Kia Ora

Sorry its been a few days since we last wrote, but we are now on another Contiki tour - which has been very busy so far.

Monday the 20th October (Teresa's Birthday) we got up at 3.30am for our booked Hot Air Balloon Ride - we had to ring up the tour provider to check that the weather was good and that the flight was going ahead! Unfortunately there was bad news - it was cancelled!! So we therefore went back to sleep.

We woke up again at 8am and Teresa opened her cards and presents in bed (Lindsay decorated the room with a banner and balloons). After this we decided to go to the Antartic Centre which was used to show what the Antartic is like for travellers and researchers going to the Antartic. Here we walked around and learnt some amazing facts, stood in a blizzard, rode a snow mobil, saw penguins and finally watched a show!!

It was a pretty nice day, so when we got back to Christchurch we headed to the Vic and Whale restaurant for a bottle of wine (in the middle of the day) and a platter of food!!! By this time it was time to head back to the backpackers where we got showered and changed to walk down to the hotel where our tour group was meeting for a pre-departure meeting!

On arrival at the hotel we instantly met a few people who were joining the tour - so we had a couple of drinks with them! We chatted for an hour before our tour guide Nathan (Pumbar) and Driver Trent arrived to give us a talk and paper work to fill in. We then had a few more drinks before returning to our hotel for one last drink in the bar!! The group is different from the first Contiki tour - more Americans and Canadians and only a few English!!

The next day we joined the tour at 8am and had a city tour of Christchurch (whcih we knew quite well). We then had a bit of a drive before heading to Lake Ohau where we did a scenic flight over Mount Cook and the Southern Alps. The flight was amazing as we saw fresh covered snow capped mountains (yes its freezing but sunny) and the electric blue lakes!!! Land of 'The Lord Of The Rings'!! We then went back to the lodges where we had tea and a few drinks before heading of to bed. We were quite lucky as we got a twin room for our first night!

On Wednesday we had a long drive ahead of us - 7hours - 500kms!!! We travelled from Lake Ohau to Milford Sound - stopping at a few places on the way, with magnificant views!!! On arrival to Milford Sound we boarded our boat and were shown to our rooms which consisted of two bunkbeds underwater and a curtain for our door! We shared with two Welsh girls - Tamsin and Aiysha. We then jumped (not literally) on to a hovercraft and had a scenic wildlife tour around the sound and saw a endangered species of penguins. After this we had a tour on the bigger boat and saw several waterfalls - which had a rainbow through it, and the remains of a tree avalanche!! We had a good three course meal before having a 'good night' and then a good sleep.

The next morning we headed back to dry land and boarded our coach before making our way to Queenstown. On the way Teresa and Lindsay were very anxious and quiet as we were booked on the Kawarau Bungy Jump - which is the first original bungy in the world! On arrival we signed in and then signed our lives away before being weighed and making our way to the bridge! Once there we watched as several of our tour mates jumped before us and then the panic attack kicked in for us both!! lol

Finally it was our turn to jump - Teresa was up first to be kitted out in the gear (and made sure that the guy had tightened it up as tight as he could) and then up was Lindsay - we were then tied up together and were made to stand on the edge of the platform - below us a river flowed and our tour mates watched us from the side. We both looked at each other thinking 's***' what are we doing before the guy counted us down to jump. Next thing we knew we were in mid air holding on to each other for dear life, screaming and swearing!! We then reached out to the guys in the rubber dingy for them to pull us back to land. This was an amazing experience which will NOT be repeated. lol

After the Bungy we bought photos and dvds before making our to the hotel. We had two hours to get ready before we all met in the reception to drive to the Gondola which took us up to the Skyline Restaurant. Here we got amazing views of Queestown and had a three course meal before heading to Buffalos where we partied the night away - though we couldn't drink too much as we had a Sky Dive at 9.15am.

Today we woke up very calm but still a little nervous. We had breakfast and then got a taxi to the N Zone shop to sign in and again sign our lives away for our Sky Dive. Upon arrival we checked in and found out that we were in the first group!! We were called in to meet our Sky Dive partner and Photographer and were kitted out and given a quick briefing of what we had to do as we left the plane before boarding it!!! There was nine of us in a tiny plane (us two and Stephen from our tour) all sitting on each others laps with our kit on. We were brave and jumping from 15,000ft!!!

It took us a little while to reach that height, but once there it was Lindsay to jump first, Stephen second and Teresa last. The freefall was amazing but it deffinately took our breaths away! After 60seconds of freefall our parachute opened - thank god!!! lol On landing we were all on a buzz and wanted to go again! We again got a dvd and photos just to prove that we are not making it all up!!!

Lindsay preferred the Bungy and Teresa preferred the Sky Dive!!!

Speak to you all soon

Teresa and Lindsay x x x