saying I’m going to try something else. And from that moment on, everything’s different. The anticipation, the lead up, the eating the meal, and afterwards, that’s all new. The benefits start immediately from the fact that you made that decision to try something different. I imagine that our brain changes, the neuro plasticity in our mind changes, and the way we see the world starts to change. And we become ready for many, many better things that are ahead and shit things that are ahead too.” 

We also talked about how you know where your comfort zone ends if you never test it or push it. It is something that changes with our experiences. Even within the one flying lesson: “When the training pilot says ‘you have the controls’. I have to respond. ‘I have the controls’. So now I’m responsible? I’m flying it, that is [completely] out of my comfort zone. And I’m experiencing it. I’m going ‘ohhh shit this is scary’. But I did it. And then I gave the controls back to him. And when we did another manoeuvre and he said, ‘okay, you have the controls.’ And this time I thought ‘I’ve done this. I’ve done this before’.” 

Finally, we talked about the areas of people’s lives they are willing to take risk in, I think we agreed logic does not apply! “What about blogging? How many people are saying ‘I want to blog, I want to blog, I’ve written blogs’, and they don’t press publish. But they will go and ride in the backseat of a taxi in South America or they’ll put themselves in high risk situations, with regards to personal safety, but they won’t do something that might advance their career and make them more confident in the long run.” 

And I will leave you with that final thought to ponder – are you avoid risk in the wrong places? 

About Lynne:

“Workplaces of today need to be increasingly agile, responsive and adaptive. People want to be part of a smart team doing great, meaningful, awesome work!” – Lynne Cazaly

I’m obsessed with helping leaders lead their teams through transformation and change.

This is about business agility, about helping people apply their ideas and adapting to what happens when those ideas are put to practice. Leaders become more capable, boost engagement with their staff and make decisions quicker.

Remember Your Why

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Story by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Tessa

I heard Tessa speak recently and I immediately found (stalked?) her online and asked if she was willing to be interviewed for this blog. To my excitement she agreed – and the interview did not disappoint me! 

Tessa believes that stepping out of your comfort zone helps you grow. And that sometimes you need to do it to get where you want to be in life. 

“I’d worked in marketing for some time, probably for about 10 years of my career. My comfort zone got pushed, but I’d say moderately, such as when you learn a new role you step up.  

“I had this conversation with my GM of HR at Spark Digital. And she said, ‘What is your ambition? Where do you want to go?’ And told her that one day I’d love to be a CEO of kind of moderate sized organization. ‘I’m trying to work out the skills I need to get there. And I think I need more commercial skills.’ 

“And you know, that moment where you put something out into the universe, but you never expect anyone to act on it? Probably within about three days, she came up to me: ‘We’ve had this business manager resign in our enterprise sales team, one of the sales managers, I’m putting you up for the role’.” 

Tessa wondered what she could add as the leader of a team much more experienced than she was, particularly in sales. But her GM encouraged her (strongly!) to take the jump, to get those skill she needs. There was a full interview process and testing, and Tessa got the job! 

Her new boss told Tessa that she needed a marketer in sales, a big thinker. Someone to shake up her leadership team. 

The announcement of her new role – alongside an internal promotion announced at the same time – was really hard “It was deathly silent, you could have heard a pin drop. And then there were a couple of people who knew me from marketing who started to click. This was the most embarrassing moment of my life. I was taking on sales in a big portfolio. And I had a room of 80 people who had no idea who I was and were confused as to why a marketer was given one of the most preeminent positions in sales.” 

Tessa realised that she needed to focus on coaching her team as a leader, not trying to coach them in sales. This she realised would stand her in good stead as a CEO – after all you cannot be the expert in all aspects of the company you run. 

It was not easy! “About the 10-week mark, I had a complete meltdown. I didn’t know how to coach these people. They were much older. They were older than me, and more experienced than me in sales. I ended up back in my GM of HRs office in floods of tears. And with my GM of Sales basically picking me up off the floor because I said ‘I can’t do this, I have to leave. I’m not the person you need. I’m not doing anything.’ And they quickly got support around me. They listened and then said, ‘Okay, so how do we move forward?’  

“And they gave me a leadership coach who helped me to separate fact from myth. I had a whole lot of language in my head. I suppose that voice that you talk to yourself with was really highly critical. And that voice kept saying to me, ‘you’re getting this wrong and you don’t know that, you don’t know this’, and I couldn’t hear the things that people were actually saying to me. I had a person on my team, who said to me ‘You’re a breath of fresh air. You just bring something different. I love watching you in front of customers.’ And I couldn’t hear that I could only hear. ‘I don’t know what to tell them to sell and I don’t understand the system well enough to sell it.’ 

