Skydiving

According to Ryan you have to do something daring on a round the world trip, and as the thought of doing a bungee jump scares me silly, I sort of agreed that skydiving might be ok. Unfortunately, on Friday we found ourselves in the 'skydiving capital of the world': Lake Taupo, and my half-hearted former agreement ended up becoming a reality.

We booked our jump just before lunch, and after checking the weather was still ok to jump, we headed to the airport around 2:30pm. On arriving at the airport we were shown around the hanger, the plane and had our harness' fitted. Our tandems then came to say hello, checking our harnesses, and making various jokes about how it they looked a bit loose, a bit ropey etc! We were then loaded onto the plane, sitting faces backwards in front of our tandem in the tiniest plane I've ever seen! Once we were airborne our tandem joined us to them and explained what we needed to do once we had exited (jumped) out of the plane.

Once we had reached 12,000 ft the shutter in one side of the plane was raised, and the first person (who happened to be Ryan!) and his tandem prepared to jump out of the plane. As you're attached to the person who knows what to do, you, as the novice, are almost completely out of the plane before your tandem decides to leave the plane. As Ryan went first, this also meant I had to sit and watch him jump. Surprisingly, I wasn't too scared until that point, and then suddenly seeing Ryan disappear made it all very real. Luckily (I suppose) I was next, and there was hardly anytime in between Ryan jumping and me being in the doorway to jump, so there was no time to panic. Before I knew it my tandem had pushed my head against his shoulder and we were falling. Falling was definitely the scariest part, as you feel completely out of control, and you suddenly see the earth below you, and you become incredibly aware that you are falling from the sky at 200km/h.

Luckily, after around 3 seconds later you reached terminal velocity, and you just feel air rushing towards you, which was actually really amazing. After around 40 seconds our tandems pulled the parachute, and everything got really peaceful and you could appreciate the amazing views of the lake and mountains below. After Ryan's parachute had opened his tandem told him to look up to see the tiny speck falling that was me and my tandem. We were then suddenly side-by-side as our tandems manoeuvred us so we could say hello, waving madly at each other with massive grins on our faces. After around 7 minutes of gliding along, and a couple of tight corkscrew turns, we were coming in to land, with the ground rushing up to meet us. The smiles on our faces showed how brilliant it was, however we don't think we'll be jumping again in a hurry.     

Glow worm caves - Waitomo

Following a number of people's recommendations, we visited the glow worm caves at Waitomo in the North Island. They were amazing! We've never seen anything quite like them. The caves are dotted across the area, meaning they are usually owned by farmers. Consequently, we had to drive across the countryside to get there, arriving in a clearing full of gorse - we could have been at home! The cave we visited was apparently visited by David Attenborough when filming Blue Planet as it is one of the best examples of a glow worm cave in the world. When we first entered the glow worm cave, armed with hard hat and head light, our guide disappeared for a moment to slam an inflatable tube onto the water, making the most horrendous noise. Apparently it wasn't just to scare the hell out of us in a pitch dark cave, but to brighten the glow worm's lights. After a minute or so we began to see so many small lights on the ceiling above and the wall opposite , all of them getting brighter and brighter. It was so amazing to see. Our guide then showed us to the boat (as the glow worms live in a wet cave), which we boarded to journey through the cave and see more of the glow worms. The entire ceiling of the cave looked like it had been completely covered in white fairy lights for as far as we could see in both directions, and the light was reflected on the water, lighting the cave to a certain degree. A pretty amazing sight!

Snow Plough Ryan, SNOW PLOUGH...

Highlight of the North Island so far...skiing! We are currently staying in Ohakune, close to Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest ski area, with some of the country’s best slopes and Australasia’s biggest vertical drop – Mike’s perfect resort! We arrived yesterday to the news that skiing forecasts for today were amazing due to snow storms yesterday. Skiing today was  indeed brilliant, and was relatively quiet with only a few New Zealanders sharing the slopes.  

We got up at the crack of dawn; the done thing in New Zealand! And caught the shuttle bus for a hairy drive up the mountain side through the clouds. Considering it is reportedly New Zealand’s best ski field it is surprisingly cheap - £75 for an all day lift pass, ski, boot and pole hire, and a two hour lesson. We both decided to have a lesson, with Ryan never having skied before, and it being over three years since Carrie has. Ryan went for a beginner lesson, and the ski school told Carrie she should be in the intermediate/advanced group, much to her horror! Being a beginner Ryan was prepared for the occasion fall, crossed skis or complete bail, but managed to stay on two skis throughout the lesson. Things changed a bit when Carrie took him further up the mountain to try a few blue runs; the slopes were steeper and the control had vanished! But after a couple of falls he was able to plod down them quite well for a novice! All in all a pretty brilliant day!

