Here we are in the South where the scenery seems to be getting more and more amazing the further we go, well, what we can see through the cloud that is. We stayed with Christine & her parents in Christchurch and they were amazingly hospitable. We had home lovely cooked food, I could wash my clothes in a washing machine and we even saw 10 minutes of corrie! Chris's mum even packed us up a load of home baked cakes for the train journey when we left. Chris drove us to a little town called Akaroa on the coast for a day which was really lovely. We went out around the bay in a boat to look at Dolphins and saw loads, and seals, lots of birds and a v cute but shy little penguin. We had very tasty fish and chips for lunch and on the way back we stopped at a winery to do some sampling. Very interesting. On Friday night we had a rather good night out. We went to a bar where they had happy hour from 7 untill 8 then 9 until 10, during which they give away free champagne!!! Bargain. Needless to say it turned into a fun night with lots of laughing. It was excellent to see you Chris, thanks again for the hospitality and driving! We then went over to Franz Josef where there is a massive glacier. Unfortunately we had a helicopter ride booked to take us up and drop us off on the top to walk around, but the weather was too bad to do it. We walked up to the glacier and could see how spectacular it was but seeing it from there was probably nothing compared to the helicopter. Then we travelled down to Wanaker where I am now. The scenery on the way was what we were expecting of New Zealand - totally spectaular. Wanaker is also really lovely and we are really sad to be leaving today. Its on a lake with views of snow capped mountains. When we got here 2 days ago we saw that you can do paragliding over the lake, so we did that which was lovely and not too extreme - you only go up to 600 meters or so, winched by a boat to get you and your parachute into the air. This, however, was the warm up for the main event........ Before she arrived, Emma told me she was going to do a sky dive when she was here. I have considered it a few times before in my life and had come to the conclusion that I definitely wouldn't. I was far too scared. You can do a sky dive in the bay of islands and on the 30th December, I think my slight interest in it was exentuated by a couple of glasses of wine, and when I woke up on the 31st, Wes informed me that to finish off 2005 I was booked in to jump at 2pm. Agghhhhhhh. However, the weather was too bad to do it then. But once I'd been booked in the 1st time and got my head around the idea that time, sort of, I was kind of determined to do it. Everywhere we've been where you can do one, we've booked it. Yesterday, 8 cancellations in 3 different places later, we did it! I just couldn't believe I was doing it. Even as I was sat at the door of the plane I couldn't believe it was me. It was totally mind blowing. You free fall for 45 seconds then the parachute goes up and it takes about 5 minutes to land. During the free fall you drop from 12000ft to 4000ft For the first 2 seconds I think I was completely shocked at what was happening, but then settled into it and loved it. It didn't feel like you were rushing towards the ground as I expected and I forgot my main fear of the parachute not opening and only remembered that it needed to happen after it actually had and we were floating. It felt quite fast as we came in to land, but apart from that, it was all kind of graceful. The views were amazing, as you would expect and I still can't believe I did it. We drank a well deserved bottle of champagne afterwards. There are totally terrible photos of Emma and I at http://www.skydivenz.com/photos/htdocs/viewpics.php?page=1&date=2006-01-10 They will be there for 2 weeks then thankfully are deleted from the www. We don't normally look like chipmunks, its the goggles. That's about it for now. Josiexx