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Wednesday 21st March
We're releaved we visited Mount Cook yesterday as the weather isn't so great today and there's a huge cloud sitting over the top of it. We drive on to Queenstown and look around. It's a great place with a real ski resort buzz to it. It's also very beautiful with the mountains surrounding the lake. I book my skydive for the morning and we head out to Jean and Rogers who live in Cromwell.
They have guests, a lovely couple called Sarah and Peter. Sarah has just moved out to NZ to be with Peter - she was a saddler and a caterer back in the UK. Strangely they know Murray who has apparently bought out Oasis (the company I did my Africa overland trip with). Also, Peter went to Uganda a few yeas ago so we chatted about the gorilla trip and what a wonderful country it is.
We talk with Jean and Roger about their vineyard and the wine crop; and of course we sample the wine. Lowburn Valley 2006 - mmm, lovely. What a great evening.
Thursday 22nd March
We get up early and drive to the airstrip at Glenorchy - I can't believe I'm about to throw myself out of a plane at 12,000 feet! Eeeek. I watch the video of someone else jumping and wish I hadn't. It's a perfect day though, with glorious sunshine and beautiful clear views across the lake and over the snow capped mountains.
Chris, my instructor helps kit me out in my jumpsuit. We get in the plane and I'm introduced to Sutter, the cameraman. We're crammed in tight. I cling to the sides for comfort and babble away to Chris. The view is amazing and I catch my first glimpse of Mount Aspiring in the distance.
By the time Chris has finished buckling us together I am utterly terrified and I shed two small tears while the plane door opens and Chris peels my hand from the plane. I think I'm about to die. We rock back and forth once with me screaming "Nooooooooo" then we're out and I'm flying, albeit downwards, at 200km per hour! Woo hoo! What a rush. 45 seconds of freefall and I can hardly breath then the chord is pulled and I'm floating, floating, down down at around 10km per hour. It's serene.
As we come into land I'm shouting and waving at Simon, then I tuck my legs up underneath me and we come to a stop on our bums. Yippee. Let's go again!!!! Well maybe not today. Tee hee.
I can honestly say that was the most scary thing I've ever done in my life but also one of the best things too - thanks to Simon for a wicked birthday present from last year. It was worth the wait.
We head back into Queenstown and decide that wasn't enough of an adrenalin rush, so we get on a Jetboat ride for an hour. It's great fun, whizzing up and down the river, doing 360 degree turns and getting spray all over us. The boats are flat bottomed and can travel through water only millimetres deep.
After all that, as if the day couldn't get any better, I'd been in touch with Ceris and it turned out she was staying in a house just up the road in Arrowtown, so we head out there, pick her up and take her to the pub. It was brilliant to see someone from home and to talk to her about her travels in New Zealand. What a wonderful day.
We drop her off and head back to Jean and Rogers. While chatting to them we discover they were both extras in Lord of the Rings. They have two horses, so were cast as Riders of Rohan. How fantastic. Roger spent 5 weeks filming. We also find out that Rogers brother owns a kayaking company in Milford Sound so we book up a trip with him. Today was a perfect day!
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