Hello Everyone

Thought it had been a while so better fill you in as its been an action packed couple of weeks! Also for all the lazy people who cant be bothered to read to the end (or frankly those with better things to do) I did a skydive yesterday so you can skip on down so you can laugh at all the scary details! more abt that later!

Fiji was amazing - spent a week there and the people are so friendly and the place is so stunning. Stayed on Beachcomber Island - which is a backpacker resort island and is gorgeous. Anna and I felt like we were on a proper holiday - no cooking and we were so well looked after! The resort was really fun - met loads of wicked people and spent our evenings drinking Kava - the local fijian drink made out of mud water (ew!) , lovely cocktails and bula dancing in the barefoot bar. Stayed in a 98 bed dorm but slept surprisingly well - probably because it was too hot for anyone to stay awake! The weather was lush so spent every day sunbathing and swimming on the beach - the snorkelling was amazing - except for the 2 stingrays i spotted near the shore and the numerous jellyfish which came out to play on the last day!Got to see loads of cool fish and coral - including more nemos. The staff on the resort were so lovely - and kept us entertained every evening with various stupid games like Limbo Dancing and Crab Racing. The DJ made sure we Bula Danced every night - Bula is fijian for hello and the rule is no bula dancing no sunshine! We ate sooo well - altho having curry every day for lunch was a bit much in the heat of the day! Cant get over how stunning the islands are in Fiji - such clear skies at night that we saw so many stars - including shooting stars! We also got shown up by a 77year old great grandmother who was backpacking and was way more hardcore than us - she kept telling us we weren't drinking enough or we should be up dancing - and she spent her days jetskiing and parasailing whilst anna and I didn't move from our sunbeds! We did however will up the energy to walk round the island on day 6 - it took us about 5 minutes so pretty shameful it took us that long!

Made it back to Auckland a week later all suntanned and refreshed from our holiday ready to go out backpacking again so hopped on the "Kiw Experience" for 2 weeks around the North Island. Had a great time so far, been out to the Corromandel Penisula, Rotorua to see some geysers (funnily pronounced as geezers by the essex girls!) and to Waitomo Caves yesterday before landing in Taupo yesterday afternoon. Stopped off at some really beautiful places - including Hobbiton of Lord of the Rings Fame and done lots of walks etc through some stunning national parks. Made some good friends on the bus, and I somehow managed to headbutt a signpost so have ended up witha huge lump on my head - anna is still laughing and has taken to calling me egghead. Ha ha ha.

So that pretty much fills you in up to yesterday when we got to Lake Taupo where i spontaneously decided to jump out of a plane at 12,000 feet! It was incredible but bloody scary! I ended up being in the last group of jumpers so had to wait for 4 hours until i got my turn so was over most of my nerves by then! Before i knew what i'd got myself into i was suited up and on a plane with 6 other people off our bus all ready to jump - literally didnt even get time to get nervous as soon as your in the plane your strapped to your tandem master so unbeliavably tight that theres no going back! Most of the jump was a blank (glad i got the dvd) because freefalling through the air was the most overwhelming experience of my life! Was soo cool - actually felt like you were flying - although during the freefall it was blumming hard to breathe! We all got individual camerapeople to jump out with you so ive captured the whole event so i never forget it - my dvd is so funny as my arms and legs are all over the place - so hard to move when all the air is rushing towards you! When the parachute went up you go flying up into the air (definately my fav bit) and then you cruise down back to earth. Cant describe the adrenalin high afterwards - it was soo exciting and the views over Lake Taupo were incredible that you forgot how scary it was jumping out of the plane.

Anyways i'll try post some photos so you can laugh at me looking scared at 12,000 feet and also like a conehead in the very fetching outfit they give you! Anna couldnt skydive as she has bad ears but she managed to do a bungy jump whilst i was skydiving - she did well as the whole bus was watching her and no=one else did a jump. Went out last night for some celebratory drinks last night with our bus and had a wicked night.

Better dash, off to play mini golf!

C xxx