South to North

Apart from helicopter whale-watching, we’ve been up to a fair bit since we left Dunedin. We first drove to Geraldine, close to Peel Forest, where they filmed some of the Lord of the Rings films. We went for a couple of walks in the forest, one to look at a waterfall, the other to see some ‘big trees’! One of which was almost 9m in circumference!

We then visited Christchurch, which was a bit of a shock in reality. The entire city centre, about 1.5km square, is completely closed off due to earthquake damage, and numerous buildings, especially the older ones, around the city are in various stages of demolition. What was even more horrid is the sense of abandonment that comes across from so many of the buildings, with many still full of rubble and just cornered off. Speaking to a couple of New Zealanders we realised the main problem is the continuing earthquakes, which mean every building needs an evaluation after each one to deem whether they are safe, can be repaired, or need to be demolished. Apparently, due to the constant occurrence of the earthquakes and the sheer scale of the damage the insurance companies can in many cases no longer afford to pay out also. Consequently, the government have bought some people’s homes that were beyond repair so that they wouldn’t be left with nothing.

Following Christchurch we visited Kaikoura and went whale-watching. We also visited a couple of seal colonies. One of which had a very lazy/crazy seal, who was sleeping in the middle of the road. At the other we saw seal pups playing around in the pool at the base of a waterfall. They were jumping up out of the water, chasing each other; clearly seals get lazier the older they get!

Friday morning we drove to Picton and Marlborough Sound where we climbed what the locals call Everest to gain 360 panoramic views of the sounds, it took over an hour to walk to the top and only 20 mins to get down, the views were superb and definitely worth it. We also went to Nelson for the weekly market; it was a lot like Petersfield except no Waitrose.

On Sunday morning we found a lost dog (a golden Labrador), who we saw wondering along by the side of the road as we drove past. We couldn’t see anyone with it, and then we saw it head onto the railway line by the level crossing. Ryan managed to catch her, and we rang the number on her collar. As it was raining she clambered in the campervan whilst we waited to take her back to her owners. Unfortunately on returning her there was no reward (we shouldn’t have bothered – joking) as the owner hadn’t even realised she was missing. We then caught the ferry to the north island; Wellington more precisely, where we watched the second England rugby match in the evening.

Wellington lived up to its name as ‘windy welli’, throwing in some rain for good measure; it felt quite a lot like home! In Wellington we visited the parliament buildings, and had a tour inside. The parliament and system of government is fairly similar to the British system, although they have a voting system of proportional representation, but the inside of the building had a real Maori influence, with carvings and exhibits. We also rode the cable car, and visited the NZ museum, which has a real giant (Colossal) squid preserved; lovely!

Whale watching by helicopter!

In Kaikoura, which is known for its vast quantity of marine life, including seals, dolphins and whales. This apparently is due to the continental shelf and ocean currents. When the southern current hits the continental shelf it creates an upwelling, bring nutrients up from the ocean floor into the feeding zone for lots of marine life. The main sighting for the area however is whales, which can either be seen by boat, plane or helicopter. With neither of us having been in a helicopter before we choose this one, and boarded (a very small!) helicopter for a forty minute whale watching tour.  The helicopter only had four seats, meaning Ryan had to be ‘co-pilot’; he’s now contemplating his private pilot’s licence and various flying lesson options! The flight itself was amazing, with a brilliant view of the snow-capped mountains behind Kaikoura. It was however, quite an odd experience to get used to! It was so strange just to lift off the ground vertically and be hovering. When the helicopter turns its a bit odd as well, it feels like the whole world is tilting around you, especially when all you can see is the ocean. We had a pretty successful flight, seeing 5 sperm whales, each about 18m long, and weighing approximately 45 tonnes. We also learnt an interesting fact that sperm whale vomit was used as an ingredient in perfume, and the reason for the vomit is because the whale cannot digest giant squid beaks. Apologies for the rubbish photos however, neither of us it turns out are that great at picture taking in a helicopter!

Kia Ora from New Zealand

Apologies for another update – we’ve got a few hours of fast internet so we’re taking advantage! Cold and snow was not an exaggeration about New Zealand; the pilot announced it was 2 degrees C when we landed about 11am, and it’s not ventured much above 8 for the last week! We knew we had to worry when the lady who sorted our campervan gave us snow chains for the wheels, and said ‘you’d better have a second duvet’! Luckily our campervan has a heater and everywhere is selling hats and gloves. Our campervan is surprisingly nice; definition of nice for this purpose being we have managed to find a cupboard for everything, and we haven’t killed each other yet! Our sofa/bed in the kitchen/living/dining room is also surprisingly comfortable, and our cupboard that they call a toilet and shower/wetroom has hot water (too a limited extent!). All in all, a week in we still like our campervan!

