NEW ZEALAND!!!

I loved New Zealand!! It is absolutely beautiful!! I started off in the north island and then traveled down with Kiwi Experience to the south island. I thought the north island was gorgeous, but the south island just blew me away! Stunning mountains and lakes everywhere you look... I'll post photos but they won't do it justice.

I did a bit of cultural stuff and went to a Maori evening in Rotarua. It was really cool. We were greeted by the tribe with a challenge dance, then were allowed into the village to learn more about the culture. We ate traditional foods and watched the tribe perform traditional dances including the Haka, pretty intimidating, but then they haven't seen me crack out the water sprinkler.

I also did some really lovely walks to many, many waterfalls and went on a trek to see the famous Mt Doom, which was covered in clouds. I also saw lots of sheep, went on a wine tasting thing and saw rabbit shearing (odd).

So with all the cultural stuff aside I undertook in two main other activities and those were drinking and adventure sports!

The best nights out were mostly in Queenstown where the best bar in town World Bar serves cocktails out of teapots! Obviously I had to try their extensive menu over the 8 nights I was there.

Now to the good stuff... the jumping off, into, out of things stuff! Here's a run down of just some of the stuff I got up to:

Black water rafting. I was in a rubber ring jumping off waterfalls and floating in underwater streams in caves. The aim was to have a good time but also to see the glow worms which cover the ceilings of the caves. They were beautiful. It was like staring up into the night sky, only with a lot more stars.

Sky Dive!!!! Yes I jumped out of an airplane and it was AWESOME!!! I wasn't particularly nervous, just excited. The freefall was incredible. 45 seconds of plunging through the air. I felt completely weightless. I had a video done and so had a camera woman jump with me and I had such a laugh dancing mid air... water sprinkler!! It'll take ages to load the video, but I'm home soon so if you want to see it and you are around then you can. I was absolutely buzzing afterwards and just wanted to go up again!!

White water rafting at River Valley. This is THE place to do WWR in New Zealand!! The day we did it the river was at the maximum level the are allowed to take people down it. It was fast moving and at times pretty dam scary. At one point a tree had been washed downstream and blocked our path so we had to get out and tie ropes and rock climb to another section down the river where it was safer, dragging the raft with us. Another time we had to carefully position our raft to go down the middle of a waterfall. Too far right and we would go straight into a rock. Too far left and we would go into a giant hole in the river where 2 people had died the year before, It was nuts! Having said that it was brilliant fun!

Franz Josef Glacier Hike. The idea was to hike up the glacier as far as we could in one day to see the caves etc in the glacier. Loads of people had said this was the highlight of their trip, but not for me. It rained all day and we all were soaked through our waterproof jackets and the 3 layers of clothing we had on underneath. We were so cold that we could only stop for 5 minutes for lunch before we were shivering and had to move again. When we go to the top the cloud moved in and we couldn't even see where we'd come from, never mind the supposed amazing view. I have seen other peoples photos and they are amazing so oh well, you can't win them all.

Canyon Swing!!!! I was dilemma-ing between this and a bungy jump. The canyon swing is a 60m freefall drop which then becomes a 200m swing once the rope becomes taunt. The main difference between this and a bungy (well a high bungy) is that you can jump off however you want pretty much and instead of slowing down as you reach the bottom you accelerate as you go into the swing. So I jumped it twice!!! The first time I did the pin drop (Hayleigh made me), which is rated the scariest way to jump off. You have your hands together behind your back, look down and jump off trying to keep as straight as possible while you plummet. It was brilliant. Such an adrenaline rush I wanted to do it again. The second jump I did was the 'Elvis Cutaway.' You are suspended facing the sky with your legs around the rope so you do the whole thing upside down with the rocks rushing past you. This jump was loads more fun rather than scary. The best/worst bit was that the guys there mess with you. They joke that ropes aren't attached and the guy got me to lean out over the ledge for a photo and held on with just a finger and pretended to let go. On my second jump they release the pin and the guy asked if I wanted a 3,2,1 countdown or if he should just let me go. I said I didn't know and so he said "well just remember at the bottom.." and pulled the pin to release me. Mental!! So much fun!!!

NEVIS BUNGY JUMP!!!! The biggest bungy jump in NZ at 134m and the 3rd highest in the world!! This was my favourite thing I did in NZ and most likely in my whole trip! I was so excited after the canyon swing that I knew I had to do the bungy! I was pretty good about it and apparently don't look scared in the video. I was given a 3,2,1 countdown and I jumped out!! Inside however I had a million butterflies! That first half a second after I had left the platform I was like 's***, what have I done' but for the next 8 seconds of freefall it was the best feeling in the world. I loved, loved, loved it!!! Thank you dad, best xmas present ever!!

So that was New Zealand! I met some brilliant people there, some of whom I will hopefully see back in London and did some of the most fun activities I've ever experienced. That with the amazing scenery as a back drop has to make it one of my favourite trips ever!