Adrenalin? Who needs adrenalin?......ME! and I have it by the bucket load, COME ON! I did a sky dive and OH MY GOD!!!! It was AMAZING. It was the biggest rush I have ever had, yes even more than the 'poor b******' horse incident. Arriving at Taupo, it was perfect weather conditions. I was suited and booted by a rather delish but seemingly mute Kiwi man and was ready to go. I felt nothing but excitment....until I was on the plane. Straddling a tiny bench with an instructor behind me and an instructor in front of me (now that doesn't happen too often, ahem...) and with about 12 other sets of terrified looking chinese people all wedged in this tiny plane, we climbed, and we climbed and we banked round and climbed some more. Eventually, my instructor showed my his altitude watch and told me when we would be letting the parachute open and therefore when the freefall would end. He put my nice goggles on (oh boy was a glad of them during the following minutes). Heart fluttering I didn't feel secure enough to him somehow and the guys in front were getting ready to open the door. This feeling was short lived however, as he began buckle-ing me to him so tight that my diaphram collapsed, I did not mind though. 'Oh jesus, here we go' I'm thinking. All I have to remember is to tuck my legs back when we sit on the edge of the plane, keep my arms in and tilt my head back onto his shoulder. The door was open and the 1st set were gone, then the 2nd set, then it was my turn. I can feel the buzz coming back to me as I write this. We shuffled forward, off the bench, arse on the side of the plane, legs out and my head back, the noise was deafening and the air was freezing. 123, I'm thrown forward so Im facing the ground and at that moment I was weightless (seemingly). My stomach was nowhere to be seen, never mind doing tumbles! It was incredible, the wind whistled through my hat and the g-force on my face was mental (bet I looked well attractive). I was shortly able to look around, once we'd stoped tumbling and were actually freefalling from 14000 feet. My heart was pounding and my system full of adrenalin. After several seconds the instructor opened the parachute and we went flying upwards some way and at that point, everything went absolutely silent. We glided, twisted and turned. I whooped and whaled like the big girl that I am, I think he could tell how excited I was at which point I told him I wanted his job (so once I've become a mountaineer I will train in freefall skydives OK). He showed off with some stomach churning tricks and I took in the amazing view of Lake Taupo and surrounding arears. My face hurt because I could not stop smiling. The landing was perfect and I continued to whoop and whale as I made my way back to the base (running and skipping and flinging my arms around), telling the people who were going up next that they would hate it, it was rubbish and a bit boring really..... That one day could have topped off my whole week but we decided to go one better (is that possible?) and drive straight to Whakapapa ski village. The following day Jill dropped us at the ski slopes (after she slept in the car because she didn't want to leave puppy because it was so cold). That said, it was a national park and the reception lady told us that if the dog was seen it would be shot immedialty. Bit harsh don't you think? Though they could do with introducing that rule in Walkabout from time to time. I went to the hire place and got boots, board, pants, jacket and one day lift pass for 45 pounds (bargain!). Getting the pants was an experience though, they were either so tight I was chewing cloth or so lose they fell down. Obviously I went for the MC hammer look and bought a belt. The snow however, was the best snow I have ever boarded on, ever. It was like icing sugar, ankle deep powder all over the slopes. I got chatting to a kiwi guy on the ski lift about random stuff and I asked him the size of his board (no pun intended) (as I was sure i'd been given one that was too small for my height), he said a 155 and then I asked him how tall he was (as I had been given a 155 also) and he said 'ummm, I dunno'.... 'O...K....Then bright spark, have a great day'! The slopes in general are much more organised than in Europe and they make sure they fill every chair lift that goes up. So there I am, waiting with my MC hammer trousers, my beanie, my love inducing Oacklys (thanks Ian) and my hired board, just taking it all in..... When I hear a worker shout 'SINLGES? ANY SINGLES?' I kept quiet, I thought 'that's a bit personal isn't it, how rude'...... Then of course I realised that she was after sad loners with no mates to get on the lift together to fill the seats. I gingerly raised my hand and she shouted and pointed (I think with excitment actually) at me 'THERE'S ONE, THERE'S ONE, THERE'S A SINGLE, SINGLE HERE, SINGLE HERE'. I thought 'Alright love, no need to shout it quite so f***ing loud'. It was equivalent to some kid in the super market shouting 'how much is this KY Jelly?' across the place...... or is that just me?... Anyway, an amazing day boarding in beautiful sunshine. Don't worry, I have thought long and hard about how lucky I am at the moment and continue to count my blessings every day. I'm taking my chances while I can. Jill dropped me back in Taupo and I booked into a hostel after saying my goodbyes. The next morning I woke up, re-packed and put my 50 million kilo back pack on and then put my back out! ouch! Lumber 3 and 4 complained to the max but what could i do. I got the bus to Wellington, hobbling. 