We are currently on the south island, and have so far visited Fox Glacier, Franz Josef Glacier (where we went on a guided ice climb), Lake Matheson and Milford Sound (which was freezing, but amazing!). We’ve also been to Queenstown, Oamaru and Geraldine. Highlights so far have included walking along the beach with sleeping sea lions, the wild penguins we’ve seen; a couple swimming at Milford Sound and the world rarest and most endangered penguin at a reserve near Dunedin. We also watched England (just) beat Argentina in the Rugby World Cup in Dunedin on Saturday night, which was great to see, even if England weren’t exactly at their best! Also in Dunedin, we visited Cadbury World (Carrie’s choice) , which although not quite as big or as interesting as the Bournville version was still amazing, especially as they gave us lots of free chocolate! And witnessed a chocolate waterfall of 1 tonne of daily milk falling 5 metres, Cadbury’s chocolate doesn’t quite taste the same here though (not that it’s stopped us eating it!), and they have quite a few different varieties to us – ‘pebbles’, which are Cadbury’s version of smarties, a ‘moro’, the most popular chocolate bar in NZ; apparently someone is eating one every 3 seconds! They also have ‘perky nana’, a banana flavoured chew bar covered in chocolate, as well as little round orange chocolates called ‘jaffas’, which they roll down the world’s steepest street (which we stupidly climbed!) in their thousands in July each year!

It’s not just Cadbury’s and the weather that make it feel like England here (or Scotland down around Dunedin and further south), but all the food brands they have – Twinning’s, Sunmaid raisins, Kellogg’s, Yoplait, El del Paso, Uncle Ben’s, Dolmio, Ribena, and Flora. They also have all the same toiletries and make-up brands, so going food shopping feels like going to Waitrose! Special note for Adam and Nat: it’s not quite like Waitrose as we heard the theme tune to One Tree Hill being played in the supermarket the other day!  

We are currently in Geraldine to see where they filmed Lord of the Rings (Ryan’s choice) and walk in Peel Forest – the largest indigenous podocarp forest in New Zealand, before leaving for Christchurch tomorrow. The weather forecast is a bit better for further north, so hopefully we will be able to loose the hats and gloves in a couple of days time!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the start of term J

Highlights from the last few days in Fiji

Sorry for the delay – we’ve been busy...! (And Fiji’s internet is not the best to say the least!) The last few days in Fiji weren’t that different from the first! Although a few interesting highlights follow! Firstly, we had a lesson on coconuts, how to pick them, the difference between the green ones and the brown ones, that the green ones are just watery and flesh inside and that the very brown ones are ready for coconut milk or to eat – all very important information to know living in England... We also learnt how to make a handbag out of a palm tree leaf, although we were so useless the Fijian man teaching us just gave up and took over...they’re not the most patient nationality!

We also spent an afternoon kayaking round lots of little beaches in the cove our resort was in - about the most exercise we managed in the two weeks we were there! Later that night we watched a ‘native’ fire dance (similar to those seen on Britain’s Got Talent!) which was actually really good, except for the one guy who kept letting go of his baton as he was spinning it, sending it flying into a nearby tree! The highlight of the show for us!

Ryan was a bit more active towards the end of our time in Fiji, and got up at 5am to climb to the summit of the island we were staying on, with 4 other crazy people to watch sunrise! The guide who took them up was really concerned they all had proper walking gear the night before, but preceded to guide them bare foot, using the light from his mobile phone the next morning!

Culinary highlights for the last few days included pizza topped with carrot, cabbage, celery, pepper, green beans and sweetcorn, which although it sounds vile, was amazing after 10 days of rice and stew! We also sampled the Fijian root vegetable Cava during a traditional Fijian ceremony. They grind the Cava and mix it with water to give a drug like affect, but it just tasted like muddy water and we were fine! The Fijians sat round all evening drinking large coconut halves of it though, so it must have some benefits! Slightly more appealing was the fish that Ryan, and a guy we met, Daniel, caught on a fishing trip one afternoon. They brought the fish back early evening and the chef at the resort cooked them for us specially for lunch the next day – very tasty!  

Bye bye sunshine, hello cold and snow! New Zealand next...