Saturday 19th May Journal entry brought to you by Tami (who LOVES New Zealand SO much she doens't think she'll be able to leave) Today was a brilliant day (-: Mike and I woke up really early to go and do our skydive over the Fox Glacier. It was about a 30 minute drive to get to the place, and I was really tired and a bit grouchy, and was just hoping the clouds up above would clear before we went up. Mike and I, having both skydived before, were first up, but unlike Taupo where 6 jumpers and their tandem instructors and camera men can all fit in the plane together, there was literally only me, Mike, our jumpers (mine was called Trev and he was wicked!), and the pilot (who looked about 12, seriously). We began the flight, and I was feeling a bit down because it was really grey and dark, but then at about 3000 feet we rose above the clouds, and the view......well I can't even begin to describe it. It was the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen in my life. The snowcapped mountain peaks were rising above the clouds, which were pure white from above, and we watched the sunrise behind one of them, covering Mount Cook with a beautiful red glow. Honestly I can't even tell you how stunning it was. I've never been so moved by a view before. I did take some pictures but they're in my memory on my actual camera, not my memory card, so I'll have to wait til I get home to upload them. Seriously though, it was stunning. When it came to jumping out the plane, Trev told me that he was going to do something a bit different as I'd done a jump before, and as we made our exit, he turned over so we were falling facing upwards and saw the plane appear to drop away from us, which was really cool! Falling this time was SO much better than Taupo, mainly because, not having the money to buy the photos and DVD meant I didn't have to spend time looking at a camera or anything, I could just look at the beautiful scenery and concentrate on the fact that I was dropping out of the sky, again. Skydiving is such an immense feeling. Really can't be compared to anything else at all. When we got back to earth again, Trev and I amused ourselves by singing Happy Days, and then Mike and I got dropped off at a cafe next to Lake Matheson where we had breakfast waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. The skydive I did at Taupo was probably the 3rd best thing I'd done this trip. The one I did today was the best thing I've done in my entire life. Wouldn't swap that experience for anything in the whole world. Brilliant. When everyone else got to the cafe, Sophie and I went for a walk round the Lake with Mike, Jamie and James, and the views there were just beautiful as well. Stunning mountains, amazing reflections. Again, the pictures have not been put up on this site, but if you want to see them you can go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3708&l=7eeba&id=503796050 This country is so beautiful. And everytime we see something like this, I just think it can't get better, and everytime New Zealand surprises me and produces something even better. Amazing country. You all have to come here. Seriously. It should be the law I reckon. Anyhoo, we stopped at Haast for lunch, which was uneventful, then headed straight on to Wanaka. Sophie and I were sharing a room with Jo and Ashley, two girls from our bus, and the room was really nice, clean and with a radio. Then Brian, Soph, James and I decided to go to the Paradiso cinema, which we'd heard was very alternative. It was awesome! The film we watched was hideous to be honest, it was rubbish, called Black Sheep and was about genetically messed up sheep who killed humans, but the cinema itself was wicked! James and I sat in a car to watch the film, a rusty old beetle filled with cushions, and Soph and Brian sat in squishy arm chairs. We ordered dinner before the film began, and it was ready for us in the intermission, along with freshly baked cookies, that were SO delicious! I had white chocolate and ginger, Brian and James had chocolate chip and triple chocolate. Yum. We didn't do anything else that night, just went to bed. But that cinema is definately the best one ever. Loved it!