Left Franz Josef with a farewell from our tattooed Maori host in full national dress - he warned us that our journey to Queenstown was lengthy (350k - 220m) and advised us to double the time planned as we would no doubt want to stop numerous times along the way to appreciate the magnificent scenery. True to his word we had only travelled 25k when we had to stop to admire the Fox Glacier!

The trip to Queenstown meant that we had to transverse the Southern Alps and so Tom had to negotiate a vast number of hairpin bends and with each one came another spectacular view and so we had to stop! The journey eventually brought us close to the sea road and you guessed it; a couple more stops to admire the views.

Visited Haast on the way for a coffee and then proceeded over the Haast pass and stopped off to admire the 'Thunder Creek Falls' and 'the Blue Pools'. The waters that spill from the mountains as lakes or rivers are an incredibly blue/turquoise colour and this is partly due to the sun reflecting on the ice waters and partly from the upper mountain vegetation which is washed downstream and settles on the river bed to reflect this wonderful colour.

As we travelled into the western plains we drove alongside two large and stunning lakes; Lake Wanaka & Lake Hawea which were absolutely awesome. As the journey was taking a lot longer than we thought we decided on a slight detour to have a break at a lovely lakeside town, Wanaka. What a gorgeous resort (it could have been on the coast) - it was Sunday and very hot so the locals were all out and about in and on the water. It was really buzzy and we both felt that we could / should have stayed there.

Carried on to Queenstown and came across many wineries but no time to stop! Eventually arrived some 8 ½ hours after leaving Franz Josef for a 5 hour journey!

Our hotel was about 20 mins stroll into town alongside Lake Wakatipu so wandered in for the evening and made use of the lovely waterside hostelries - a brilliant atmosphere and really good seafood.

Next day the sun was shining and we used the gondola to get the best view across the lake and Queenstown. Whilst there we decided to have another few goes on the 'Luge run' as we had enjoyed it so much in Rotorua and ended up mulling over our morning with a drink. It was then that Tom first considered doing a tandem paradescent from the top of the mountain; 3000ft dropping to 1000ft at the base…..surprising what drink can do!!.

Well he finally decided to do it….unfortunately by this time the wind had changed so he had to climb an extra 250m to a new launch point but not so sure now- however having committed and paid there was no turning back!

So here goes from Tom …….."I have to say it is quite uncomfortable to begin to walk off a mountain with nothing but blue sky in front and then told to run, never mind having a muscular Canadian young man strapped to your back!!. Well just had to go for it and once airborne, gliding over the town with its wonderful Lake and stunning views there was nothing like it - brilliant"