Temperature: 25-30 °C, Hot, and windy. Highlights: Hokitika resembled some small town in the wild west, an old jade mining town, which was solely developed into a tourist milking station. No doubt the jade is nice, however the experience somewhat reminiscent of a souvenir shop in Disneyland. Moving on to Nelson, which was where we both jumped out of a plane at 13,000ft to experience freefall for a good 50 seconds. Quite unbelievable. After the flying sensation wore off, we rode on horseback for 3 hours through the mountains, surprising we haven't been able to develop more comfortable saddles after hundreds of years. Disappointments: Our tour coach broke down. Thoughts: excellent work from the tour guides - they had a spare bus within two hours. Other: Steve would do skydiving any day to the canyon swing.