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Published: November 18th 2012
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Hello and welcome to another thrilling, lengthy edition of our blog. If you are just reading the first paragraph to make sure we are still alive... we're actually dead.....good at writing these blogs, so you should read them to the end. We will be testing you.
After exploring the North Island of New Zealand, we caught a ferry with the rest of our tour to the South Island. The landscape reminded us of Canada - mountains, lakes, glaciers...ruddy brilliant.
We first stayed in a place called Hamner Springs - Surprise, there were hot springs there, they were hot.
The following day we stopped at Christchurch. It was still a mess from the earthquake that hit in 2010, the buildings left standing were in bits, it is said that it will take approximately 16 years before it is restored. They are even considering shifting the CBD 40km away from the fault line. The trip to Christchurch was sad, but important for us to see.
In stark contrast to the devastation that hit, the positivity around the place was incredible. A makeshift city centre consisting of shipping containers hosted various shops, banks and cafes.
The day we visited
Christchurch was Remembrance Sunday. It was particularly prevalent for me to be in NZ for the day, my grandfather flew with the New Zealand 75 squadron. I felt very proud to be able to pay my respects at the
11am service, especially there.
The landscape was beautiful as we drove along Arthur's Pass, stopping for some lunch with the Kea parrots. These things are exceptionally bold and nick food off unexpectant tourists...they're like vultures, but parrots.
We stayed in Franz Joseph, there were various activities on offer and we chose to hike onto the Fox Glacier. We put some crampons on ...walked through a crevasse, drunk some glacial water and learned about things. Every day's a school day.
After a quiet evening, we made our way to Queenstown, stopping in on Wanaka on the way...Emma said that I can be a Wanaka sometimes...charming.
Wanaka is a very picturesque town on a beautiful lake, we had a picnic in the sunshine and soaked up the view.
After our fantastic picnic we visited 'Puzzle world'... It was mental, loads of illusions and a maze that we got lost in, we had to use the emergency exit to
ensure we didn't miss the bus.
We made it to Queenstown and were delighted to find that we were staying in our own little apartment -kitchen, living space, washing machine and dryer...the last two most important...Emma's clothes were really starting to pong.
As a CONTIKI, WOOOOOHOOOO group, we travelled up the gondola to a restaurant. We hoped for a sunset view over Queenstown, but we got a beautifully cloudy, can't see anything, view instead. The food was good, plenty of it and the group very, very kindly bought Em and I a bottle of wine to congratulate us on our engagement... I didn't know what they were on about, but drunk the wine, anyway.
The next morning we went to razz around the Shotover river in a jet boat, it was RAPID!
The Shotover river was named the second richest river in the world in terms of gold, people still pan the river today, but most of the good stuff is gone.
We had been warned to keep our limbs and head in the boat and were told a story of how a Chinese tourist had ignored this advice and lost his head...Emma asked if
he died...these boats drive within a couple of inches of the rocks and cliffs, spin 360's for fun, so we did as the boat driver man said and just held on tight....oh, and the Chinese man did die.
As we sped around the water, narrowly dodging rocks and the like, I saw a dead sheep lying at the foot of some cliffs, it had either fallen or hadn't paid attention to the story of the Chinese man and suffered a similar fate.
We were due to do a skydive in the afternoon, but unfortunately couldn't because of cloud cover...we were disappointed, but decided to head up the gondola again and have a go at LUGE, we enjoyed it so much when we were on the North Island. Emma was delighted to hear me chant LUGE, LUGE, LUGE over and over like a deranged thug. We ...I raced down the track, we lived it LUGE that day. Emma called me a LUGER. Fun with words.
Before heading for a quiet night in, we visited Fergburger...absolutely tremendous. Check out the picture of Emma, she very nearly finished hers, I have never been prouder.
The following day, we woke
to sunshine and predominantly blue skies...the rearranged skydive was ON!
We donned our jumpsuits and watched as others safely landed. We boarded the little plane and headed up to our jumping height of 12000 ft.
Emma and I were the last to jump out of our plane, not because we were scared, we were just furthest from the door. We were both very excited and hadn't thought about dying once....oh, wait...that's not strictly true! We shuffled to the open door, hung outside of it and dropped. Both Emma and I said that it was the most alien feeling we have ever encountered, falling towards earth at speeds of 200km per hour is still hard to comprehend.
I had thought that the sky dive instructor was joking when he said that the sharp points of the raindrops hurt as you fall through them, but he kind of wasn't!! We fell through some clouds and at that height the raindrops are like little pins of ice that attack your neck and face!!
We had around 45 seconds of free fall, personally that was my favourite bit, whereas Emma enjoyed the bit after the parachute was pulled and she
could go 'weeeeeeeeee' as she floated down to earth, that bit just made me feel a little sick. The view over Queenstown was spectacular. We are very lucky.
After all the excitement and adrenaline, we were suddenly very tired. We refuelled on pies and had a wander around the place...we're athletes.
On our second to last day, we hired mountain bikes and rode around part of the huge lake, stopping for a picnic...picnics are ace. We covered a total of 40km. Emma was delighted that her bike matched her outfit.
After a day of cycling like machines, we joined our tour group for a bite to eat and booze, it was our last night together. It turned into quite a heavy night, we got back
at 4:30 am.
The following day we said a sad farewell to the tour and our new friends and went back to bed!! It was a very quiet day, as we washed our clothes and packed our bags.
So, that was New Zealand...looking back, we did so much, we were amazed by the beauty of the place and could have stopped to take drawers dropping photos every 5 minutes. Loved it.
Now on to Thailand.
Bonsoir
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