Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Zak and Mel's Excellent Adventure
So we had fun in Queenstown for a few days. Zak went mountain biking on the Queenstown downhill track, the bike was crap but Zak had fun anyway. We walked up the track the next day and it looked pretty hectic to Mel! It's graded as a black (like with skiing) so way too technical for Mel. We went on the luge at the top and raced each other down the track. Zak - 2 vs Mel - 1. We took a drive up to the Mt Remarkables ski area which was a pretty hairy drive up, even by NZ standards (lucky we had the 4WD) and threw a few snowballs at the top! We visited a little place called Arrowtown, popular at this time of year because of the autumunal colours on all the trees. Got some nice snaps there and it reminded us of home. We left Q'town on Monday and headed to Wanaka. We went to a wicked cinema that night (shame the film was rubbish! No. 2 - a NZ film - if you see it, don't bother getting it out!!!), anyway, the cinema is all decked out with old sofas and you can have a beer while watching the film - just like being at home! It even has a Morris Minor in there, which you can sit in to watch the movie. The next day we hired bikes and did some wicked trails in the Sticky Forest. Mel did some blue trails (one grade down from the black) so she's getting much better on a bike - railing berms (riding banked corners, fast - expl. for the girls), switch backs (tight corners), table tops (jumps). The following day we went to Puzzling World, which has a giant maze and other illusions and puzzles to solve. The maze proved to be harded than expected but good fun and took us 1hr 30 mins to complete! That afternoon we did a short walk round the side of Lake Wanaka and skimmed some stones! The next day we left Wanaka for Fox Glacier (driving over the Haast Pass) taking in some lovely waterfalls and scenery along the way. We stopped off at Munro Beach (a well known spot for penguins) but after some more 4WD action and a long walk to the beach we found nothing!! After a nights rest we booked on a heli hike - which basically consisted of a 10min helicopter flight up the glacier and a 3 hour walk on ice. It was awesome! The helicopter ride was more fun than you can shake a stick at!! And the walk took us through ice arches, tunnels and across crevasses. The following day at 8.30am we found ourselves strapped to a man each, on a Cessner (v small plane!) wondering what the hell we were doing! No, we hadn't been kidnapped! We had booked on to a sky dive!!!! We had a 20min scenic flight before throwing ourselves out at 12,000ft for a 45 sec freefall and an amazing parachute ride down. Not content with one dive (of course!) Zak being Zak had to go for another, so this morning he threw himself out again! Honestly, things are going really well between us!!!! This time he went even more daring and did forward rolls out of the plane before taking control of the chute himself! Mel watched on from below!! We've got a few days left in NZ before we fly out on Thurs to Rarotonga. We'll keep you posted again soon... Love to you all. Us xxx - PS Check the photos too - new ones in the Oz folder from the Great Barrier Reef and some in the NZ one too. xxxx
- comments