Thanks for your birthday messages....I've been writing a diary for the last few days...

Saturday

The last day of our bus tour was pretty unsuccessful. We went to
Tongariro national park where we were really excited about walking a
famous path called the Tongariro crossing. It is supposed to be one if
the most beautiful one day hikes in the world but when we got there it
was cancelled due to the horrendous weather. We spent an afternoon
there watching the rain then left the next morning to go to
Wellington. Wellington is a really nice city and we spent a good
afternoon in the national museum Te Papa. From there things perked up
considerably because.... Now we have our own home on wheels! Hooray...
It feels great. Mostly to know we're going to have all of our stuff in
the same place for 3 weeks but also to be free to do as we please
without feeling like we're on a constant timetable always having to
move when we didn't want to. Anyway we collected our campervan from
Wellington. He's a long wheel based converted volkswagen transporter
we have named Bruce. After bonding with him we got in the
interislander ferry to the south island. It is supposed to be one of
the most beautiful crossings in the world but we couldn't see much
with the rain lashing down so we spent the 3 hours inside reading.
When we got off the other side we drove along the northern cost to the
lovely very laid back town of Nelson. By the time we arrived it was
8pm so we grabbed a bite to eat and then decided just to find a quiet
street and spend the night there. Disaster struck though when we tried
to make up the bed. It is constructed by using the table and then
another piece to go between the benches however when we got the second
piece out it was not wide enough to fit by about 2 inches. We thought
we must be being really stupid and sat there for about an hour trying
different ways and scratching our heads. Eventually we gave up and
slept on the bench seats. In the morning we woke up, ate our muesli
then headed to the market in town. It was lovely with all sorts of
things and nice food! We stocked up on dinner supplies and went back
to our van to head up the coast to Motueka where tomorrow we will be
celebrating my birthday by doing a skydive!

Sunday

Ahhhhhhhhhhh we did a skydive from 13,000 feet! It was AMAZING!
we had booked to go to celebrate my birthday (yes 26 today) and it was
a great way to do it. We woke up in the morning and made yummy bacon
and sausage sandwiches for breakfast. We then drove the mile or so
down to the tiny airfield in Motueka which is the gateway of Abel
Tasman national park. This is when the butterflies started. On arrival
we signed our lives away and then sat down and watched a DVD made of
other peoples skydives. From there it was all very quick- jumpsuit and
harness on, funny hat fitted then before we knew it we were crammed
into the back of a small caravan plane on the 20minute flight to climb
up to height. The view on the way up was beautiful and the weather had
come through for us. You could see both the north and south islands,
the mountains, national park and hundreds of vineyards stretching out
below us. All too soon we reached 13,000 feet and the green light went
on and the big door was yanked open. Suddenly the noise of the wind
was extraordinary and it dawned on us what we were actually about to
do. Charles had little time to think as the first out but the worst
thing for me was seeing him and then a further 2 people just fall out
the door of the plane. When the plane was empty and there was just my
tandem master and I left we shuffled over to the door and I had to sit
hanging out. "smile for the camera" he was shouting which was pretty
much the last thing on my mind! He then held my head back and we
dropped. It was an unbelievable feeling. For a start as you are
freefalling it is completely unnatural. The first thing that ran
through my mind was "wow this is what it would actually feel like if I
fell out the open door of a helicopter whilst flying!" the freefall
went on for 50seconds where we reached termial velocity at 200km an
hour. The whole time we each had a cameraman who had jumped alongside
us to film. When our parachute was opened he continued falling to
reach the ground faster and it was only by watching him dissapear
below you as a little speck in about 2 seconds that made you realise
how fast you had been going. As the parachute opened things were
suddenly very silent and it felt great- firstly to know we were going
to live but also to take in what had just happened and the
surroundings. Charles did some aerobatic spins around and i had a go
at flying myself. He really scared me when he said "you have control"
and I could see that he wasn't holding on anymore but he reassured me
that even if i dropped the handles nothing would happen. All too soon
we were back on the ground and sitting with a cup of tea in the
office- it was very surreal to think what we'd just done! A truly
fantastic way to celebrate.
After reeling from our experience we drove to Marahau which is
literally at the entrance of the national park and Charles had booked
us into some lovely cabins for the night. We had a lovely dinner (fish
and chips as always for me) and went to sleep to dream about flying
through the air!

Tuesday

Having been parked at the gates of the National park for 3 days but
unable to actually go walking because of the sheeting rain we decided to instead
drive to Takaka around the edge which is pretty much the last town on the
Northwest of the South Island. Unfortunately what is supposed to be a stunning
drive over the highest pass in New Zealand was instead shrouded in mist and fog
and it was hard to see the fences at the side of the road let alone the beautiful views.
Still we will spend the afternoon here in this quaint little town and then head back the
way we came and spen the night again in Nelson which is almost halfway to Kaikoura
where we need to be tomorrow....