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Okaaaaaay...
I am so sorry for the lack of blogs over the past month, there really is no valid excuse except that we've just been having so much fun that I really haven't had time!
So, firstly, New Zealand was absolutely amazing. Our Kiwi Experience was soooooo good! We met lots and lots of really good people.
On our first day of the bus we met three guys, Tom from Portsmouth, Karl from Newcastle and Richie from Scotland. We spent the day with them and in the afternoon went Quad Biking with a Johnny Depp look-a-like which was wonderful!
I was in my element on the quad bikes, revving away, squiting mud everywhere - it was loads and loads of fun. That night we stayed in a little hostel in Westport and the whole bus went down to the pub for a killer pool competition... shockingly neither Haines nor I won which I was a bit disappointed about being the competetive little thing I am.
The next day we headed over to Mahinapua for the night but stopped off at Greymouth along the way to get some fancy dress for the party in the evening. The place we stayed at in Mahinapua was called the Pu Pub - owned by a crazy old guy called Les. We had s delicious dinner - steak and potatos and beef and potatoes mmmmmm! Then had the party in the bar which is covered in hats and photographs. After the party ended a few of us walked over to the lake, spotted some glow worms along the way and watched the stars in the sky. SUCH A GOOD NIGHT!
We then headed over to Franz Josef Glacier for a few days. They had some hot pools there so me and Haines and the guys spent about 4 hours in them and came out looking a bit pruney. Anyway, the next day we went hiking up the Franz Josef Glacier - fully kitted out with ice picks and walking boots with clamp-ons. Me and Richie and Tom went on the full day hike so we were walking for like 8 hours altogether - hard day but totally worth it, it was absolutely stunning.
The very next morning we were all up at 6am and headed over to the Fox Glacier, about 40 mins away as we all decided that we'd like to jump out of a plane! It's the 2nd most scenic skydive in the world (1st is the one over Mount Everest!) It was absolutely incredible! If you haven't done so already, definitely check out the photos on facebook! We stayed in Wanaka that night and spent the whole evening hogging the microphone on the kareoke! Our new roomate Max gave an awesome rendition of Careless Whisper by George Michael.
We arrived in Queenstown the next day and oh my word is the most beautiful place i have ever seen in my life. STUNNING. A small town right next to the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by snowy mountains. We had SUCH a good time in Queenstown - there is just so much to do! This was where our bus route ended so we had to say goodbye to some of the wonderful people on our bus. But we got a great photo next to the lake.
On our fisrt day in Queenstown we decided to book the 134m Nevis Bungy (2nd tallest bungy in the world) as I knew that if I didn't book it there and then, I wouldn;'t be doing it full stop. We booked it for a few days later so we all had time to metally prepare for it!
We went luging (which is just like go-karting) and we had to take a gondala (basically the kiwi word for cable car) up the side of one of the mountains to do it! There were quite a few of us doing it and it turned out that the heavier you are, the faster you can go so I kept losing the race to all the big heavy boys!!! Most of our evenings in Queenstown were spent in a) Base Bar - lovely cheap drinks and then b) World Bar - for Teapot cocktails and lots of dancing! And all we ate was Fergburgers (by far the tastiest burgers in the world.)
So on Friday we went to do the Nevis Bungy and Nevis Arc (which is the worlds highest swing - watch the video on facebook as it is hilarious), I have never been more scared of anything in my whole entire life. The Nevis Bungy was first and there was a group of about 12 of us doing it. Unfortunately they do it in weight order so I was the very last person to go and had to watch all my friends go before me which made me even more nervous and scared! This was not helped by the fact that the second to last person to jump, Jo, had borrowed my ugg boots to do the jump in, and the way they strap you in for the bungy is around your feet, but when they pulled her back up after her jump she was clinging onto her feet for dear life screaming 'my shoes came off and I nearly died!' The guys strapping everyone in just turned to me and said 'ready!?' I just wanted to shout nooooooo waaaaaaay! I dont want to die! But I didn't, I was in shock and just fell silent. I really didn't know how I was going to throw myself off the platform - I mean, I dont even go on rollercoasters because I'm too scared! But the guy shuffled me to the edge and I believe the only thing I could manage to say was some kind of profanity... he counted '1, 2, 3...' and just as he was about to say '4' I just felt myself lean forward and I just screamed! The rest of it I just cannot for the life of me remember, so I'm glad I have the video footage. It looks like I thoroughly enjoyed it though and I have never felt a bigger buzz of adrenaline in all my life. AMAZING. I would recommend it to EVERYONE (even if you're a scaredy cat, you've just got to do it.
The Arc was equally as scary as I just wasn't prepared, I was furried over from the bungy to the swing without having any time to really comprehend what I had done and what I was about to do! So I was harnessed up and sat down on this swing. Haines decided to do it upside down which I thought she was CRAZY for doing. I kept my head firmly upright and clung onto the ropes either side for DEAR LIFE. The guys pressed the button and dangled us off the edge then shouted '3, 2, 1!' and pressed the button to drop us down. It was really scarey to begin with but as the arc of the swing kicks in, it is a really pleasant experience!
A couple of days after that I couldn't believe it but Haines actually convinced me to do the ledge bungy (this is one that is done off the side of the mountain, 400m over Queenstown) you're harnessed at the waist on this one whichj means you have more freedom to jump the way you want to. It was good, but no comparison to the Nevis!
We were in Queenstown for a week and were very sad to leave but had to head back to Christchurch to continue of Kiwi Experience up into the North Island...
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