37 posts tagged “new zealand”

Well today we left Christchurch, waved goodbye to Sam Neil (he lived on the same street where we were staying!!!), and caught the plane to Auckland ready for our departure...

We are chilling out at the minute, with our next stop Australia, we need some rest before our next big adventure.  So went went Christmas shopping, to buy things for each other.  It is not feeling like Christmas at all...  Everyone is wearing flip floips and shorts... its weird.

We then wathced Borat at the cinema and veged in fron of the TV, something you can't do all that often while travellling...aaahhh

Well, since we haven't got any transprt, Nicky dropped us off in towen and we had a look at the art markets and went for a wander round the center and looked in the shops.  We went for a lovely meal, treating ourselves from the money we got for the van.  We walked back through the park and got very lost, but its ok as the walk was nice. 

Back at the backpackers car market, we had people interested in the van.  We toook it for a WOF (similar to an MOT) and eventually negotiated a price for sale.  We had to say goodbye to the van.  It was quite sad but at the same time a weight off our minds.  I was quite amazed it only took 1 and a half days to sell.  We said goodbye and went back to Nickys for a BBQ and then went to the cinema to watch Casion Royal.

Well, we took the van to the backpackers car market and waited patiently all day for someone to come along and buy it.  Nobody came...

We made our way to Christchurch, and stopped to do some shopping... what a novelty and then went to Meet Nicky, a lady who we met in Bolivia who said we could stay at her house while in Christchurch.  We parked trhe van in her drive and then she took us out for a lovely meal.  We have a big day tomorrow...

Deja vous.  We picked Gill up from the Hostel and got back in the van and left Queenstown for good.  Tony is very upsat again, he has already been in the job center looking for jobs!!!!

We trundled up to mount Cook and dropped Gill off, took a quick look and carried on towards Geraldine.  We stopped at Lake Tekapo to take in the breathtaking scenery.  The colour of the water around here is stunning.  It is a pale turquoise and I have never seen anything like it.  Definitely worth seeing...

We spent all day recovering from the night before.. what more can I say?

Today, Tony decided he wanted to complete the trilogy of bungy jumps and do The Nevis.  The highest bungy jump in New Zealand, coming in at 134m...

It was a 40 minute drive out of town up to Skippers Canyon.  The bungy jump is jumped from a suspended platform in the middle of the canyon, and a moving carriage takes you out to the platform.  We watched from the edge of the Canyon other jumpers jump.  It made me feel funny just watching them.  They jumped and seemed to fall for an eternity before the cord kicked in.

We now had to go out to the platform.  The carriage came accross bringing the other jumpers back and guess who was one of the jumpers.  Gill who we had taken from Queenstown to Te Ano, then she had gone to Dunedin, done the same things as us and then come back to Queenstown and done the Bungy jump on the same day.   What a coincidence!!!

We arranged to meet for a drink and then we went accross to the platform.  I found it hard to look down as it was so high.  We got over to the platform which had a glass floor, so after people jumped, you could see them as they bounced back up through the glass panel.  It was scary, especially as when they jumped, the whole platform swung from side to side.  Well It was Tony's turn and was he scard or afraid?  No, just pumped up with adrenalin and when it got to his turn, he didn't hesitate one bit, just diving into the Canyon.... There was no way on earth I would do that... no way.

We met up with Gill and went for a few drinks.  We ended up in this really weird club.  When we walked in, everyone was holding Teapots and pouring the contents into shot glasses... it was very sereal...

Back in Queenstown and guess what we did today.... the Skydive.  We got kitted up and got in the smallest plane in the world.  There were eight of us in the plane, al squashed in, sat on the floor.  When we got to altitude, 12000ft, Tony was the first to go out.  We then shuffled towards the door and before I had time to look down, the instructor had pushed us out.  I was free falling at over 200km/h, looking down over Queenstown, wanting to scream to the instructor, "Why the f*ck have you just pushed me out of a plane."  It was exillerating and all I could do was scream.  I would scream and scream, take a small breath and then sceam and scream.  After the parachute had opened out, we got time to take in the snow capped mountains and the beautiful lake.  It was great, except I felt a bit motion sick when the insrtuctor starting swooping from side to side with the parachute.

When I landed, I could not stand, I was shaking and Tonycame to see if I was alright.  I didn't know what I was doing.  We had a photo taken together and I was shaking so much I couldn't even take my googles and hat off!!!

I did enjoy it although I am not sure I would do it again.  Tony love it though.  His instructor jumped in competitions, so when they jumped out, they did summersaults and alsorts.  It was definitely worth doing and I got some funny photos.

It was time for a beer....