NZ update

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We've travelled for just over 2 fabulous weeks now in NZ and we've had such a great time. The highlights of couse was the skydive! We had the perfect day for it which was really lucky because the weather was bad the day before and the day after. I have to say tho after jumping 15,000ft I really want to do it again! Mainly because I dont think I apreciated everything because I was taking in so much after I was pushed from the plane! So I definitely think I would enjoy it more a 2nd time!!! (not sure I can afford it....but I hope so! ;o) Ulrika had a camera man jump with her so everyone can watch us jumping from the plane on DVD when we get back!

Anyho, picking up from the previous blog entry where I was talking about our first 5 days...after the dive we went and stayed at a lovely place called the Little Earth Lodge. Nearby to the place were small caves, large enough though to explore and to find glow-worms living inside! These glow-worms have luminescent organs which produce a soft, greenish light. To look up at the cave roof with after switching our torch lights off was if to look at the night sky on a pitch black night. It was kind of eerie but very cool.

From Little Earth Lodge we drove south, past Auckland and headed straight to Rotorua(nicknamed 'Sulphur City' cos it has the most energetic thermal activity in NZ and has evil eggy smells hovering around)

We spent 2 days there enjoying the thermal

mud pools, spas,

free massage therapy and of course the evil eggy smell(which ya kinda get used to after a while!) From there we went to Lake Taupo to explore the area and it was from there we did the skydive.

Leaving Taupo we travelled to NZs capital, Wellington where we experience some awful stormy weather. We spent most of the time indoors, enjoying the very good Te Papa museum and some retail therapy in downtown Wellington. On the morning of our last day in Wellington and of the North Island the weather was so stormy we thought that our InterIslander car ferry to the south island would be cancelled, but it wasnt, so we spent 3 hours crossing cook st. trying not to feel too sick from the huge swells knocking the boat about. We found out afterwards that the boat that left a few hours after us from Wellington had a much worse time, spending nearly 10 hours at sea because of problems getting into port. But we survived alright and headed straight for Kaikoura where we are at the moment. Its supposed to be the best place in the world to whale and dolphin watch, expecially sperm whales and the odd killer whale and dusky dolphins...so I will let you all know how we get on!

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Comments

[Lina]

hi there, greetings from rainy spiddal. its miserable here, so you can be even happier that ye are where ye are. i have no news. work is very busy at the moment. there is a bank holiday next weekend so we are all looking forward to that. i was really sick all weekend and still am a bit. i have a very bad cough. i hope ye see loads of whales and dolphins, and dont believe them if they tell you that the day you go whale watching they have never seen so many whales before. i think thats a scam. anyway enjoy and talk soon Lina

[Jim]

26/10/2006
You really have entered into the spirit of things, but are there no "fun" things to do other than throwing yourself out of an areorplane at high altitude or trying to make pets out of animals that see you as tasty morsels? Things here are good. We are really looking foreward to our "sedate" few days away. Your blog looks really well now, by the time you guys get home it could be "award winning"!!! Take care of yourselves and I look forward to your next up date.