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AGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
This place rocks! We've just spent the last few days attached to ropes and harnises dangling on wires and balancing on beams and wires at a hire-wire adventure day. We were attached to safety ropes and had to climb up a 50ft telegraph pole and tackle several different challenges. One of which we had to leap through the air and grab onto a trapeese!!! It was wicked and Laila did it first, as she let go the trapeese the instuctor let her drop like free falling and she made some very strange noises like she was going to be sick! (I thought I was going to die!) When it happened to Rachel, she let out a blood curdling scream!! It was awesome!! Ed grunted like a pig in labour! :s
As if that wasn't enough, that afternoon we also booked ourselves in for SKYDIVING!!!! Can you bloody believe it!
**** IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! ****
We all survived so you don't have to worry!
We all went up in the plane together, Rachel and Laila were jumping from 12000 ft, and Ed from 15000ft.
Rachel lept out first and poor laila had to watch her plumit out the plane! It was the most amazing thing we've ever done!! We all loved it and we've got photo's and a dvd so you can all laugh at our silly faces as we plumit to the floor!
It was the most amazing experience ever... It took 20 mins or so to climb to 12000 ft, and strapped tightly to our jump-master like an exmouth tart to a marine!! As we lept out of the plane, we tumbled a couple of times before leveling out. Rachel and Laila had about 45 seconds of free-fall, Ed had 65 seconds. The views were out of this world, we could see for miles and miles in every direction. After the initial leap and the shock of jumping out of the plane, you didnt really get a sensation of falling, more of floating. It was incredibally loud as the wind rushed past at 200kph! As we went through a couple of clouds it got real cold. As we reached aboout 5000ft, the parachutes opened and we were jolted from a 200kph to a more leisurly pace, gliding though the air. It all went quiet and quite serene. We all did a few turns and spins as we made our desent for about 6 mins.
We would all do it again tomorrow if funds permitted!!! WE LOVED IT!
Check out the photos!
Next day we went white water rafting at the bottom of lake Taupo. We all donned our wetsuites & life jackets and set off down the river at a leisurly pace.... until... RAPIDS!!! AAAARRRGGG!
We spent the next two ours navigating our way down the river, bouncing off rocks, plumiting down rapids and deflecting off the sides of the gorge. We stopped off to take a short walk up to a beautiful waterfall. Beautiful, but super cold as we discovered when we jumped in from 6m up! Brrr (!)
Back at the base we were treated to a soak in a hot spa before heading off to Wellington for the night.
We spent the next day exploring the delights of Wellington. Instantly we decided it to be a much more inviting city than Auckland. It had a really nice vibe.
We took a trip to the Te Papa Museum for the morning, learning all about volcanos, earthquakes, geothermic stuff and the origins of NZ.
In the afternoon we took it upon ourselves to visit the NZ houses of Parliment for a guided tour. It was really interesting to see how the country is run. Very similar structure to that of UK.
We ended the tour with a stop in the public gallery and watched parliment in session. What a load of petty time-wasting cods-wallop.... again, Very similar structure to that of UK!
Next morning we were up bright n early to catch the boat from Wellington to Picton, a 3.5 hr ferry ride with amazing views. After a couple of hours exploring Picton, a small township similar to Budleigh, we drove on to Nelson. We found a beach and stopped for a swim, the water was really warm, even managed to get Rachel in! We then drove on to The Golden Bay and settled down for the night in a nice little hostel (allbeit with a snoring farmer who puts Darwins theory of evolution to debate!)
Today we took a trip to some local cold water springs which produce some of the clearest and purest water in the world. We went to Wharakiki beach up near the northen most point of the south island, Farewell Spit. We had to walk for 20 mins before arriving at one of the most awsome beaches I have ever seen, and practically deserted. Huge sand dunes and drifts, with Ice blue Tasmanian waves crashing against the shore. There were loads of caves which Ed took great delight in scaring the heebee geebies out of Rachel and Lala by jumping out of!
After a spot of lunch, we went to 'The Laberynth' as suggested by the local tourist info centre. They must have had a good laugh when we left because it was a shockingly weird and disturbing place. The rocks were amazing and beautiful, but the plastic dinasours and garden gnomes were just damn strange... I dont really want to talk about it... :/
We have arrived at our next abode for the night in Motueka, ready to head south down the west coast in the morning....
Take care,
Ed, Rachel & Laila
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