“My coach helped me to grow my understanding. ‘Listen to the voice in your head and write down what it says and then see if there is any data that supports it. Is there anybody said that directly to you? Is there anything that backs it up?’ and then ‘Okay, now write down the facts. What are people saying to you?’ Understand that difference between fact and myth. 

The lessons Tessa learned in her first 12 months – that it is ok to ask for help, and that sometimes you don’t know what help you need until you hit rock bottom being two of those lessons – aided her in putting up her hand when Spark Digital decided to go Agile. 

“I learned at that point that ambiguity is fine. And I don’t know what I don’t know and no one else does either. So we’re going to learn and I think the year of sales had taught me how to learn again, taught me how to walk into something that’s really uncomfortable and realize you’re going to be okay. My husband said to me at one point ‘What’s the worst that can happen? You leave sales and get another job? Is that so bad? You know, there are worse things.’ 

“And sometimes I think we compare up too much. We imagine if this was better, or if only this was like this. Instead [we could be] saying ‘at least it’s not like this. I haven’t got an illness, at least I’m not struggling to make ends meet at the moment. I’ve had a successful career so far’. And I think sometimes comparing down is a really helpful technique to make you realize that you’re okay.  You’re just learning, and learning can be uncomfortable when you’ve been really good at knowing everything. 

“It did fundamentally shift me as a person and my ability to then take on the next challenge, and to now help other people take on bigger challenges.” 

Finally, Tessa advises to remember why you are doing what you are doing. What your north star is. That can help in tough times. 

Thank you Tessa for sharing your story with us! 

About Tessa:

As Product Director Tessa is responsible for designing and delivering products and service experiences that customers value. Tessa is also responsible for shaping Spark’s investments and maturing capability in digital, IT, data and experience design to deliver on future business needs. 

She joined Spark in November 2015 as the Manager of Brand, Communications and Events for Spark Digital before moving on to become Business Manager. In 2017, Tessa joined the team that was responsible for successfully transitioning Spark into an Agile organisation, and is regarded as one of New Zealand’s leading Agile and product development practitioners. 

Tessa brings to the role more than 16 years of experience in information and communication technologies, having previously held a variety of roles at Vodafone New Zealand. She has a Diploma in Communications Studies from Manukau Institute of Technology. 

Stepping onto the stage

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Words by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Vikki

For most people becoming the lead singer in a rock band qualifies as an experience where they would have to step way out of their comfort zone.   Vikki spoke to me recently about doing just that. 

A classically trained singer, Vikki felt no longer excited by what her singing was offering her. Serendipitously there was a rock school being run near her home and she decided to investigate. “I spoke to this chap who was running a Rock School. He was running a little Rock School in his studio in his house. It sounds bizarre, but it happened to be near where I lived, where you would never think there would be rock studios anyway. We had a good chat. He was classically trained as well. So, he understood where I was coming from. You need to get to a point where you enjoy what you’re doing not just to get the grades and improve. I was excited, so I signed up to take the lessons that he was offering through the school. I met this cool guy who’d worked with Wendy Matthews. He was just absolutely awesome. So, I did some work with him, and then I was able to go into the little rock group that was there at this school, which was tiny.” 

And guess what? That is not even Vikki out of her comfort zone – that moment came when she decided to audition for the Weekend Warriors! 

Weekend Warriors auditioned people and then grouped them into bands – so 20 people would become 4 or 5 bands. It was being run by Paul Christie from Mondo Rock. 

“So, what took me out of my comfort zone, getting to the point where I could consider crossing its boundaries was, I guess, that I was no longer stimulated with these other things. I was looking for something else. I was also thinking how old am I going to be before I suddenly become courageous? I wish I had done this in my 20s. At what point do I know? Am I going to be 75 and then be ready? I started searching for answers on the internet regarding the meaning of life. I found this article and there were about five or six things on there. So, the first one was kind of ‘tick, I’m doing that’. Two was ‘tick, yeah, I’m doing that.’ I got to number four or five? And it said, ‘where are you making a fool of yourself?’ And the seventh one was something like ‘and how are you changing the world?’ They really resonated. And I went ‘well, I think this is it.’ I’m looking at having a midlife crisis, deciding I need to find my courage at some point and find this article telling me that I should be out there making a fool of myself. So here I am. This is it. This is what I’ve got to do. I remember sitting in the car waiting to go in and just absolutely terrified, and then I did it.” 

Vikki was very nervous, and as she sang during the audition, Paul looked deep into her eyes and held her hand. She was placed in a band and after 4 weeks of rehearsals they put on a show! Was the audition or the show more nerve racking? The audition was scarier, but the show was also terrifying. Vikki got more comfortable over time, even when she was occasionally off pitch. 

