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Melissa's & Gemma's Travels
Well when they says it rains in New Zealand, it doesn't it pours! We have expereinced a couple of days of heavy rain, but not to say it has dampened our spirits at all!
In queenstown we booked on the worlds Highest Canyon swing, so up early and feeling very nervous. Silly really as it was less than half the size of the bungee in South Africa, but it still doesn't stop you from getting that ' what the hell am I doing hurling myself off a ledge' feeling, but it was too late!
We had a short bus journey with 6 other people with the similar mentality to us. Then the walk of death to the ledge. this time I happened to be in front, so was going to be the first person to take the plunge!
Harnesses strapped on and then the desion in which way I wanted to fall off the ledge. There was a series of options to choose from, from the lame to the extreme! The canyon team on the other had other ideas. They managed to convince me going backwards was the best idea, and tricked Gem from doing 1 of the easier ones, to doing the Elvis cutaway - one of the hardest! Still it was completly worth it. We stepped off the ledge at 109m high down into the canyon below! It was over before we knew it, but that buzz you get after doing it is something else, you just seem to grin from ear to ear! Another one to add to our list of adrenalin activities!
With the weather not improving for the snow boarding we decided to take the trip down to Milford Sound - apparently the most photographed area in NZ! Unfortunatly my research into how long the trip would take us was a little off. I worked out it should take us 2 hours and 4 hours later a 1 & 1/2 tanks of petrol we arrived. the drive was amazing though, so beautiful. We drove through clouds, winding roads and as many waterfalls you would ever care to see! We also battled against the winds on the high roads, which was a little scary at times. Once we arrived at Milford Sound the weather yet again, prevented us capturing the true beauty. So we took the bloody 4 hour journey back to Queenstown! We passed through Queenstown to Wanaka- I know sounds like something else doesn't it.
We arrived at 11pm, so rolled up to the campsite and found a plot to camp for the night. Woke up the morning after, still bloody raining, but we headed off to Puzzle World! It was surprisinly fun, and educational! So the funny pics you can see are from there. From there we made the way to Franz Josef.
The big decision for us was when we where going to atempt the walk up the glacier. We woke up in the morning and the sun was shining for the first time in days. Jumped on and booked it for that afternoon, knowing that if we left it another day, the rain would be back. What a great decision we made, we had a great walk up the glacier.
Standing at the car park we wondered how we would ever be able to climb the huge thing! The first battle was the 2.5 km walk to the base of the glacier, which took a good 45mins. Then we had to put on our spikes - these where going to be our life savers on the dangerous ice! It was getting a bit nippy so we made good use of our hats. It was exactly like being in a big ice cube!
Once at the top of our walk we had a chance to take a couple of photo's, as you can see me and Gem made good use of the props around! Then was our decent back to hard ground! We certainly had the best of the day because as soon as we where back down the heavens opened!
We spent a much needed night in front of the telly watching NZ Idol to recover from our aching muscles.
The next morning we made tracks to The Arther's Pass back to Christchurch. this took us quicker than we expected and arrived back here last night. Quickly phoned Ian & Chrissie to see if they minded us crashing at their house again, and they told us to come along.
We spent the evening at the Cinema where we watched Silent Hill - very scary by the way, and chatted with Ian & Chrissie about our adventures.
They are going to take us to meet the rest of the family this evening, so look forward to meetaing and speaking with all these long lost relatives!
My love to everyone as always
Mel x
PS If anyone want to feel as if they are on mine and Gem's road trip download Pete Murry's album. We discovered him in Oz and he is like Jack Johnson, and we love him. Look out for Opportunity and Better Days.
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