Skydiving from 4500m!

Wise words!
see all photos »

Ater Queenstown we took a little breather in a place called Kinloch, real Lord of the Rings territory. Absolutely stunning scenery. Apparently thats where most of Middle Earth was filmed, for those of you who know the films. I was one of the very few people left who'd never actually seen any of them so we had a marathon catch-up session an watched two in one day while there!! Phew! And we kept getting excited being like 'that's where we were! Maybe...or maybe there...but all the mountains look the same. But it's definitely close to here!' And actually we didn't chill too much. We did a walk up Mount Alfred..not relaly realising what we were letting ourselves in for! It was more of a climb than a walk, practically vertical up the mountain for 2 hours. But the view from there made up for it by a million. It was incedible. Well for me anyways. Sarah said it was worse than doing her half-marathon! Ooopsidaisy, sorry Sarah! And we did have a real outdoor spa overlooking the lake and moutnains afterwards to make up for it! So after our 'rest' we moved on to Wanaka to do our skydive. We'd chosen it especially for the scenery and the height- one of the highest ones you can do from 4500m! Woohooo. And we were so so lucky with the weather!! It was peeeerfect, clear blue sky! So we got all strapped up and cosy with our guides. The whole thing is quite touchy-feely- you have to sit on their lap, put your head on their shoulder and stretch your legs back between theirs! And then you jump out! And get 60 seconds of freefall, hurtling through the air at 200 km/hr!! It was absolutely incredible. So much fun! Just amazing! Sadly my experience was dampened a little bit becuase my ears were playing up and I was pretty much in agony for the entire flight...after my eardrum burst on a plane a few years ago, My ears haven't been the same and they coudln't relaly deal with the change in pressure that well. It was pretty bloody painful! And when I got down I was deaf and could hear weird squeaky noises in my ears....ooopsy! But it still didn't diminish the experience! And then the skydiving guys felt bad so we got free t-shirts and drinking bottles, wooopeeee! Went to see a doctor straight away and no major damage,phew. But he told me that that should be my last skydive ever. So sad! :( It was defeintely a good one to end up though, that's for sure!!!

Glenorchy- the most beautiful view fromt he top of Mt Alfred!
see all photos »

Apart from that wanaka's a really nice place to chill in and have a swim in the lake. We're getting so hardcore now it actually seems quite warm! And the best thing was the famous cinema Paradiso- basically someone's garage witha  projector taped to the ceiling! And you sit in the comfiest squishiest seats ever, or even in a beatle car if you want! And munch on the delicious home-made cookies. Great stuff! Meeting my dad again this evening which'll be nice.