The Fellowship of Jit and Kay

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Hey folks, sorry its been a while, but we've been too busy living large in New Zealand. Been busy...living it large more like living on the edge most of the times! What a place!

We started in Christchurch which just looks like Ye Old England without the shops! It had quite a nice vibe to the place but we didnt spend long there...! We were off in a day in our new Spaceship "Rehua". Don't ask about the name...we don't understand either.We headed down south to Te Anau. The first thing we noticed about this place it that is absolutely gorgeous. Im not talking about driving past something and saying "ooh that nice" and moving on, your literally going "holy crap and it the most amazing thing I have ever seen, wheres my camera, WHERES MY CAMERA"! It was more like "lets turn this corner, oooohhh mountain, lets turn another corner, oooohhh mountain with a lot of snow on top and then lets turn a few more corners and OH MY GOD a whole mountain range perfectly planted with crystal white snow!" The best drive I have ever done in my life! For those of you that have seen the Lord of the Rings movie(all 3 of them as it is shameful if you haven't!) and thought that most of it was special effects...well you'd be wrong WRONG!!!...and no I dont mean there are little hobbit people running around with rings (although there are some people here who come close Jit amongst them!), the scenery really does look like that. No hollywood magic, just pure untouched New Zealand wilderness!

So anyway we headed down south stopping at Lake Tekapu (most things in New Zealand have really wierd names due to the heavy influence of Maori culture). This was a stunning green lake, calm as can be with snow capped mountains as a backdrop! Incredible! As we drove in Jit thought this lake was a postcard as it truly was like a picture perfect scene. The lake was so clean and pure that it even reflected exactly what surrounded it. So anyway we headed to Te Anau so we could check out the famous Milford Sounds. We were really lucky as the road leading to the Sound had been closed for two weeks due to so many avalanches in the area and it opened the following morning. Check out the pics...avalanches are scary but to actually see the aftermath was crazy! We booked ourselves on a tour as driving the road would be do dangerous and set off the next day. If we wanted to do it ourselves we had to put chains on our tyres...we were like "what are they?!" We are so from a place with no snow! What an amazing sight it was, seeing 20 feet of snow piled up by the side of the road and all the massive trees snapped like twigs. Raw power. So anyway we got to the Sound in one piece and boarded our boat so we could travel through the Sound. Just to let everyone know we had a really great buffet on the boat...just for those interested! Sheer beauty. Snow everywhere, calm water, dolphins swimming next to the boat You forgot to mention the seals...there was also seals!. What a great start to New Zealand. Scenery score 100/10!

Our next stop was the world famous Queenstown. Known for it's adrenaline activities and boy did it deliver. We signed up for the highest bungee jump they had (a massive 134m (500ft) and a canyon jet boat adventure. Jit being Jit cannot start small, NO saw he signed up for the hair raising, spine chilling jump ever! So the bungee was first. I can't read anymore! This contraption is literally a metal box suspended in a canyon. I mean if there is a sight in this world that says "Don't do it!" it was this shack suspended in the middle of the air over a canyon! You get taken over in a cable car, and strapped in and off you go. Easy as that he says! Well thats how it is supposed to go. I went first, jump in the hot seat and got hooked up to the cord. And it was over to the edge. My knee started to shake. Im crapping myself. Jumping off a ledge goes against all of mother natures instincts and it takes a lot to take the plunge...head first. Exactly...Amen! But this is me we are talking about, no fear, a massive dive and I was away. There were two words that followed the jump, but i cannot repeat them as parents and little ones may be reading. Wow what a feeling. Your falling to the floor and hoping, praying this glorified elastic band pulls you back up, and yes it did. Eventually! What a rush. Next it was Kay's turn. Still not reading this bit She got strapped up stage one and wiggled to the end stage two! ....there she was, facing one of the biggest thrills of her life, and...................................she bottled it. ok Ok OK i wussed out, i am a chicken, i am sure i will get the abuse when i get back...but all i will say is this "get to the edge yourself and then tell me your thoughts! She got all shook up and was petrified. Now I know I shouldn't laugh No you shouldn't but i know you will because dear lord you are Jit..."Yes, yes i am", but it was so funny! In her defence, it was pretty tough throwing yourself off a ledge...bit like the Yorkie ad hey...Its not for girls! I have no words, but physical abuse needs no words! Next we headed for the jet boating, and this was a great laugh. The driver doing 360's and going within an inch of the canyon walls. A little more tame then our morning but still fun. And yes people i did do this activity!

We moved onto Wanaka, to try some skiing. We headed up to Cardrona and got ourselves some lessons. The equipment is a little interesting to walk in...i swear i was walking like a penguin/seal all day in those ski boots and boy do they weigh a tonne! We both had a great time learning how to ski, although we had the biggest prick as a teacher. Prick is not the word, but again children may be present so i will mind my language. But that didnt stop us from having a laugh and me taking on a green route..check me out. Its scarier and faster that you think!You also nearly made us miss the shuttle back! We also checked out puzzling world, which was fantastic. Just loads of optical illusions and a massive outdoor maze....I won!!! I let him win...I felt sorry for him! Also, Jit had a little hissy fit here as there was a Chinese family who just kept getting in our pictures. First of all Jit was trying to do this wall picture puzzle and they came and stood in front of him whilst he was doing it (hilarious!) and then whilst we were outside taking pictures, they completely blocked our pictures with their own poses...I tell you both of our knuckles went white!

Next was the Franz Josef Glacier...Kay had been waiting to see one of these for ever and we were finally there. We thought we would go all out and do a Heli-hike, where basically you get helicoptered up around the glacier and land on the best part for a 2 hour hike and heli'd back down again. I think I will leave this one to her...wow, Wow and WOW!!! I have waited 7 and half years to hike a glacier and it was over in 2 hours. But i tell you what a 2 hours it was. Like Jit said we got heli'd up onto the glacier, which in itself was amazing...this thing was huge. However we did not get the full scale of it until we landed on it and saw that one ice thing was the size of a house! We donned some crampons which are spikes on your shoes to get a grip of the ice and went for a trek on the ice! Our guide made us slide down this random hole...we couldn't see the bottom! and then we body slid down this open cave (more than once) which was so much fun, we got soaked. I soon learnt that ice trekking was not for small stride people (like me) as i ended up doing split lunges down this v-shaped crevice...interesting positions is all i can say!

Hamner springs was next and was a huge, natural outdoor spa with hot pools varying from 36 to 41 degrees with snow capped mountains all around. Picture perfect! Heaven more like...apart from the sulphur pools, they smelt like Jit on a bad day! I won't argue with that Mitz he puts you to shame on the smell front!

The rest of our stops were pretty much us checking out the amazing mountains and fjords etc so we won't bore you with the details, but we pretty much did the whole island and had a blast, oh apart from me getting a speeding ticket and then being so pee'd off that I backed the car into a van! It was so weird to see Jit having a really 'off' moment. He was kind of shocked he got the ticket though he was doing 64kmph in a 50kmph limit and 10minutes earlier was doing 150kmph in a 100kmph zone! I think it hurt his pride more than anything...but then to back up into a van, well that was just the icing. He even turned to me after he hit the van and said "What's that noise?!" and than continued backing up before i responded with "It's a huge van Jit! Can you not see the huge thing!!!" Yea yea yea, miss one hundred pound ticket!!!. Mine was only 30! HA! Same wallet...doesn't matter!

The South Island had been magnificent. The bar has been set high, lets hope the North can compete! No pressure North Island!

Until next time folks....Kiora!!! Love ya!

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