New Zealand Update #2

Hello! Just enough time for a quick blog post before Tim and I have to really think quite hard about packing all our stuff together and (unfortunately) shipping out of New Zealand.

First off, here's one for 'Block' back home:

That's a ute. Pronounced 'Yoot'. 'Utility Vehicle', in recent years these sports-styled Utes have been in fashion for the Australian and Kiwi Barry-boys, it seems. This is the first time I've seen one actually being used for something practical...

Millionaire ski playground of Cardrona*

*:Presence of actual millionaires not confirmed.
You've seen this already. It was strictly hobo skiing for Tim and I, we hired most of our gear for free from our relatives' new Outdoor shop, then borrowed their season passes. We were super jammy.
Look Mum, I can travel on snow on planks and not fall over! (The planks in question being cousin Steve's topline, proper alpine skis - a little too advanced for my level of ability but good nonetheless)

Tim, the proper skier:

The two of us:

That's the mountains stretching towards Queenstown in the background. The town's set on a lake that's elevated at 300 metres, y'know. Did I mention the very fabric of the country of New Zealand is amazing..?

On the road upto Cardrona there's what can only be described as a Monster Truck Farm, where you can drive 'em around, apparently. They were all sitting around for people to look at instead. Here's the one we felt had the most Glamour:

And, Beauty and... THE BEAST!!!


Lake Wanaka in the morning:

Beautiful.

I painted a mural or three in Kay and Steve's new outdoor shop, to pay for our bed n' board and help them get the punters in and lulled into a false sense of security. Here's me at work:

(Do I look that smug all the time..?)


When that was finished...

I went skydiving.

Yep, a mere NZ$195 on special offer to look like an aeronautical jester for a short while:

Then they buzz you up in a long thin plane after no more training than watching a five minute video and an instructor checking your memory of it.
Off I go to certain death or eternal glory:

So you get strapped to a guy who knows what he's doing, and he's jumping out the plane reguardless of whether your idea of doing it measures up against the canopy door sliding open and the wind at 9,000ft gushing in and giving you second thoughts. You have to sit in the guy's lap, smile for the camera that's positioned on the wing, then crane your head and legs behind you, grab onto your harness with your hands and then...

You suddenly fly out of plane sideways at first, then flip over once or twice as the downward momentum gets you, then you're free-falling and the wind's trying it's best to bash all the air that's in your lungs out - all within a second or two with no time to actually think about what's going on. I got thirty seconds of free-fall, me halfway between massive panic attack and rapturous ecstasy, the instructor calmly tilting you around to get the view in, then the parachute jerks you up, opens and you're calmly and silently floating down from on high, making small talk with each other. I got the guy to put in a couple of big 'flares' where you float and then gravity quickly takes over again, I was so full of adrenalin. (And a youth playing Pilotwings)
Coming in to land:

Very smooth.
Apart from the bit where the dude nearly fell over me as I hit the deck like a sack of hormone-drenched potatoes:

I'm alive, and off into the sunset to another adventure:


And after all that, the best bit was probably when you first jump out of the plane and are being pulled in two different directions at about a hundred miles per hour.

I wanna go again.

It's bungee jumping tomorrow.

Cheers for now everybody, we'll catch up soon.

- Lee.