Hello All! It's very soon after my last 'instalment', I realise but Lisa and I have become adrenaline junky, extreme sports fanatics in the last week so I have lots to tell you (brag!) about! After our adventures with the rings in the caves, (ooh, sounds like an adventure fantasy film, but I have a feeling Peter Jackson has already made it??!!) we went to Roturua and really went for it in the adrenaline activities! We did white water rafting along the Kaituna river - which was brilliant fun! We went down a 7 metre waterfall at one point and our raft almost capsized which was a bit scary but still really good fun! We've got some brilliant photos of this which I can't wait to email and prove that we actually did do this! (Speaking of photos, we should have some more on the website I sent the link for before soon. Sorry there were no captions to explain them but that would have taken us days so you'll have to try and work it out for yourselves - sorry!) The day after our white water rafting, we went Zorbing! Which is where you get into a huge inflatable ball (am trying to describe it as best I can, so bear with me here!) and you then roll all the way down a big hill in it! We did it in one with water in it so got completely soaked as we went down and slid all over the place! All we did was scream all the way down and then laugh hysterically afterwards - it's really not very dignified but brilliant fun! I am loving being a tomboy again! We then went up the mountain in a gondola and did luging (I don't know if this is the correct spelling so apologies if it isn't?!) It's kind of like bob sleighing but not on snow, on a dry paved track and you sit in your luge - a plastic kind of sled with a steering device and wheels and then just hurtle down the mountain in it! It's really good fun and if you don't bomb it down you actually get some really great views from the mountain of the surrounding countryside and the town! (I only did this on the first go, when we went down the 'scenic' track, the rest of the time it was all just a blur!) We had a big St. Patrick's night celebrations and I had a very late night and quite a lot of green vodka jellies which was not the cleverest idea as I had booked my sky dive for the following day! Lisa drove us down to Taupo and we got there in enough time for me to have a mini power nap and a can of red bull before I had to go and throw myself out of a plane! So, the sky dive..... the most AMAZING thing I've ever done!!! It was AWESOME - to use the local lingo - seriously though, every superlative you can think of could be used to describe it! I did a tandem jump from 12'000 feet which meant 45 seconds of free fall which was the best bit - my heart was pumping so hard I thought it was going to explode out of my chest! Afterwards, you just feel amazing, you're on such a high and the adrenaline is still pumping round your body for hours afterwards! (I did feel completely drained though later that evening although this may have had something to do with only having had 1 hours sleep the night before?!) Realistically I'm not going to be able to describe it all and do it justice so I will have to bore you all with the video of it when I get back! (I had to pay extra but so worth it to have it on dvd and be able to show the folks back home!) Again, I realise I'm seriously over using the exclamation mark but the sky dive does really deserve it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We spent another night in Taupo and the next day when we were having breakfast, Lisa and I met 3 guys we had gone to school with and hadn't seen for almost 8 years! Of all the places to bump into them after all that time, and it's in a cafe in a small town on the other side of the world! It was really freaky, makes you think about what a small world it can be some times! They went off to do a bungy jump (the one thing, I think I'm not going to do - partly cos I'm running out of money now and partly because I just don't think I could make myself jump of a bridge with just a bit of rope tied to my feet!) Lisa and I continued with our thrill seeking - the 5th day in row for me! - and spent the afternoon walking tight ropes, rickety bridges and climbing enourmous wooden poles and jumping off them! For want of a better way to describe it, it was like an adventure playground but a lot scarier! They have huge wooden logs/poles put up, all about 40 ft high and 20 ft apart and between each of them they've devised a different 'crossing'. One one of them you have to walk (more like edge your way extremely cautiously!) along a wire while holding onto another one at about chest height. Another you walk along a wire with two further apart to hold onto - one in each hand. Another one was where a rickety wooden 'bridge' (bit Indiana Jones styley!) but with nothing to hold onto and you had to walk across and then do it walking backwards. And the other one was walking along another wooden log (not very wide!) again walking along forwards and backwards! You're harnessed up the whole time so if you fall you don't die but it's still incredibly nerve wracking - not to mention hard work having climb up each of the poles! (Finally I am doing some exercise although I don't think it will help me burn all the calories I've consumed the past couple of months!) We then had to climb a tall pole which was stood on it's own and had a trapeze suspended just above and in front of the the top. The pole was 40ft high and we had to climb to the top and then try to balance enough to stand on top, then pluck up the courage to leap off it and try to catch the trapeze (still harnessed of course!) I did wonder why the hell we'd thought that doing this was a good idea when trying to stand on top of this very narrow pole and then leap off it! The last thing was another climb and then sit in harness attached to a giant swing - another take a bit jump from 40ft and hope the harness works kind of thing! But all in all despite the twinges of vertigo, it was really good fun! As I said, I think Lisa and I have both regressed back to being about 8 or 9 and being complete tomboys again! We met up with the boys from school that night and also met a guy who was cycling from one end of New Zealand to another - I would say what a crazy fool but he was doing it to raise money for cancer research! it must be an amazing way to see such a beautiful country but I cannot even begin to imagine how fit you'd have to be to do that! Lisa and I won't even do the 17km walk through the national park where they did some of the lord of the rings filming we're so unfit and scared of exercise! After Taupo we drove down to Wellington to get the ferry over to the South Island. Although it was quite a long drive, it's such beautiful scenery it just doesn't seem to matter! We're also just enjoying the feeling of a big road trip! Think I said it last time, but not sure now, but I think we quite fancy ourselves as the new Thelma and Louise - without the tragic ending of course! Our first stop on the south island was Kaikoura where we swam with wild dolphins! Was so amazing (another amazing thing, I know!) They're so naturally inquisitive and playful that they come right up to you and swim round and round with you and look at you! We were swimming at one point with a school of between 200-300 dolphins and we were just surrounded, it was unreal! The sea was pretty cold but we had wet suits etc but we just didnt seem to feel it when we were swimming around with the dolphins! Tommorrow we are doing a Glacier hike along/up the Fraz Josef Glacier! Intrepid explorers that we are! Will email you all again soon with further glacier details. I think we've done all the adrenaline pumping activities now so we might slow down a bit and go down a gear or two and back to our old woman 'oooh isn't the landscape beautiful' mode soon so perhaps it will be a more sedentary email next time! With Big Kiwi Love, Anja xxx