6 hours later I arrived in Windy Wellington in lashing rain. Following the usual pattern of dumping the stuff, turning my nose up at the mess in the dorm and then hitting the shops. I headed to the super market for the classic traveller nutirtion of Oats, yogurt and vodka. When I came back, I pressed the lift button only to be greeted (from inside the lift) by Gem and Bex, 2 girls from Gloucester I met Black Water Rafting. Gotta love fate! Wellington is much like Auckland really, a pretty city but not so pretty in crap weather. I did the usual city stuff as well as squeezed in 3 spinning sessions (woah-yeah!). Next I needed to get across to the South Island and after enquiring I found it was $52 and 20 mins in a plane and $60 and 3 hours on a ferry. So having a complete love for boats, I of course, got the plane..... A free shuttle service ran and a really nice Oz guy picked me up. He dropped me off at the fire exit of this tiny airport and said 'see you in a minute', which I thought was a bit strange on both counts but anyway..... I found the check in desk and up popped the guy who drove me to the airport, seemed he was mutli tasking. He checked me and I settled down to read my Runners World mag (not a word Harvey, S-FX remember!) Then realisation hit, 'please god don't let it be one of those mini planes, I will be sick for sure'...... The flight was called and I walked on to the run way, it was one of those mini planes...... I felt green just looking at it, my last experience of one of these was a 40 minute 'try not to hurle' expo from Vancouver to Victoria. 'its OK I thought, be positive Amy, you can sit at the back and hurle in relative privacy'. At which point the pilot approaches me and says, 'youre travelling aintcha? I nodded gently, 'you can sit up front with me, that'll be fun forya'..... I took a deep breath, mustered a crooked smile and walked around the front of the plane trying not to have 'death by propella chopping off head'. I clambered into this tiny space next to the pilot and struggled to buckle the belt. No safety card, no life jacket and more importantly, no sick bags.....I will never complain about Iberia airlies again.... As I stared at the millions of dials, buttons and nobs, he pointed to the headphones and ushered me to put them on. Complete with mouth piece he showed me which buttons I needed to press in order to talk to him. 'talk to you' I thought, 'what do you want me to say, 10/4 roger that rubber duck??' I thought for a moment that this was some set up or another and he was going to ask me to give the safety procedure to the rest of the passengers..... With white nuckles and lots of positive affirmations we took off. Some turbulence but managable, like a fairground ride and all the more manageable with 'Gypo's, tramps and thieves' song by Cher piping through my head phones (i kid you not).... A few minutes in the pilot started talking to me through the head phones and I needed to reply of course. Thing was, the button I needed to press was on the flipping steering wheel on my side. It was shaped like a W and suddenly all the airplane movies I have ever seen came rushing through my head as some panic striken actor shouted 'pull up, pull up' as the plane plumets into the ocean, and the pilot was asking me to touch this thing!!!! So there I was, head phones on, mouth piece in place, sat in the pilots seat with my hands on the steering wheel.....chatting away, making small talk like it was an every day occurence. That said, I did have the best seat in the house for a change, the scenery of the Marlborough sounds (that's 'sounds' not 'downs') was spectacular as much of NZ is and I had my own built in tour guide to boot. As we approached Picton in the North of the South Island we hit some more turbulence, quite bad, I let got of the wheel at this point as it was flying all over the place. The pilots activitiy picked up as he struggled to control it and he said to me, 'Don't knock that one' and pointed at one of the levers about an inch from my left knee. I froze, no joke, my body was being flung around but my eyes and knee were fixed in place with every muscle in my body stiff. I have no idea what the lever did but I wasn't taking any chances, I had no instructor with a parachute attached to me this time and 'death by mini plane' wasn't really in the equation right now. The pilot landed it no problems, without any help from co-pilot Caple Im pleased to say and here I was, in Picton airport, a tiny shack. Picton is pretty but a ghost town in winter so I got the bus straight to Nelson which is where I am now. Nelson is beautiful and much quieter and oldy worldy than Wellington or most of the North Island. Last night I went to watch 'Click' at the cinema with Adam Sandler (lead actor, I didn't actually go to the pictures with Adam...) anyway don't bother, it was rubbish and not worth the mini humiliation I received from the spotty herbert who sold me the ticket...'just the one was it madam? you're on your own madam'...... Eat s*** you little git! ha ha I am meeting Bex and Gem again tonight and going for Thai food and then tomorrow I am heading south on a long bus trip to Fox Glacier/Franz Joseph to go ice climbing with crampons and ice axes, I"ll try not to stab myself in the head as I pull them out of the ice.... The sun continues to shine and the air is crisp, it's quite Christmassy in many ways, except it's not Christmas. Still living and loving my big adventure. love from me xxx