Nearing the End...

New Zealand can be defined in many ways, but I think one of the best is “suicidal”. It seems that those who live here are descendants of mad Brits, Scots and Irish who spend their free time watching rugby, going to the pub and then inventing insanely manic activities that involve laughing in the face of death or severe injury. For example, a more recent addition to the list of crazy fun here is climbing into a huge inflatable ball and then being pushed down a hill, simulating something that could only be described as a snowball. I have never wondered what it would be like to be a snowball, and I can remember that when rolling down a hill, the novelty wears off real fast (mainly as stopping isn’t really an option). However, some chancer out there decided it would be great fun, and low and behold- others pay good money to find out.
We picked a more traditional Kiwi activity to balance out our skydiving adventure, something the Lonely Planet described as the ‘decaf’ of adrenaline rushes (multiple bungy jumps and canyon swings being the ‘espresso’ version): the Jet Boat. The Jet Boat was invented by some dude in Twizel, and it is a boat that has no propellor- it works like a jetski, sucking in water and spitting it out, while moving REALLY fast (like 80 km/h on water fast). We’d seen them cruising around the lake at Queenstown and up gorges around the South Island, with screaming tourists and splashes of water, but hadn’t really grasped the concept. After a few minutes of jetboating with our pilot Brady, we got the screaming (good screams)- these drivers are particularly well-known for their tricks in these highly receptive boats, like heading straight for rockfaces and dodging at the last minute (really, the very last minute), or spinning at really high speeds. It was sooooooo much fun!
After our blood-rushing interlude we realized we were almost at Christchurch, and so we headed on in to the suburbs for our very last night in the camper. We ended up at a campsite resembling a trailer park, with lots of white trash neighbors to keep us entertained (and remind us to stay in school)... Maybe not the most idyllic place to end our camping adventure, but memorable it was. Having said goodbye to the van (so sad... like losing a family member), we are now sitting pretty in our last hostel in NZ- a historic jailhouse, where we are staying in a cell!

Queenstown, Milford Sound and Mt Cook

AAAAAAAAAAND we're back!

About 20 minutes after we wrote the last entry, we were getting ready to get in a bus that would take us out near Queenstown airport where we would be gearing up for a freaking SKYDIVE. Yes, that's right- while all of you were sound asleep, we were plummeting at 200 km p/h towards the ground from 9000 feet (that's just under 3km). We had both wanted to do it for so long, and when we hit Queenstown, City of the Death Wish, we knew we had reached the point in our lives where we would just HAVE to book a life threatening activity of choice. And so we signed our lives away (literally- I didn't want to read the small print once I saw the word 'death') at the NZone kiosk downtown and were then left sitting in a room with other terror-stricken faces, trying not to allow our imagination to get too grim. Once at the diving center, my nerves calmed ever so slightly as I watched others leap to uncertainty and then billow down in parachutes, ecsatic as they landed. It was most likely a distractive tactic, for as I was suited up and escorted towards the plane by 'my guy' Colin, my heart was somewhere near my throat and my stomach was not where it was supposed to be either. Up in the air, I was in the midst of the most beautiful scenery- we flew over mountains, and I could almost touch the summits of them. It was a crystal clear day, and we could see for miles. Then the door opened... And I have most likely never been that scared in my life. Things were suddenly going really fast, as one by one the twos in front of me in the plane started jumping out.. I told Colin that I was now sufficiently scared shitless, which he thought was good, we're inching towards the door, I see Daniel disappearing out of the door.... And then suddenly I was at the door, and my legs were suspended above New Zealand, and then we were upside down looking at where I was just sitting, and then we were hurtling high speed towards the ground.... I have no idea what I screamed, I couldn't hear it because of all the rushing air in my ear, but I screamed bloody murder while having the biggest RUSH in my life. Suddenly my entire body was caught by the harnass around me, and it was just me and Colin, suspended above the world, in silence. It was amazing. We coasted down, chatting away, like it was just another day at the office- flying over lakes, fields and mountains, hanging from a parachute. Having expected to have been petrified for most of the dive, I was surprised not to be at all- both Daniel and I weren't. It was the most incredible experience, and due to that- the fact that it was impossible to comprehend what we had just done- it seemed more like a dream than something that had actually happened. A surreal, adrenaline-rush of a dream. One I would recommend to EVERYONE!!!
So, what do you do after you've just out your life on the line and have seen the world from a bird's eye view?
Well, you leave for Milford Sound, one of the most beautiful parts of NZ. The drive to it is an experience in itself, being pretty hairy at times, and then we took a boat ride up the sound (which is actually a fjord) which was wonderful. Gushing waterfalls (and one we actually boated into which was hilarious), stunning rockfaces, rocks of sea lions asleep like teenagers after a long party. Gorgeous and dwarfing surroundings to be in. After being chased out of the park by bloody $%#@ing sandflies (carniverous midges) the next morning, we blasted through Queenstown again where we hooked up with my friend Wieteke who has been living there for 4 years (it's pretty crazy seeing someone familiar on the other side of the world..) before heading out to Mt Cook National Park, where we camped under the most spectacular view of glaciers and mountains and took a beautiful walk over suspended swing bridges into the Hooker Valley where we were able to get up close and personal with Mt Cook (highest mountain in NZ- bloody spectacular), the Hooker Glacier and the lake at its foot which has icebergs floating in it. This morning, after a COLD night (we used the hot water bottles we laughed at when we got the car... Not so funny now), we warmed up by walking uphill to see a pristine view of the Tasman Glacier and MT Cook in crystal clear blue skies and bright sunshine. What a way to wake up!
We're now at Lake Tekapo, having a lazy day- we're off to some hot springs later on, but for now we're haging out, enjoying the beating sunshine and gorgeous lake. We're kind of pooped from almost 2 months of travelling constantly, so we're taking it easy up to Christchurch. We've discovered our budgeting it going REALLY well, so we're going to treat ourselves to so more gut-wrenching adrenaline in a jet boat on our way there... Got to keep that blood flowing, eh?