We discussed whether this step outside Vikki’s comfort zone impacted other areas of her life, and she isn’t sure! A whole lot of change all happened around the same time. 

She did learn though. “I think I spent too many years thinking you can only be a singer, for example, if you are making number one records in the charts.   So, I never saw a place for me or the journey there. I think that just giving this a go, taught me to ‘just give it a go’ in general.   And it’s the only way to move forward.   But I think I was always waiting to be amazing before. Don’t wait for amazing. That’s it.   Don’t wait for amazing.”  

Just as we were finishing off the interview Vikki had another important insight she wanted to share – the importance of having fun! “I think one of the other insights or lessons I’ve got is the having fun part.   My journey has included singing in this rock studio tucked away near where I live, then to go into this Golf Club, rock school shows, and I’ve been to Frankie’s in the city with my own band. And so, I feel like I’ve done that, without doing sort of a stadium. I’ve had a big enough taste. The more my band hit these goals, the less fun I was having. So suddenly, the fun elements weren’t there anymore, which I find interesting. I actually had more fun towards the middle. The key message for me is do things for fun, not for gain.   Do it because you love it, do it for fun, do the fun bits of it. Hitting Frankie’s was ‘my ego’s in here now because we’re doing Frankie’s’, but I just didn’t get anything out of it. I didn’t enjoy it. Yeah, a tick in the box, but I didn’t enjoy it. At the same time all these good things were happening for me. I was having leadership coaching, getting the role as a coach, moving into this new space. I feel more connected with the people around me than I ever have. Gee, I didn’t think I was really having a lot of fun at work until I moved into this role. Now it’s become part of my mantra, because if I’m having fun, then I am going to be at my best. And that, I’d say is a lesson that’s gone across both the hobby as well as work. Come to think of it, the one change that’s gone across both my hobby and work and that I proudly call one of my superpowers is  

“the courage to step into the void and trust it”. 

Vikki is currently writing and recording her own music which she realises will not be amazing and she is totally ok with that, because it’s precisely this activity that brings her the most joy 

Thanks Vikki! 

Words of Wisdom

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Words by me (Fiona) based on an interview with Niall

Niall is a frequent leaver of his comfort zone, but writing a book was something very new for him so we chatted about that. 

Why a book? “It’s a big commitment to myself, and the community where I was noticing a lot of people were having quite opinionated conversations about things they said were important to them. And I was engaging in that and getting involved. At some point it became clear that it’d be useful, given my experience, to take a bit of a bigger step in and get that opinion documented as opposed to sitting and sort of throwing ‘throw away’ comments. 

“[Also] with some recent work activities it became evident that I’d gone through quite a unique experience. If it could be distilled and articulated for others to understand and appreciate, and learn from, that would be of good value to serve those around me.” 

I wondered if Niall knew just how far out of his comfort zone he would get before he started writing? “If I had known at the time the effort, energy and commitment it would take I might have paused a touch, but I think that’s the whole point. Often you leap in intuitively to do things. They feel right for you, so you leap into the unknown. I think that’s sort of part of the excitement. And then you work it out as you go.” 

Niall shared with me some of the tough times – he feels he has just come through one of the turbulent periods where “I think with any large complex undertaking this there’s this moment where you really do feel completely lost. And you’re right in the middle of that highly ambiguous, I used to call them ‘the upside down without the paddle in the creek after canoeing’, phase, where you don’t know which way is up and you’re in the turbulence of trying to settle down. You don’t quite know what the next step is. Or you take a step and realize it’s in the wrong direction and you have to undo that step or pivot left or right, which can be frustrating. I’m confident that I’m past that now, the previous six weeks have been that period.” 

The thing that got Niall through that phase was the approach he had taken from the start – test and learn often and early. “Risk the voice of cynicism, the voice of judgment, on what I’m putting out there”. 

Of course, I asked for Niall’s advice to anyone considering a step out of their comfort zone – small or large: “You need people who can give you your temperature check because you’re the frog in the bath and the temperature is slowly rising. So, you need someone to say it’s getting pretty hot around you and you’re going to cook yourself. Someone who’s close to you can call you on it.  

“I think you need to really deeply assess the reasons that you’re doing the things you’re doing. Have a conversation with yourself – ask who is this serving? It’s okay if it’s serving you. But helping and serving others is something that is not only very rewarding, it gets people quite interested in, and involved in, any idea you have. Simply pursuing it for selfish reasons is something I’d check in with. Having people around you checking while you’re doing it. And do not go into a room for a month and sit around thinking you’ve got a great idea. Talk to someone five minutes after you think you’ve got that idea and test it. And then keep doing that as often as make sense because if your throwing your heart and soul and energy into something I think getting feedback early and often is a great way to just make sure you don’t waste your time and energy and effort.” 

