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I'm now in lovely Melbourne, Australia but firstly I must write about the rest of my action-packed time in New Zealand!
So, from Lake Taupo we went to River Valley which is out in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in a nice wooden hostel right at the bottom of the valley by the stream and a waterfall. Us four girls tried a yoga class there, which was the perfect setting for it, it wasn't a very strenuous class actually I think all of us managed to fall asleep at one point. Then we had a lovely roast dinner and jumped into the spa. Nice.
The next day we headed further South for the capital city, Wellington where we stayed for two nights. The first night a group of us went out, we went to a bar and were almost the only people there - still managed to have a crazy time and ended up getting on the tables and shakin our stuff.
The next day me and the girls went to the Te Papa which is a modern museum of New Zealand. I tried out a bizarre sheep-shearing game which attracted a bit of an audience - I got the worst score possible and it told me I shear like a townie (which of course I am!).
In the afternoon we caught the cable car to the top of the hill for great views of the city and harbour, we walked around the park and tried out the human sundial which is pretty cool - you stand in the middle with your arms up and your shadow tells the time.
That night we went out and partied again, as usual. We were bought lots of shots by some guys so actually didn't make it out of the hostel bar but it was fun and we stayed till it closed. I had a very embarrassing incident that night where I was sick in my top bunk - to the horror of the girl underneath me! I felt awful. Luckily she's not on my bus.
The next day we left the North Island (thank-god!) and caught the ferry to Nelson on the South Island. There I did the most amazing thing ever - skydiving! (check out the pics) Over Abel Tasmen National Park. My jump was last so I spent a few agonising hours watching the others do it and wondering why on earth was I about to jump from a perfectly fine plane. When the time came to board I was actually feeling surprisingly calm. We had to squeeze into a tiny little plane, where we all literally sat on top of each other and flew upwards for about 20mins or so until we reached 13,000 feet! The views were amazing but at this point I was starting to get pretty worried, plus my ears really hurt as I had a cold. The guy I was attached to was v.sweet to me though. My camera man bugged me no end - he kept poking the camera in my face and saying 'smile!' - I didn't feel like smiling at all. I watched the other two jump then I really started to panic, I asked if it was too late to back out and they laughed (why? I was serious goddamn it!). We slid towards the open door and sat on the edge overlooking the open sky. I had to slide out further and hang there for a couple of seconds (which felt like a couple of lifetimes) get into position, grimace at the camera man (who jumped with us) then jump! The free-fall was 45seconds. It was amazing! The noise and the force of the wind overwhelmed me at first and the feeling of dropping in the sky at that speed is just indescribable! I could barely scream and my cheeks were flapping all over the place! It wasn't scary though it just felt great. Then he pulled the parachute - the camera man appeared to drop suddenly below us which was a very scary sight! But of course he had just carried on free-falling at the same speed we were going and we were the ones who had slowed down. Then we were flying about with our pink (yay!) parachute! I could appreciate it more then, it was breathtaking. The view of the of the ground, the mountains and the sea below my dangling feet was bloody weird! I just kept shouting like an idiot- 'wow! I'm flying!' He did a few tricks of spinning round and stuff which was fun. Then we went down for landing, I didn't really want it to end. I landed very gracefully - skidding along the grass flat on my bum with my legs spread wide! I didn't care, I'd just jumped out of a bloody plane!
The next day we stayed at a strange hostel/pub (pretty sure it was called the Poo Pub) owned by a very old hairy man called Les who was hilarious. He cooked us a big dinner of steak and venison (oh dear - poor old Bambi), which was yummy. Then we had a fancy dress party. The theme was everybody had to make their costumes solely from bin-bags! Us girls managed to find red, black and white bin bags and we took all afternoon making the most amazing costumes. We were cheerleaders (the Bin-There-Done-That-Girls) - we made identical pom-poms, rah-rah skirts, stylish tops, and even handbags! Even our hair-ribbons (around our bunches) was made from bin-bag. Everyone was extremely impressed with our outfits. They were v.good even if I do say so myself. We spent a lot of the night posing for photos for people - felt famous (except that we were dressed in bin-bags not Prada of course). There were other good costumes too - one girl was an impressive princess, there was Bin Laden, the all Blacks, batman and other random characters. Then we all got slightly drunk and danced on tables again (maybe I should make a living from it? only joking mum!), the barmaid got a bit annoyed and kept squirting us with a water-pistol to get down - especially when I decided the pool table looked like a v.good place to boogie! hehe
The following day we headed for Franz Josef On the way there we did a couple of little walks and visited a hunting museum, which was just plain strange! It was in a town of a total of two people - a man (Les' son from the Poo Pub) and his wife! The guy was the mayor of the town last year but didn't make it this year as his wife had forgotten (apparently) to vote! We watched a strange film about hunting dear then got to see his big fat hairy pig, it was enormous and disgusting! One of our friends, James (who was still in fancy-dress costume from the night before), was nominated to feed it but when the food had run out the pig went for him - v.funny sight!
In the evening we arrived at Franz Josef in the mountains where we had an early night because the next day was a big hike! I had an unpleasant surprise when I woke up to discover some creep had nicked my entire food bag from the kitchen that I'd spent loads on and had my packed lunch for the hike. V.rude. Luckily Laura and Jayne chipped in and made me sandwiches. Then we headed off for our 8-hour glacier hike! First we had to get kitted-up. We had to wear all the gear - waterproofs, gloves, hats, ice-boots and ice-picks (cool!) then climb up this huge glacier! It was really beautiful - a big mountain of ice set in a valley between rain-forest mountains. Hiking up it was really hard work and unfortunately it rained the whole time but I guess that's to be expected for one of the wettest places on earth! We had to climb ice-steps which the guides had carved, walk through flatter parts, squeeze through v.narrow passages with 4 metre-high walls, and climb through holes of ice! There was amazingly bright blue ice and we saw Kea parrots that came right up-close! Going down was equally hard and we were all very cold and tired. But it was worth it, like nothing Ive ever seen before. We had walked around 10km, well climbed really. Apparently its the world's steepest guided glacier. We went out and celebrated our acheivement that night.
The next day we got up really early (aching like hell) and went to visit Lake Matheson where we saw the reflection of Mount Cook on the still water. Then we went to a pretty beach, Ship Creek (shiP!) for a while. In the afternoon we stopped at a waterfall where we filled up our water-bottles with fresh water. Stayed the night in Wanaka a stunning little town in a valley by a beautiful lake. The hostel was lovely too, more like a hotel - we even had our own TV, fridge and a bath in our cosy little room! v.nice.
Next stop was Queenstown, which I really liked. The night-life was really good and we spent two days there partying and not much else! The last night everyone was so smashed that three of us managed to smash our camera's beyond repair, including me. Grrr. The camera shop were pretty amused.
Our last town was Christchurch. We left early with hangover's from hell. It was supposed to be the first day of summer in New Zealand but along the way we found ourselves in snowy hills. Ankle-deep, thick, bright white snow everywhere you looked! It was weird and really beautiful - everything was white even the sky. We stopped to have a snow fight, the Canadian on our bus felt right at home and enjoyed himself no end by building a snow-kiwi!
We arrived at Christchurch in the evening and I had to fly out at 3am. Didn't see much point in paying for accommodation so I sneaked into Jayne and Laura's dorm, luckily there was a spare bed. The three of us went to the cinema and saw The Departed, it was really good - didn't like the ending though. I got a couple of hours of shut-eye in the spare bed then drag myself up and to the airport at 2am. Ugh.
Arrived in Melboune very tired and disorientated....
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