Having spent the majority of my time in NZ on the South Island, I flew up to Auckland in the North for the final few days of my NZ trip. It was great to meet with Greg´s mate Kingy who lives there - familiar faces are always a treat in far off lands.

I checked into a hostel in the city centre and then set off to explore and see what Auckland had to offer. With a massive sailing and maritime heritage, I wandered around the wharfe and harbour areas, looking at the huge yachts, including several former Americas Cup yachts. . .which planted the seed in my mind about getting out sailing again.

After meeting Kingy for a lunchtime pint, he went back to work and I found an area of the harbour where the World Rally Championship cars were all being set up for the 4 day event due to commence from Thursday in Auckland. The security was fairly lax on the "no public access" area, so I wandered in like a lost tourist and spent a couple of hours with the mechanics who were setting the cars up. I think it was the petrol head in me coming out again!

The following morning, I woke to cloudless skies and bright sunshine, so I jmped out of bed and went to the travel desk in the hostel to see if I could arrange a Skydive. 15 minutes later I was on a minibus heading south, out of the city. I had put the bad weather and disappointemnt of my cancelled dive in Queenstown behind me, and signed up for the highest skydive in NZ - 16,000 feet.

Strangely, I didn´t feel the butterflies as I did for my bungee jump. On arrival, I got kitted out and followed the safety briefing, before jumping in the plane to climb up to the altitude I was to jump from. My guide (the guy strapped to my back) was a huge Maori bloke whose favourite expression was the roar with claws. Hence, half of my photos have us both doing a bad impression of a lion! He was hilarious and gave me every confidence that all would be ok. The views as we climbed were spectacular - I could see the whole of the north island. And then we reached the height. My first nerves came when the plane door was slid open and the other divers jumped out. They disappered in seconds. Then it was my turn - I had no time to think, just do exactly as told and everything would be fine. Indeed it was, as we freefell from the sky for 85 seconds, before the shute was pulled and we glided back to earth looking at the stunning scenery all around. Another great experience for me.

Despite the fact I couldn´t hear much the following day after the skydive, I wanted to make the most of my last full day in Auckland, so I decided to get in that Team New Zealand Americas Cup yacht I´d seen a couple of days earlier. Under full sail, I joined a crew of 12 others and went sailing around the inner and outer harbour. I´m so glad I did it, as everyone had to get involved - grinding the sails in as we tacked and gybed, helming and working the wind shifts. I sailed the boat under the harbour bridge, with inches to spare from the top of the mast, which I loved.

On my final evening, I went out with Kingy for beers with a few mates in one of the suburbs. It was great of him and Gabi to put me up for a couple of nights before I headed off to Chile. Cheers guys.

I´d love to go back and spend more time in New Zealand. There´s so much outdoor stuff to see and do, I just simply didn´t have long enough. I think I made the most of the time I had there though. Onwards now, across the South Pacific to Santiago to commence the final part of my trip.