The Northern Island

I had left my bus full of friends in Queenstown, travelling with them had been a pleasure but time was running out and I had a flight to Fiji to catch! So I hopped on a bus and made my way up the coast to the top of the south island - ready to catch the ferry to the north island. Again I made a couple of friends and ended up drinking goon in the hostel with all of them that night, this was probably not a great idea as we had a ferry crossing to do the next day. New Zealand is made up of two islands, north and south and in between there is a channel of water which takes a couple of hours on a very large titanic of a ferry to cross. Now I wouldn't say I suffer from sea sickness necessarily but occasionally the rocking motion of a boat or bus can make me feel queasy which was why a hangover combined with the trip across the channel was particularly horrific for me. 3.5 hours spent clutching onto a chair as the boat rolled back and forth, back and forth, with me focused whole heartedly on the horizon and eating ice chips (brought round by a kind stewardess). The whole experience sucked and if I ever go back I would much rather catch a flight.

Anyway, I made it across the water and into Wellington, New Zealand's lovely little capital city. Now if there is one thing Wellington has a reputation for it would be the ever changing weather, its nuts! Honestly it's like you're in the Truman show bubble and a toddler is pressing all the weather buttons, one minute the sun is out and it's a gorgeous day and then the wind will whip up your skirt and by the time you have fought it back down there's a crack from above and the heavens have opened for a quick down poor. Every time I left the hostel I would wear jeans and a t-shirt, take a hoody in my bag along with my sunglasses, umbrella, scalf and sun block because I would probably need all of it within the space of 10 minutes, I know spring can be unpredictable in most places but Wellington is practically weather bipolar!

The weather just made the town more interesting and I enjoyed wondering around it, seeing the bee hive which is their government building, the harbour which looks like it is constantly and as aristocratically as possible saluting its crazy south island sister and the little streets filled with a random mix of bars and restaurants which don't feel like they belong together? Still it had a nice feel to it, small and humble and it capture an all-around jumbled up glimpse of what being Kiwi is about.
The highlight of wellington for me though wasn't just the fact I got a dorm room to myself but the Te Papa national museum! It's like every kid's dream of a museum, everything is interactive and play full - as I wondered around I got to experience an earth quake in a simulator (not that I needed to as I had experienced 3 mini ones during my time in the south), I got to walk around a house where every item told its own story and see the worlds largest squid (which due to my phobia of tentacles scared the beejeesus out of me! It's really disgusting, honestly like a minibus sized alien and reinforced my belief that anything with tentacles is just wrong! - Especially because most things with tentacles don't have brains they are just naturally programmed to hunt and survive?! What kind of a freaky world do we live in?!). Anyway getting back to the point Te Papa is awesome, at one point I tagged along behind a school group and listened to their guide explaining the displays and watched the kids become fascinated with the Maori legends, dinosaur bones and constellations.

2 days later I left Wellington and headed further north, enjoying the ride as the road wound round volcanic lakes which sparkle and glitter in the sun, over mountains dripping with the remnants of a cold winter and through the centre of the north island, emerging at a lake. Lake Taupo is a stop for many backpackers for one tiny little reason …. It's the cheapest place in New Zealand to Sky dive!

Ahhhhh! I was going to be jumping out of a plane. My god I felt sick, worse than the Bungee, much worse I mean if the bungee broke or I fell off of the bridge I would probably break every bone in my body but I might survive - if something went wrong today I was definitely going to die. This activity had been top of my Bucket list for a long time but when the coach pulled up to the flight sight I was shaking, bright white and felt like I wanted to cry. The instructors met me at the coach, there was only 2 of us jumping so I had nowhere to hide, I was visibly petrified and no matter what anyone said I couldn't calm myself down.

However after they had gradually and kindly edged me into the safety station and persuaded me to sign away my life and £250! The instructors took over and basically kept me so busy I didn't have time to work myself up anymore, I got my jump suit on, met my jump instructor and camera woman and then watched a safety briefing - it was this video which made me finally get a little butterfly in my stomach, a little drip of excitement and reminded me why I had decided to do this in the first place. The video showed people jumping, showed them plummeting through the air and loving every second and showed them afterwards as they beamed and told the camera what an incredible experience they had just had - that was going to be me in 20 mins!

After the video I was walked to the plane and told that as soon as I got in that was it, the only way I was now allowed to get out (unless I was having a heart attack or something) would be to jump out mid-air. Basically the plane is just a tin box with a bench inside, it's not pressurised which meant at 10,000 feet I was given oxygen to keep me focussed and apparently its horrendous to try and land in - the easiest way back down is to dive.

