Merry Christmas to us!!!!

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Queenstown and Wanaka.

Wow what an adrenaline filled few days....where do we start??!!!

Well, another fair drive bought us to Queenstown - the capital of adrenaline sports, in New Zealand, if not the world! Everything you could possibly think of (near enough!) is available, rafting to rock climbing, flying to jumping out of planes...the list goes on. This was our time to tick one of our major boxes of our "Round the World 'To Do' list"!!!!

We visited Queenstown to get an idea of what was available, and as usual, wanting to stray from the crowds, we left and headed to Wanaka!!.....Another beautiful lake and town, just the other side of the mountain range, where we booked to jump out of a plane - an extravagant Christmas present to ourselves!!

Dan - We found out that the weather the next day was going to be a clear, no clouds in the sky, day, so booked ourselves in for Christmas Eve. Eeekk!! Nic doesn't seem scared while I had the night sweats and everything and very little sleep at all!!.

So fast forward to getting suited and booted and if you see the attached video's, well the rest is history......for us anyway!!!!
Jump at 15,000ft, 200km/h, 60 second freefall and roughly a 6 minute glide back down to earth!!!!!! yeeeeeee haaaaaa - All that stressing and anticipation for days, over in less than half an hour!

And BOY what a ride it was absolutly amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! as soon as we landed we wanted to go again!!!!! Def out of this world adrenaline boost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Nic - Don't think there's much to tell about it, the video says it all.......and yes Dan was as scared as he looks! We're desperately saving for another before we return!!

Christmas Day, in comparisson to such a manic previous day, was dull dull dull, we even did our laundry! It was really odd being away from home, with no presents to open and being warm! We went for a walk, drank a bit (ok, a lot) of wine and instead of a roast (which we crave so desperately!) we treated ourselves to a nice bit of fresh Tuna and loads of veg.....we couldn't miss out on the Christmas pudding though and had a load of that! Dan even made a cracker filled with sweets for us to pull...V artistic!!

Dan - Hungry for more adrenaline fuelled antics we learned of something called the Canyon Swing and so headed back to Queenstown. (see pic of leaflet) when you first leave the 109m high platform you freefall for over 60m (the same as the highest Bungy in the world!!!) you then accelerate at 150km/h into a 200m long swing!!! you can jumped in a number of different ways........Jump off feet first, head first, by hung up side down and dropped, backwards, handcuffed, in a chair, naked you name it you can do it!!!!!!!!!! but the challenge for me was jumping off, I was scared but told myself I was going to jump by myself and not let someone drop me or throw me off or hang me up and slowey cut the holding rope...It's an option!!!! and it was hard, but with only a few hesitations I jumped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW what a fall!!!!!!! Nic however being more hardcore decided to do a handstand off the edge!!!!!!!!!

Nic - Hhhmmm....Yeah, I had a bit of a crazy day, and compared to jumping out of a plane, the drop below didn't seem too scary (never had an urge to jump off a cliff before, honest!) so when asked how I was going to jump, and without thinking about it too much I flipently said upside down! With my hands on the edge of the ledge and staring down into the canyon below was an odd thing to do, and as I plumeted down towards the river below I screamed like banshee - Which of course Dan is still ridiculing me for!!!!

Unfortunately this time we didn't splash out on the pics and vids (desperately saving for the next skydive you see!!) so you'll have to take our word for it!

That's about it for here - not too exciting then! - we're heading north now, up the West coast to Westland.
back soon.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Photos

Our campsite...
...Another DOC!

First shave in a while...
...Well, it is nearly Christmas!

Celebratory lunch...
...For still being alive, and for Christmas!

Christmas Morning..
....A little cheesy!

Christmas dinner...
...Cracker and all!

Comments

[Julie]

ArghhhhhhhHH!!!!
OMG!!!! It's official.... you guys are totally CRAZY!!!! Glad you're having a blast but don't forget to take care! Love you loads xxx ps. hope you have a great New Year!xxx

[Dad Walton]

Happy New Year
Hi you two daredevils, You're totaly bonkers, but what the hell! Just wanted to wish you both a very Happy New Year, and to you, Budger, for the 4th., Happy Birthday son. Lots of love from the Old Man.