After a very uneventful night in Haast we arrived in Lake Wanaka around 1pm. The drive down had been amazing with the road literally cut out of the mountains and we had to frequently stop to take a closer look at the beautiful scenery. I had to let Michael drive as I would have driven us off the mountain trying to look at all the stunning views. Around ever corner there is something different from stunning waterfalls to sheep climbing off the mountains onto the road. We had about an hour driving along the bank of Lake Wanaka which we had no idea was as immense as it was and with the sun shining it turns the water the most unusual shade of blue. Then the road takes you to the bank of another massive but equally beautiful lake, Lake Hawea before taking us right into the centre of Wanaka. Our plan while in Wanaka was to do the eagerly awaited Wanaka skydive so we headed straight to the Information office to find out about how to book up! I was feeling pretty nervous about the skydive as I am not great with heights and the whole hurtling through the air at ridiculous speeds is terrifying, at least I knew I had a couple of days to come around to the idea, or did I….. Once at the front of the queue my plan for a nice walk around the lake came crashing around me when the lady at the desk suggested today as the best day to dive as the weather was going to turn bad tomorrow!! So that was it, she called the airport, booked us in, took our deposit with no refund available and gave us directions to the skydive office. Looking back now it was probably the best thing that could have happened as I had no time to think or more importantly stress out about the impending doom. When we arrived at the airport they first let you watch a briefing DVD which explains the position you must adopt when diving and a brief explanation of what happens throughout the dive. After the film you are then given a clipboard with a form for you to sign your life away, you have to accept that skydiving can kill you and accept that if they do kill you its really not their fault! We decided to do the highest jump available which was from 15, 000ft allowing a terrifying 60 seconds of freefall before the parachute is pulled! They expect you to reach speeds of around 200KPH with the whole experience from take off to landing taking around 20 minutes. At this point I felt strangely calm and not really stressed out at all which in a way was very disconcerting as this had to be worse than the bungy (it was 200KPH from 15,000ft)? After signing the form they are very wise to get the money from you before the jump, just in case you don't make it.. Next you get to put on a rather fetching multicolored jumpsuit and harness and it is at this point that is really starts to sink in for both of us that there is no going back. We had a little time to kill before it was our turn so we sat outside and watched some of the other divers who had gone up come plummeting back down to earth. We had booked the tandum package where you are strapped to a tandum skydive master, plus you also have a third person up there with a video camera who takes a video and multiple photos from when you take off right up until you land, no hiding place then!!. Whilst it was a bit of an indulgence you only do it once and more importantly If we were actually going to go through with this we were going to want proof! After watching the other skydivers land and rave about how fantastic it was we were desperate to get ours started! Before going to the plane you are given a short interview by your cameraman as an introduction to your film. Once that seriously cringy bit is over you meet your tandum master who for the next 20 minutes has your life in their hands. He seemed very nice and I made sure I smiled loads so that he liked me and took the time to make sure neither he nor Michael's tandum master seemed in any way depressed! With everybody happy its off to the plane, Michael, me, some Spanish guy who was also jumping and all of the relevant tandem masters and video dudes! When we walked onto the runway and saw the size of the plane I suddenly felt more fearful of the flight than I did of the 15000ft jump it honestly looked like something you would buy and assemble from a hobby craft shop….. it was tiny! I have no idea how we did it but we somehow all got into the plane, all be it we were sitting on our partners knees the whole time. We successfully got off the ground and before we knew it we were steadily making progress toward our target altitude. When I felt that we must be getting close to the jump as they had put on my goofy hat and he had me trying on the attractive wind breaking goggles they make you wear I had my second interview before jumping. I am sure you can picture my face when the cameraman says "so that's us half way how do you feel"? I felt like I was going to throw up on the tandum masters knee I was horrified that we still had to go higher. The views on the way up were out of this world, our reason for choosing Wanaka was that as you fall you take in views of the snowcapped Alps and the beautiful lake Wanaka and lake Hawea as well as all the usual NZ countryside for as far as the eye can see. Next the captain turned out the red light which was the signal that we could jump so it was the Spanish guy first, then me then Michael last. When the Spanish guy went over the edge he literally fell like a stone and within only a few seconds he was completely out of sight of the plane which was…..scary. Then it was my turn so there we were perched on the edge of a plane which in itself felt so wrong, it was absolutely freezing but there was no going back now. Before I had any time to think about it we were off the edge and somersaulting through the air at breakneck speed. You maybe feel like your falling for about 2-3 seconds before you seem to level off and you are then falling at such a constant speed that it feels more like floating. Without a shadow of a doubt it is the best thing I have done since leaving home in April it is immense. The wind coming into your face as you fall is ridiculous as it blows your cheeks up round your eyes and your lips are up your nose. You are trying to smile for the camera but you really have no clue what faces your pulling as you have no idea where all the bits of your face are! I tried my best to smile for the camera and savour every second of the freefall. Fortunately the minute freefall felt like it lasted much longer and with no warning the parachute was pulled and you must endure about 10G's as you shoot back up again. It was at this point that I experienced my first ever "I am glad I am a girl" because if I had goolies I would have lost them instantly when the harness around your legs tightens as the parachute goes up, it was really painful and it gives you a bit of a fright as you don't expect such brutal force. Once the chute is open the harness is loosened and thankfully a little comfort is restored and I am able to enjoy the beautiful view at a more sensible speed. The tandum master was really good at pointing out all the areas and mountains of interest. He then showed me how to spin the parachute and cause us to quickly hurtle towards earth in a corkscrew motion which was great fun to do having seen it so many times in films. Before I knew it the distant ground was becoming closer and the ride was almost over all we had to do was land safely. As you approach the land site you are slowed down and actually manage to land on your feet so no Bridget Jones style grass or mud stains on the bum! As soon as you land your cameraman is there to capture your reaction as soon as you land which in my case is lots of squeals, delight and also relief that it is over. I had about 30 seconds to gather myself and then watch Michael coming in to land and I am desperate to see if he enjoyed it as much as I had. He had a similar effortless landing and then just let out the biggest cheer before I ran over to get a massive cuddle (and make sure I got in his video too). Having spoken to Michael and since watched his video he definitely loved his skydive too and if anything his facial expressions on the video are even funnier than mine as he has the biggest goofy grin right from when he sits on the edge of the plane to when the parachute is pulled. As soon as we landed we were desperate to go back up and do it again as it was such a great experience and maybe if it wasn't ridiculously expensive we would have gone back up but for today once was enough and we were desperate to see our DVD. After much hilarity at each others films in the viewing room the experience was over and it was definitely time to open that nice bottle of wine we bought in Marlborough to celebrate how brave we had both been! It also gave me the chance to discover that if I was in fact a boy I would have rearranged my aforementioned goolies as I was getting into my harness to avoid the subsequent crushing, a sensible piece of info passed on from man to man before jumping!