On the way up I went through waves of pure calm and amazement at the view, to pure terror and hyperventilation at the idea of what I was about to do. It took around 15 minutes of flying to get us up to 15,000 feet, we were above a blanket of cloud and I could see the curvature of the earth! I guess it was beautiful but at the time I remember questioning whether we had gone to high and might possibly be in outer space?! Lol

I was in my own trance trying to make sure I wasn't sick with nerves or faint from low air pressure when my instructor took my oxygen away from me, pulled my goggles over my eyes and then began to push me forward towards the now open door! "Jesus christ are you mental?" I remember saying as my videographer hung out of the plane filming me. Before I knew it I was sat on the edge of the door way, my instructor pulled my head back to his chest and asked if I was ready "OOOOHHHH MMMYYYY GODDD!" was my response, which he apparently took as a yes as he then began to rock me - 1 rock, I was s***ting myself, 2 rocks, I couldn't look down, 3 rocks and I began to scream as he flung us out of the plane!!!!

After a second of tumbling, a second of the world spinning below me, of me plummeting at 250 kilometres an hour we stabilised and that's when it all became so much fun. I loved every second of it; I will never forget the feeling of hitting terminal velocity, having G force moulding my face to make me look like a plastercine character from Wallace and Gromit! The earth was so far away and there was nothing but air in between me and it - I was freeeee … freeee fallllin! (Tom Petty song). I had 1 minute to enjoy it which might not sound long but when you're falling through the sky after just diving out of a plane it feels like ages yet still not long enough. My instructor decided to have a bit of fun with me and spin me round, giving me panoramic views of New Zealand and he thoroughly enjoyed my screams of excitement! It was amazing! I tried doing shapes like superman which is difficult at that speed but I did my best and I high fived my camera lady, I have the best 60 seconds I could and tried to take it all in but it was still just so incredible I found it hard to do anything but smile, blink and scream with joy ha ha.

But after 60 seconds of a once in a life time experience, it was time for it to end as my instructor saluted my videographer and pulled the parachute chord which yanked my harness and made my boobs bang into my chin?! Ha ha (if you watch the DVD you will understand) I then got to take over driving the parachute for a bit as we had a nice fly over Taupo, the sun was shining and I was over whelmed by what I had just did! Now that I have done it I would say there is nothing to be afraid of, bungee is a more scary feeling than sky diving, with bungee you are by yourself, you have to jump and you end up falling head first and your stomach keeps flipping and reminding you that your falling - whereas sky diving is completely controlled by the instructor, they push you out of the plane and help you safely fall, terminal velocity means your falling so fast your body can't even recognise it and it just feels like you're not moving but someone is blowing a huge fan at you. As soon as you're out of the plane the fear is gone and you can just enjoy the whole experience - which I certainly did!

That night me and chad (the American guy who had sky dived with me) did a cheers to ourselves as we drank beer and watched our sky dive dvd's together - what an mind blowing experience!

The following day I headed to the smelly town of Rotorua where I bumped into Rosie and Jim, two of my fave people from my original Kiwi experience group, they were lovely and always had me giggling. I was glad I had bumped into them as I needed to go shopping for souvenirs and who better to do it with than 2 fashion conscious costume designers! So we spent an afternoon looking around the numerous gift shops and eventually I found something for everyone! One of the things which had caught my attention was Ponamou which is a gem stone found in new Zealand - Jade! And because it's quite easy to find here it's not too expensive for little earrings. I liked to buy myself one souvenir from each country, like my camel leather bag from India, my monk painting in Laos, my boomerang in Oz, pillow cases in Thailand and chop sticks in Vietnam - and new Zealand was to be no different so after a bit of searching I would be going home with a Kiwi bird made of jade for my charm bracelet.

I said good bye to Rosie and Jim (Nicole) the following morning and hopped on the bus to my final New Zealand stop which was the rugby mad Auckland! I have to say Auckland doesn't even come close to the top of the list in regards to fave places in NZ but it's still nice. It's big, loud and busy and due to the rugby world cup the hostel was packed. I only had 1 afternoon in Auckland which for me was enough; I wondered around and found a lovely Asian marked where I had duck noodle salad for lunch - just one taste and I was back in Asia, yum yum yum.

Anyway after a pop down to the rugby screen to watch the match out doors with hundreds of other people I went to bed early as the following day I was heading into my final 10 days of travelling and a whole new country - I was going to Fiji!!