New Zealand Part One

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Well we have now been in New Zealand for just over two weeks, so as we are half way through our time here I thought I would update you all on what has been happening as it has been pretty crazy!

After arriving in Auckland after a mammoth flight, the first couple of days were pretty easy going, went to the rugby fan zone - which the big rugby ball surprised us both immensely as a superb 10 minute film was projected onto the ceiling, giving us the illusion that we were actually inside a real-life ruby ball - as well as beginning the Lord of the Rings craziness by already meeting Gollum and an Orc. The real fun began a couple of days later when we were introduced to the Kiwi Experience bus...

As soon as we got onto the bus, the beautiful surroundings were soon very obvious to us as we left the city and began to meet our fellow passengers. In hindsight I'm so glad we booked this bus, as they call it backpacking for dummies and basically do everything for you, so you can relax and enjoy! On the way to pretty much every location we've stopped along the way to go on various walks along such stunning areas and everywhere we've stayed there are activities organised for you. We've been to the beach and dug up hot water holes, had free BBQs, been to a rubix cube fancy dress party ran by an 87 year old man, had roast dinners, been to a cultural evening to learn about the old school kiwis (and the Haka!), won at a pub quiz, seen some beautiful beaches and been in many hostels with hot tubs (weeeeey!), as well as doing activities we each have decided to take part in.

One particular activity Ben and I felt was a must, was to bring out the inner geeks in us and pay a visit to Hobbiton before it closed for filming. It was fairly pricey, but soooo worth it! So much work had evidently gone into bringing The Shire to life and our tour guides were very knowledgable about the films (and books) which definitely helped! Unfortunately photos are not allowed to be published which is a shame as the surroundings are something else and to top it off we were given a 'second breakfast' 😊

My biggest achievement so far has to be the skydive...oh lordy the scariness! The guy I was with seemed to enjoy making me even more nervous by telling me I was strapped up incorrectly and had the wrong suit on just before we were about to hurl ourselves out of the plane, whilst eating his lunch in my ear (thought he was going to get my lunch in his face too when we jumped!) The intial feeling when we jumped was a little fuzzy (looking back at the video it looks like I'm having a fit and kicking/running in the air!), but after the first few seconds it is the most amazing free feeling...simply like you are flying!! Got my feel of what Superman must feel like 😉 ...But then when the parachute was pulled the nausea feeling came as I steered the parachute a little to heavily and we went whizzing around like a popped balloon...bad times. After a few hours though I was back on the adrenalin high and so glad I did it!

We've met a lot of people along the way and a little group of us have formed a weird 'family' where we all cook for each other every night - the uni days feeling has come back a little. There's just so much we have crammed in that although I feel completely drained, we're both totally on a high. We're off to do a glacier walk today, we were meant to be doing a full on hike, but unfortunately there wwas some trouble with rocks falling yesterday, so we'll only get a taster for now...still its an excuse to come back - which I will have to as this country is absolutely something else...I can't stress that enough! xxxxxx

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