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Published: November 20th 2006
arrrghhhhhhh!
This is it! We thought we would start our trip around the South Island with a Skydive! Without doubt THE most amazing experience .... I was a little scared at first when I saw people hurling themselves from the plane I was sitting in but the excitement and adrenaline soon takes over.OK, OK, here we are. It has taken so long as there is not much in the way of internet on tiny Fijian islands :-). We were going to leave this one as just a picture blog showing you our 4 weeks in the South Island of NZ, but in the end we felt compelled to tell the story of our deer antler.
Whilst out and about with the deer near Queenstown, we came across an antler, in good condition, which must have come off in a fight or something. We instantly wanted it as a cool souvenier so picked it up and put it in the campervan. The obvious question then arose: 'How do we get it home?'. It was far too heavy to carry around for the rest of the trip and we thought that surely it would not be allowed through customs, especially in Oz. Posting seemed the best idea although we knew it would be expensive due to the weight. Then we wondered if the UK would even allow it in via the post, so we thought we may as well ask. I left this to Lynny and this was her email: 'I know this sounds obsurd
Lynnys turn
Having just watched me get hurled out. She claims my face showed that I was petrified before my jump ..... I refuse to believe it. Lynny was as cool as a cucumber though I suppose. As soon as we touched down, we wanted to do it again. The highlight of NZ for us. but I have a deer antler that I want to post home from New Zealand if possible. I did not kill the deer to get it, I found it and have cleaned it. I know ... I sound mad but is there a law
against this? I cant find anything saying that im not allowed to send a
deer antler home. Thanks for your time.' hahaha It made us laugh anyway.
When we got back to Christchurch for our flight we found out that the post office does not open on saturdays so we couldnt post it anyway! Plan B ..... We went to cash convertors, our new favourite shop (we had bought a cool tent there for Fiji, 2 weeks before). There, we bought a duffel bag so we could carry our antler into Fiji. We will let you know how that went in the Fiji blog ..... we are determined to get the damn thing home!!
One other story to tell. A completely random event. Whilst in Christchurch (for the 2nd time) we bumped into a guy in a bar who turned out to be a guy I played footy with when I was 10!! Having
View
This is where we did our skydive (the same afternoon in fact), perfect weather for it! found out that he grew up in my home town and was the same age, he said his name was Andy Parker. "Andy Parker the Goalkeeper!!" I replied instantly, to which he replied "actually, yeah, I did used to play in goal a bit". We were off ..... reminiscing, or at least I was, his memory was pretty bad but he said a couple of names that were in the team. He didnt remember me though (I wasnt too put out!), and I ribbed him because he was blonde and I remembered him being dark haired. After, I excitedly emailed my mate Neil, back home, who also used to play with us.
As we were heading back to Christchurch at the end of our stay, he and his girlfriend kindly put us up for the weekend and we had a lot of fun. What a small world it is! Whilst at Andy's we popped out to Check our emails. Neil had replied: "Dont you mean Andy Potter??". Shit!! Of course, Andy Potter (not Parker) was our goalkeeper!! Lynny and I looked at each other and cracked up! Who was this guy that we were staying with?? Certainly not who I
Im not moving!
The campervan driver had to wait a while before being allowed to leave this car park! thought he was! We didnt tell Andy, not really any need. No matter, he is a top bloke and was incredibly generous in letting us stay and showing us around. The names we knew matched up but we just didnt remember each other. We will stay in touch now though. They were great ..... thanks guys!
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Amy
non-member comment
Finally
Your seal rocks- i want one please. do you think the post office would let you ship him to me? I'll pay the postage! xx