Week 2 in New Zealand - Shear Drops!

Sheep show
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So today started off pretty badly - I woke up with the horrible feeling that it was later than it was meant to be when I woke up, and there on my watch was the time of 9:30 - still quite early you lazy folk may argue, but when your bus leaves at 8:30 it's about an hour too late!  So here I am in Nelson for an extra day that I didn't really want to have in Nelson...  It's actually quite a nice little town though to be fair, and it is home to the "Centre of New Zealand" (geographically), so I hiked up a hill to see that, and had a lazy day instead.  Luckily I can get on the next bus tomorrow and I should still make it to Christchurch for my flight.  Hopefully.

All set!
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I actually forgot to mention a few things in my last entry, so excuse the random time ordering!

This is where the fear REALLY kicked in, because I just knew that any second I would have to dangle my feet out of the door...

Shearing

Completely bizarrely one day on the bus we were offered the opportunity to see a farm show where we got to see about 20 different types of sheep, one being shaved (it's summer here so it won't miss the wool!), a cow being milked and an example of how sheep dogs do their stuff!  It was actually a very funny show, with many sheep mis-behaving and one of the girls on the bus managed to get on stage to milk a cow herself!

Shearing of a rabbit - not something I expected to see!
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Even more bizarrely, we were also given the opportunity to see RABBITS being shorn!  Althouth this sounds, and looked, completely wrong, apparently the rabbits would have died if they didn't get shaved every 6 months, and it means tourists get a bit of a laugh too!  It actually looked like some kind of really wrong S&M party, with the rabbits being tied up at either end on a spinning platform and getting spread out to get a nice clean shave!  You'll see what I mean by the pictures!

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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Dropping

Last time I told you that I had just had the most fun 24 hours possibly of my life, but only I wrote about half of those 24 hours!  Well, as you probably guessed from my last entry, I did a skydive from 15,000ft over Lake Taupo!  It was unreal, and I desparately want to do it again!

We got taken to the landing site as soon as we got into Taupo, and before too long I was getting my jump-suit and harness on.  I had actually been this far before, because in Bay of Islands I had booked in to jump, but just as I was about to get in the plane the guy in charge decided that it was too windy so I missed out!  Anyway this meant that I kind of had some experience as to how to mentally prepare for jumping.  So there I was standing like a lemon staring at the plane, bricking it.  I soon relaxed when I got introduced to the bloke who was taking me down, and then got even more nervous when I jumped on the plane and was told I was going to be first to jump out!  Not only did this mean that I would be the first to fly at over 200kmph towards the ground, but also that I didn't have a seat on the plane, and instead had to sit between my instructors legs - a little too close, if you know what I mean!

Sweet as bro!
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At what felt like 15,000ft my instructor tapped me on the shoulder and said "this is where I will be opening the parachute", and looking at his altitude watch we were only at 5,000ft!  So we continued to rise for what seemed like an eternity, sucking on oxygen masks - required because their isn't a lot of the good stuff above 10,000ft - until we reached close to height.  This is where the fear REALLY kicked in, because I just knew that any second I would have to dangle my feet out of the door and then I was going to be pushed!  And that's exactly what happened next!

Not a bad view!
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WHAT A FEELING it is when you first jump - there was no leaving my stomach behind, no screaming, no panicking, just a pure adrenaline rush.  And a massive rush of air past my face!  The view was incredible - I could see both sides of the North island, with the lake below and Mount Doom (from LOTR) in the distance.  After the initial 10 seconds of "wow" I had a tap on the shoulder from the instructor and that was the signal to start really enjoying it, and making as many funny poses as possible in the 50 remaining seconds of freefall for the camera girl to record for you all to see!  Needless to say there was a superman pose thrown in there, some swimming, some thumbs up and many other silly poses!  You will get chance to see the whole of the freefall when I put the video up on FB when I return!

Wellington
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When we reached 5000ft for the second time that day, it was time for the freefall to finish, and my face when the parachute opens says it all - the harness was very tight on the groin area, and I wasn't expecting quite so much upthrust from the opening parachute!  After the minute of rushing air past my ears, the sound of absolutely nothing once we were floating calmly down was incredible, and the views were equally as stunning.  After a few twirls and tricks in the parachute we made a very smooth landing and it left me with the biggest high I have ever had, and one that I really hope to achieve again sometime!

Wellington

After a day to chill out on the beach and in the natural hot springs in Taupo we set off for Wellington, New Zealand's capital.  To be honest I pretty much spent most of my time here in a bar or hungover, mainly due to cheap drink deals which meant it would have been rude not to get drunk...  I also managed to win a Killer pool competition which won me $50 behind the bar which very quickly went!  I wasn't so lucky the following day with bingo though unfortunately, so a few of us resorted to playing drinking games in the dorm with Goon (boxed wine - cheapest drink available!) before heading back to the hostel bar for another great night!

The next day I went to the national museum (free to get in - bonus) and saw a colossal squid amongst a load of artifacts and art from New Zealand's history.  It was a bit like the science museum at home, with loads of interactive things to do, and I reckon I would have been quite impressed if I wasn't so hungover.  Anyway, I did manage to drag myself out for a beer with Julie Burnett, who is now living in Wellington for a while (I know not everyone reading this knows who she is, but I told her I would mention her in my next entry!).  Was really good to catch up, share a few travelling tales and get some Oz advice.  Wellington is a really cool city, very young and lots going on - much nicer than Auckland!  My final night there was spent in the cinema, watching Benjamin Button - possibly the slowest movie of all time, with one of the most ridiculous storylines of all time!  Don't bother if you were thinking of going to see it!

So now I am on the South Island, and will be heading to Westport tomorrow, as long as I get up in time...  I very much doubt I will be able to update my blog until I get to Christchurch in a couple of weeks - my itinerary is extremely hetcic!

Hope you're all well,

James x