And Niall’s last words: 
“I think if we can keep our world expanding, even in a very, very small way, it is what we’re here to be as humans. I don’t think we’re here to be shrinking smaller people. No matter how small, it might be scary for you, but take the steps to stretch and get out of your comfort zone. Understanding it takes energy and commitment and support network but really, I do think we’re here to reach our potential and to do that you need to get near the edge or sometimes over the line that defines where you’re comfortable. So keep doing it.” 

A bit about Niall:
I work as an agent of change, promoting agility through education, coaching and modelling of new behaviours.

I disrupt inefficient as-is practices using a gentle but influential consulting approach that embeds new values and principles of work. My goal being the development of a high-performing sustainable lean-agile delivery culture.

I am always about results and have been a coach my whole working life, firstly in professional sports, then leadership and for the last 10 years, agile transformation. Coaching is the core capability which supports the advisor/consultant roles I perform.

My work centres around guiding clients towards the establishment of new enterprise lean-agile delivery models; it is tough but rewarding work; I love it and the challenges it presents.

Dealing our way out of our comfort zones

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Flying!
Not drowning!

My friend and I make deals.  

“If you bungy swing with me, I will river board with you” type of deals. 

We recently went to Queenstown NZ together, and the deal above was made. I am the bungy swing fan, she really wanted to do the river boarding. So we made our deal. 

After my first helicopter ride (not out of my comfort zone at all – it was amazing!), next on our agenda was the bungy swing. I was excited, I had done both a bungy jump (at Victoria Falls) and a swing (Cairns) before and loved them. Cilla was terrified.  

To get to the jumping point we went up the mountain in a gondola, which made her physically ill. At this stage I was telling her she was free from our deal. But her response was that me getting out of my comfort zone so often was inspiring and she wanted to do it. I felt I had to point out that I did not make myself sick doing it, but she was determined to go ahead! 

She wanted to get it done ASAP, so we took a seat at the entrance gate, 15 mins before they opened, to ensure we were first in line. She was so terrified. Which to be honest helped my nerves, looking after someone else always distracts me. The staff took pity on us sitting on the bottom step like children and opened up a few minutes early. 

To cut a long (and amusing!) story short, Cilla did the bungy swing. She pulled the cord on 3 (counting down from 5) and screamed the entire swing. And kept her eyes closed. The staff were supportive, funny and helpful. And she is glad she did it, but has zero desire to do it ever again.  Unlike me who would have done it again right away. 

Which leads us to my part of the deal. 10km down a river on a boogie board, including multiple sets of rapids (including one called ‘man eater’). I can swim, but lack experience with boogie boards, flippers and rapids. 

After safety instructions, being fitted with wetsuits, booties and helmets, and being driven to the starting point, we climbed down to the river. I was already out of my comfort zone! 
 
A quick demo of the key skills we needed and in we clambered – some of us (me!) less than elegantly.  

Next we had to practice these new skills. I was terrible! I could do the turns, but the kicking technique needed to fight the current was pretty much beyond me. So when we were offered a ‘ride’ (aka the guide holding onto our boogie board) out of the first eddy, I took the offer. 
 
“Sweetheart” (as he asked to be called) held on to both our boards and kicked for both of us to get into the centre of the river. He briefly let go after that, and then for my own safety decided he would keep hanging on through the rapids. I was very grateful! 
 
You may be wondering how having the guide help me through the rapids was out of my comfort zone? Aside from the physical discomfort of holding onto the boogie board so tight I had cramps in my hands, and the icy cold river, I felt totally out of control the whole time! I had faceful after faceful of water. I was disoriented and confused through most of the rapids. I didn’t know which way I was meant to head. I also had the knowledge that I had signed up to do something I was physically unable to do, and felt bad that the guide had to assist me so much.  
 
Sweetheart reassured me that I was not the worst. And I found out later that the others had also had assistance at times. But still. I had underestimated the skill required to river board. And I was very uncomfortable accepting the help I required. Probably a good lesson for me there! 

The good news was that the rapids are all in the first 5km of the 10km stretch of river we surfed. And I only needed a small amount of help in the second half of the trip – an occasional pull out of an eddy. The second half I would happily do again. 

Like Cilla and the bungy swing – I am really glad I did it, but am happy not to do it again! 

We have decided to return to Queenstown, we had such a great time, and I didn’t get to paraglide, parasail or do a bungy jump!