Fox to Queenstown

Ok, back on a high- the blog's title may start to be making sense now, eh?

We woke up the day after the last entry to sweet sunshine, and even though we had a few showers, by the time we got up to Fox glacier it was dry and sunny, but with enough clouds to keep most of the glacier's surroundings blanketed in mystery. It made for spectacular views and a great walk up to the glacier, and some pretty dramatic scenery once on the glacier. Our guide was a Nepalese man who spoke with the heaviest Kiwi accent you can imagine (with some Nepalese left in some pronunciation, which made some of his anecdotes hard to follow, resulting in the smile-and-nod tactic on our -and most of the group's- part), but he was the life and soul of the arctic and very popular amongst colleagues, he got an offer for after work beers every time we ran into another group- we gather he was also a god drinking buddy :)He offered Daniel 10 beers if he took a dip in one of the glacier pools (an electric blue crevice that had no bottom as far as I could tell), which was declined much to the group's disappointment.

After the glacier we jumped in our van and shot over to Lake Matheson, which has incredible views of Mt Cook, Mt Tasman and the mountains surrounding them. It was a great walk- an ethereal forest, which we caught at the most beautiful time- just when the light was low and golden.

The next morning we started out for Queenstown, passing through Mt Aspiring National Park and then the Haast Pass, both of which were just one breathtaking view after another. There is no country like this one- it HAS to be the most beautiful place on earth. Neither of us can imagine there is anywhere that is this diverse, this spectacular... Watch out, we might just emigrate :)
We're now in Queenstown, which is the epicentere of any sport that is life-threatening and nervewrecking. If you can come up with an outdoor activity that involves putting your life on the line and getting your adrenaline PUMPING, you can make it big here... SO we're off to try something of the sort. We'll check into the blog again once we have our feet safely back on the ground!

Abel Tasman National Park

We spent a few days in Wellington recharging in the new year before heading back out on the road. It's a great city, it reminded me a lot of San Francisco so nothing wrong there :) The weather was fine (apparently quite unusual for 'Windy Welly' where it rains quite a bit), and it was extremely quiet everywhere as it was the weekend of New Years and then the aftermath. We pretty much had the city to ourselves (that is, compared to Japanese standards... NZ has an entirely different defintion of 'busy'), and the shops were closed so it was great for budgeting. We ended up spending almost 2 full days in Te Papa, NZ's national museum (roughly translated as Our Place), which was absolutely fantastic. It is the biggest museum either of us have ever been to, and we spent time learning about everything from NZ's bush animals to a giant squid to Maori lore to NZ's finest in photography. Every time we turned a corner there was another wing, it was pretty incredible...

We left on the ferry at night and crossed over to Picton on the South Island, where the next day we headed out towards ABel Tasman National Park, on the southern tip of the South Island. We'd already done our walking trail, so we decided we would opt for a different mode of transport- sea kayaking! Neither of us had ever done it before, and after my own experiences being mainly in rivers that had little water (and thus resulting in less kayaking and more running after kayak), I was ready to find out what kayaking in real water was like. We were briefed for an hour, learning all sorts of safety manouveres which had us all floudering about on the grass beside our kayak on dry ground, pretending to have capsized (I'm imagining this must have looked pretty funny, but the teacher kept telling us we looked really cool. Yeah.) before we were taken out to sea and left to our own devices. We found out we are pretty good at tandem kayaking- we didn't fight once, and we both had a map so there was no way we could go wrong there. It was wonderful. We were given the run of a few miles of coastline, including two islands. The difference between tides is so huge (up to 6 km) that the whole bay looked completely different on our way back as numerous beaches had appeared all over the place. The water was extremely clear and full of really pretty (and non-stinging, I found out after sitting on one- phew) jellyfish. We saw all sorts of birds swooping in and out of the dense bush on the coast and the water, and eventually we ran into a seal colony which was FANTASTIC. I've never been up close (like, 10 meters close) to a seal in it's natural habitat- it was amazing! One even followed us for a little while, diving under our kayak and coming up on the other side. Magic!

From there we made a long stretch to Fox Glacier, down on the western coastline. We had planned a guided tour up the galcier (with cramp-ons and pickaxes and everything!!) for today, but the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we have been looking at grey, steady, horizontal rain all day. Bummer. We have rebooked our trip tomorrow, so we hope that by the next time we hit the blog we will have lots of hair-raising icy adventures to tell you... But until then, adieu. We shall retire back into our hobbit van.

Tongariro National Park

So, here it is- our stunning walk over Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of NZ's many and most beautiful walks. Also, it is the backdrop to many a scene in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and Mt Doom is the mountain covered in snow. We started at 7:30am, and it took us a full day. But enough jabber, let's let the photos do the talking already....