Tues 29th - left National Parks and drove to Wellington. Had a lunch break at Bulls but most of the day was just spent in the bus. After checking into the hostel in Wellington, I went for a wander around the shops. After some proper Heinz tomato soup which I found in the English shop I had a nice quiet evening reading my book in bed.

Wed 30th - Had to get up pretty early and catch the ferry across to the South Island. There was a shuttle bus from the hostel to the ferry terminal and once on the ferry I found a nice comfy ish seat and promptly fell asleep. I slept for half of the journey and watched tv for the other half. Once in Picton I claimed my luggage from the ferry terminal and went in search of Jugs and the Stray bus. The bus was full of new people (except for Matt who had been on my bus from National Parks). We drove to Nelson where we had a break and Matt left the bus. Then it was on to Motueka which was our supermarket stop. We had an hour in Motueka which was cool because my friend Sarah (Belge) has been living there and she had just finished work when we arrived so we got to catch up for a chat!! Then it was back on the bus for the short drive to our accomodation at Old McDonalds farm. It was dark when we got there so after finding beds in the small bunkhouses, everyone ended up in the kitchen cooking and getting to know each other. I got talking to Lucy and Heather (both Scottish) about skydiving (my favourite subject) and pretty much talked them into doing a skydive the next day if the weather was good. They were thinking of waiting untill Franz Josef or Queenstown but I said that they might aswell do it while we were in Abel Tasman if the weather was good. After a few beers in the kitchen, it was time for bed.

Thurs 31st - Got up around 9am and dragged lucy down to reception to book their skydives. Accidently booked myself in for one aswell, figured my credit card could treat me!!! We had time for brekkie then went for a walk down to the beach to explore for a while. I had a quick sandwich for lunch before the van came to pick up Heather, Lucy and I. We were driven to the dropzone at Motueka (where Sarah has been jumping). My tandem master's first question was - "are you nervous" to which I replied "no"!! I had to explain that I had done 3 jumps already and that I was considering doing my AFF so checking out places where I could do it. My tandem master was Bob and he was cool. We chatted a lot in the plane and he explained that he was going to try and do a few things just to make freefall a bit more interesting!! I was last out of the plane (check out my exit photos, in the "Straying" album) and we flipped upside down to watch the plane fly overhead. Once stable again, we did quite a few spins, spinning one way then changing direction. Once under canopy, Bob talked me through the whole of the landing. I really enjoyed the jump and the dropzone seems nice so might end up back there to do my AFF!!! Then it was back to the farm to hang out for the evening. Jugs managed to get a fire going eventually (the wood was wet).  Spent some time hanging out by the fire before heading off to bed, ready for an early morning start.