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hullu,
so here we are at the end of New Zealand. We have had some fun in these lands but now it is time to leave. I am currently residing in Queenstown, later I fly to Auckland, and then on to Cairns. But enough about the future, I shall instead fill you with wonder at my momentous journey through the South Island of New Zealand. Enjoy.
Anyhu, we made the cook straight crossing into picton. the ferry itself was rather pleasent with some nice scenery. At one point a passenger breifly spotted a whale but I sadly saw nothing of it. We arrvied in Picton, quickly discovered there is nothing in picton besides a port, and drove round the east coast to a campsite near Kaikora. nbot much to say about this area, theres a beach and a road, good stuff.
We then took the road though Lewis Pass stopping off at Hamner springs, again not much besides some hot pools), but a pleasent enough place and managed to find a decent pub there for a change. did a few treck in the lewis pass area, including scaling Mt Lewis. sadly the peak was in the cloud so cound see anything from the top but got some good views on the way up and is a good drive through the mountains.
Moving on and we exited into Greymouth. Explored some of the old goldmining caves round here which were intresting though did more or less ruin my coat with mud from the walls. plus came across a massive dinosaur insect thing which I somehow felt was seriously threatening my life, so didnt wait around too much in the main cave.
From ehre we briefly went North to the Pancake Rocks. Weird things. layers of stone (look at a picture, its easier than me trying to explian what it looks like) with water crashing and shooting up everywhere.
Back heading south again. Arthurs pass was a very good location. a road through the southern Alps with some pretty good stuff. Managed to tot about a fair amount around here. Climbed Avalanche peak which seemed pretty daring given the name and given the fact that there was a severe avalanche warning across the whole area at the time, but thats how we roll, the bad asses of the hiking world...maybe not. but the views were awesome. also did something spur (i may remember the name at some point), again, just awesome views of the mountains and the valleys below. If i ever get round to uploading pictures you will hopefully agree. and saw the castle rocks, weird again.
Out of here we headed back west, through Greymouth again, and south to glacier country. the two big glaciers here are the Fox glacier and Franz Joseph. FJ is currently on the recession and only accessible by helicopter so we opted to do Fox glacier. took a guided tour, 4 hours just wanlking on ice, round massive caves and tiny tunnls etc. very interesting. plus, the guide carrys a pick axe, seems like a cool job. In the evening went over to lake Matherson where got some good views of Mt Cook etc across the lake.
Having seen the glacier from the ground we then decided it would be good to get a birds eye view so fell out of a plane towards it. Skydivingwas a mix of awesomeness, painfullness and coldness. NZ has skydives everywhere and we had setteled on Fox partly for the cxheaper price than queenstown, partly for the extra 1000 ft we got (we jumped from 16000 FT, the highest in Queenstown is 15000). Our plane ride up was a bit juttery but there seemed bigger things to worry about at that point. its difficult to explain the feeling of jumping, you cant catch your breath for a while as your accelerating too fast, and there is just hugh unexplainable sensation. Thats the awesome but im unable to explain it. the downsides is it was blady cold, grated it is the middle of winter and we are higher than the mountains. also, due to all the wind, I spent the entire journey down dribbiling all over my face, which, given the cold, then froze into my beard. plus, my ears popped several billion times from the falling which was rather painful, but at least the blood pouring from my ears stopped them dropping off from cold altogether.
the landing was somewaht less than perfect. whilst in parachute mode we suddenly hit a wall of wind. this seemed to slightly worry the instructors. despite having everything set to go fully fowards we were still drifing backwards towards a nice cluster of trees. we completely missed the landing zones, landed in a field of cows and deer, narrowly missing the trees, and hit the grtound pretty hard. luckily I landed oin the instructor so my fall was slightly cushioned, though i did lose my shoe on landing and aftert being dragged 15 meters across the ground i had to walk shoeless to retrieve them across a muddy field. funny stuff. Also, urprisingly, especially for a man not greeat with heights or falling, the fear never really took over. everything happened quickly and as control was taken away from my by being strapped to someone, just went with the flow, made it easier to enjoy it for what it was. All in all, an awesome experience.
Right, there is plently more to go but im out of time on the computer im on so shall have to love you and leave you. shall fiunish this off soon.
Much love all
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