Hey everyone,

We've been in Auckland since Friday - our last stop in New Zealand. It's a fairly nice city, although nowhere near as nice as the other places we have been. The best bit by far is the Sky Tower...

Today we took a trip down to the Sky Tower, which happens to be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. As with most things in NZ, some Kiwi somewhere decided to allow you the option of jumping off it if the mood took you. It's called the Sky Jump, and goes from 192m (630ft) up the tower. After signing a form warning me that a) the main risk is falling to your death, and b) that NZ law makes it almost impossible for anybody to claim damages from anyone else, I was harnessed up and taken to the jumping platform.

When I got to the platform I was delighted to see Sian already out there, as she had elected to do the Sky Walk - where you walk all around the circumference of the tower on a metal platform only 1m wide.... with no hand rails. All that would stop her from falling off was a harness attached to a rail above her head. After my harness had been checked again at the top I was taken out to the platform to be hooked to the steel cable that was going to control my 11 second plummet back down to the ground. As I looked over at Sian again she was casually hanging out over the edge, arms in the air! From here I looked back at the 630ft drop as I was asked to step to the edge, hang on and lean forward - while constantly smiling for the video camera that was going to fall with me. After a quick countdown from 3, I leaned forward and let go. It was fortunate that Sian had stepped back onto the platform in time to see me go.

After only 20ft or so I was stopped so one of the guys could take a quick photo of me mid fall. You are attached to the cable at the back of a full body harness so it was quite difficult to look around and up to smile. After the quick photo I was released again and dropped quite quickly through the air. It was ace. All the buildings around me suddenly grew and I could see the ground speeding towards me. Thankfully when you are not far from the ground the system slows you down so you have a nice graceful landing on a huge bullseye target. I'd definitely do it again!

We've both got photos to prove our stupidity, but as they are the old fashioned printed type, you'll all have to wait until we get back to see them. We did take a few pictures of Auckland from the top of the tower (at 220m) and we'll upload them soon.

Tomorrow we are catching a plane to Fiji to start our 3 week holiday. All these activities really take it out of you. Almost as hard as work. As much as we are looking forward to it, we will really miss New Zealand - it's our favourite place so far. Also, we worked out the other day that in 3 weeks time we'll be in the USA! Doesn't time fly?

We'll do another blog when we arrive in Fiji, and from then on they might not be as frequent due to the availability of computers!

Fin and Sian