We arrived in Motueka after taking the most direct route from the national park and still getting a wee bit lost, not that bad in comparision. Anyway we checked into the Top 10 park and immediatly a leaflet caught my eye 'SKYDIVE ABEL TASMAN' and yes before you could Adam and Eve it we were onto the jump for the following day at 9.15am, arghhhh!!!! We then spent the day relaxing and reading some brochures on Kayaking the Tasman. Well I think Ellie was kinda worried about the jump and kept on going 'whaa we're gonna jump' and I was pretty calm and collected as i'd really pshyched myself up ever since OZ.

It was the big day and Ellie hadn't slept much the night before. We were getting picked up at 8.45am so we got up earlier and made sure we cleared our bowels and had some yummy yoghurt. I don't think Ellie could really swallow her yoghurt properly and she was litterly breaking out in cold sweats. Bless tha Lamb she hates flying and the thought of her leaping out of the plane sent shivers down my spine too!!! Well we made the walk to reception and there was a minibus with a typical skydiving guy (Ellies words not mine), and he drove us away to the airstrip. Upon arrival we were shown to the office and it had bassy music and lots of men with vest sitting around. A very cheery receptionist welcomed us and made us feel at ease. We then signed our lives away and told her what hieght we would like to leap from. We both chose the highest at 13,000ft, and at that we were shown to the bunker where we met our instructer and our camermen!!! I had BOB and Ellie had Mike and they were both very nice. We got into our jump suits and were given a Kamikazi hat and some perspex goggles, very fetching!!!! So the camermen started their filming and we were taken outside to the aircraft that had already started up. No training was given at ground level, all was pretty straight forward. We were to shuffle to the open door, then dangle our legs out and arch them under the plane, then put our heads at an angle on the instructers chest and we leap out. So we started our ascent and I was watching the ground below get smaller and smaller. I could see the instructers watch had our altitude on and it was getting higher and higher. Finally the doors opened and the wind rushed in, Ellie was the first to jump and she shuffled up to the door, all I saw is her legs dangle out and she disappeared. Then it was my turn, shuffling up to the edge legs out, asume position and off we went. The most awsome feeling ever as we spun through the air, the pressure up your nose and the crisp clean air. It was simply unbelievable, beyond our wildest dreams!!! We leveled out doing about 120mph and we free fell for nearly 60secs. The camerman was there in your face getting footage, and the addrenaline allowed me to shake hands while falling, the best feeling ever. We finally opened our chute and the yank up was immence, gave me a wedgy. We then floated like a butterfly back to earth, just brilliant. LOoking down I could see Ellie and she was doing some spins, very strange to see your wife looking like a ant!!!! When we landed I had the biggest grin and Ellie rushed over and we embraced, it was magical. She said she would love to do another one and I was pretty proud of her!! We both agreed it was one of the most amazing experiences we've ever had!

We thought a drinky poos was in order to celebrate our jump so we rushed out and got a big pack of VBs, drinking them in a caravan park full of kiddies on bikes didnt feel right so we thought we'd treat ourselves to a few drinks down a pub too, it was pretty quiet and we just were having a great time reliving our jump when a really drunk lady plonked herself down next to us and started to say she wish she could harpoon skydivers and hated English...er our night out came to a bit of an abrupt end!!

The next day we thought we would head up the coast a bit and we stopped at a massive cave called Harwouds hole it was big and scary!! We then stayed the night in Tanaka in the most horrible caravan park ever...it was so claustraphobic!!! We liked Motueka so much we returned there and booked ourselves on Kayak tour the next day, we met some lovely girls from Bournemouth on our site and they came on the same Kayak tour as us! Now we havent done much sea kayacking before so we didnt know what to expect...we were taken by water taxi to a gorgous beach and given a saftey briefing by our guide Jasper. We then kayacked over to a seal colony, it was really hard work and it was a bit choppy!!! The seals were amazing and we saw some pups! We kayaked for about 3 hours until we reached another stunning beach and stopped for lunch (Ellie was horrified it was a roll covered in 'stench' (picallilli) so didnt eat much!!! We kayacked off again into an absolutley stunning inlet where we just floated along for a while!! We ended up going out into the sea again and we all linked kayaks and made a sail and floated back to Anchorage where we got picked up by another water taxi!! The bournemouth girls invited us over to their moterhome in the evening for a BBQ which was really nice end to the day and to our time in the gorgous Abel Tasman!