The next morning we woke to the sound of rain beating down on the roof of the campervan and whilst we were both miserably hung over we couldn't help but smile to ourselves that we had picked the best day to do the skydive! After dragging our asses round camp for most of the morning it was time to find ourselves something to do. We opted for Puzzleworld which was about a ten minute drive from camp. It had an outdoor two level maze and then inside it had a series of puzzle rooms with everything from spooky holograms, a moving heads wall where all the heads seem to turn and follow you round the room and other exhibits built to fool and confuse your eyes and in some cases severely impair your balance! As it was still raining we opted to do the indoor part first in a hope that the rain would ease up before we had to battle the maze! The whole thing was actually really good fun and whilst we maybe wouldn't have gone if it weren't raining it turned out to be a good choice apart from the hangover in the room with lots of sloping floors and walls which felt truly terrible! After the room of nausea we got some tummy settling ginger beer and took some time out in the café. They have lots of brain teasing puzzles for you to try to solve while you dine. It didn't take long for Mike and I to work out that alcohol clearly rots the brain as we could only complete the children's puzzles (or at least that's our excuse and we are sticking to it)! After a very embarrassing attempt at the puzzles it was time to tackle the maze, a fun activity for a methodical engineer like Mike but a nightmare for a disorganized flake like me! I had already warned Mike that under no circumstances was he to run off and leave me alone in the maze as I knew that I would never be able to work out how to get out! The next hour was spent with Mike somehow calculating our route through this ghastly maze where quite frankly all the paths looked exactly the same to me! I was amused for about the first 20 minutes, I was still playing along at 40 minutes and by 60 minutes I was ready to beg Mike to let us take an emergency exit! Ever the perfectionist that he is however there was no Emergency for the Goldies and eventually I am very proud to say Mike managed to get us out of the maze, emaciated but alive!!!!!The next day and unfortunately it was still raining so we had to find another indoor activity to keep us amused so we took ourselves off to the museum of transport and toys. We arrived there to find we were only one of maybe 6 cars parked outside which for a rainy day seem really unusual! We walked in to find that there were no lights on throughout the museum and there was just stuff everywhere! It turned out that the lighting was just a temporary glitch so we braved the rain and started with the outdoor exhibits. There were just cars everywhere everything from classic cars to very average modern cars. It was a private collection and it soon became clear that whoever started the collection was unable to ever say no to a donation and had just hoarded everything! There were 4 massive hangers full of everything including fire engines, planes, army vehicles, motorbikes, sewing machines, chainsaws and every spare part for every machine built by man in the last 100 years! It took us hours just to walk round looking at all the obscurities. The last hanger housed all the toys my personal favourite being the 2 pink cabinets that housed New Zealand's largest collection of Barbie dolls! When we had finally completed our tour and ingested our body weight in dust we were both exhausted and I am sure there were large parts of the museum we hadn't even seen but we had seen enough! Whilst it had passed another rainy afternoon it was definitely not going to be up there as one of our highlights. Everything was very disorganized, dusty and at times just plain spooky. Most of the exhibits didn't have any information on them so half the time you had no idea what you were looking at and everyone knows museums are about education! The rest of the afternoon was spent driving round Wanaka and the nearby town of Hawea before heading back to camp to conduct a sundance for tomorrow!The sundance had worked and for our last day in Wanaka the sun was shining again. During the night it had obviously been snowing up on the mountains so what had previously been a dusting of snow on the mountain tops was now a thick coat of white that just looked stunning. We quickly packed up and checked out of the campsite and headed to the lakefront to get some more photos and take in the wonderful view over a breakfast of chocolate pudding and cups of tea! We had been desperate to do one of Lake Wanaka's many hikes so today was definitely the day. We chose a 3 hour, 7km hike around diamond lake and the summit of rocky mountain for views of mount aspiring and lake Wanaka. I think with all the walking we have been doing I have definitely been getting a bit fitter as the walk didn't seem too bad despite it being painfully steep at times. The views along the way made it worth every step and the fact that we were almost the only people there it felt wonderfully quiet and remote. We were able to get unspoiled photos of the alps and as it was such a clear day you could literally see for miles. Due to all the rainfall over the previous few days the descent was a little hairy at times. At one point the stairs had been almost completely washed away so we were left to scale a waterfall to pick up the path. We made it back to the car eventually in one piece with plenty of great pictures and some pretty weary legs. The afternoon was then spent driving to the extreme sports capital of Queenstown for more hair raising adventures!