At the (adrenalin) pumping station...

Adrenalin may not be cheaper than petrol here, but it certainly is easier to get hold of! After a brief sojourn along the sparsely populated, but generously scenic west coast, I have arrived in the so-called adventure capital of the southern hemisphere. If you are not sure why, Ill post the photos from my upcoming 134m bungee jump to give you an idea! Will I jump? Well I have already paid the non-refundable, non-transferable ticket fee, so what do you think?? ;-)

That has pretty much been one of three themes of the South Island so far... Its all about adventure, spectacular scenery and the odd hangover - surprisingly often all at the same time! The highlight so far has been the personal achievement of getting myself to fall out of a plane while at 12000ft. Admittedly it did help that I had "Sarge" strapped to my back, having completed a nonchalant 13000 previous jumps, and a giant fluffy parachute strapped, in turn, to his! Also an added bonus was that while hurtling through the sky at 200km/h I had a spectacular view of the Fox Glaicer, Mt Cook (the highest mountain in NZ) and the rest of the towering southern Alps. Truly amazing experience.

Thats not to say that all the other parts of the trip down have been dour... An extra day spent walking down the Coastal Track (another of NZ's 9 Great Walks) in the Abel Tasman Park, with its dense forest, golden sandy beaches, seals, crystal blue water and 6m tidal range (which got me into trouble a couple of times) was just as great. In fact, the coast reminded me somewhat of the Costa Verde in Brazil, which is high praise indeed. Perhaps because it was not "adventure" enough I thought Id spice up my walking day by missing the only bus back from the park by exactly 4 seconds - stones and exhaust fumes fresh in my lungs I had to pull some strings and got one the locals to drive me 15km to the next town to catch up with the bus. Its so much easier travelling here than South America! The guy was a legend and my thanks go out to Bruce for the lift.

The rest of the trip down has been a relatively fast blur, mainly involving getting off and on the giant green bus. Feel a little like a Japanese tourist, with just enough time to take some photos and then its off again. But then again, it beats simply driving past everything if I was on the "normal" Intercity bus. Also have been lucky to meet a bunch of cool people along the way - pretty easy if you are on 3 different 50 seater backpacker busses!

It really is a stunning country, with spriring glacier capped peaks, predator-free natural forests and sweeping beaches all within reach from the same town. There was something fundamentally strange about walking around in Franz Josef in shorts, sweating while staring at icy glaciers... and that pretty much somes up NZ for me - its all here and all together in some sort of happy hour mix-up. Hopefully Ill be able to get some of the photos up for you to get a feel for it yourself.. But be prepared, they will overloaded with scenery and pictures of me in all kinds of strange westuits/jumpsuits/lifejackets/etc!

Now in Queenstown, for the second last stop on my whistle-stop tour, where all the daliy giant green busses bunch up as people stay here for a few days. So walking around town here it feels like you know everyone - its a surreal feeling, almost like being a local in a small town as far away from home as is possible! Its a great setting too, placed along the shore of a massive glinting-blue glacial lake, with guardian rugged mountains surrounding it, Queenie is basically a ski resort town full of hostels, bars and travellers. Makes for some fun nights out - noone here is worried about what people think (or about going to work tomorrow), so the next few days should be a blast (dont tell my bank balance I said that!).