Land of the Long White Cloud Pt. 4

I must apologise that it’s taken this long for me to add a fourth post, but this week really has been far too hectic. Nonetheless, I am now past the deadlines for all of my modules, and have a week or two off until I need to start worrying about my exams, so I am as laidback as it’s possible to be. This was also helped by the good people of Football Manager deciding that I was the best entrant to their podcast competition, and announcing me as a very special winner, so thanks to Miles for that! You may also have noticed that I haven’t yet added photos of the Te Papa Museum to my photobucket, as previously promised. Never fear though, I will get on with that as soon as this blog is posted – it’s just that finding the right photos and adding captions is particularly time consuming.

You might also notice that along with all my links, stats and subscriptions on the right hand column there, I now also have a Twitter feed. I’ll try to update this with what’s happening when I don’t have time to write a blog, and also, I have no objections to who follows my Twitter, unlike with Facebook, where I have strict rules!

But anyway, on with the story!

We arrived at Franz Josef in the early afternoon, and took the advice of the friendly hostel-owner that we should head straight out if we wanted to see some glacial views. Our first port of call was the Franz Josef Glacier itself, one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world at over 1 metre per year.

Quick guys, get out the way of it!

We managed to wander fairly close to it, but for obvious safety reasons (ice fall, rock fall, ice surge, water surge, and all manner of other dangers) you’re not allowed to actually walk on the glacier, or go too close. However, there were plenty of glacial runoff areas which were plenty of fun. I took great delight in throwing water at people whenever we found a new, even colder supply of water, whether it was flowing directly out of the glacier, or in a waterfall from some high-up ice pool.

You can just see me getting as much water as possible to throw at Stephan.

After Franz Josef, we drove a little further on to the Fox Glacier (you know, like the mint), where we could get a little closer to the glacier, which could only mean one thing – even colder water! There were a few nice walks from here, which, in addition to the glacier, also led us to Peter’s Pool. Supposedly one of the most photographed areas in New Zealand, it is almost perfectly still, allowing for stunning photography such as this (not from me, this is Chris’s work!). I made the most of it in another way, practicing skimming stones far across the pool until I had unbelievable tekkers.

Suitably awed, we headed back to the hostel to take in a few games of Connect 4, and enjoy some food. Emily and myself played the most convoluted game of Jenga in history, and as this was the first hostel with free internet, we took the opportunity to check our emails, and finish booking hostels for the remainder of our New Zealand journey.

The next day, we fumbled our way down to Queenstown, via a small resort by the name of Wanaka. More specifically, via the airfield in Wanaka to take in what was probably the most surreal experience of the whole holiday. Pulling into the airfield, and calling in at Skydive Wanaka, we enquired as to whether we would be able to jump without having booked. They were delighted to oblige. Chris and Stephan were seemingly in the plane within 5 minutes of arrival, while myself, Emily and Denise waited for the next plane up. I chatted to a Kiwi working on the desk (who had a broken arm, but was quick to point out that it was from BMX-ing, not skydiving!) who had worked for a National Park near High Force, and had heard of Billingham. Soon, Eugene, a Frenchman with over 16,000 skydives to his name introduced himself to me by announcing “I probably shouldn’t be in today, I drank so much last night… I couldn’t help it, not after I’d killed 4 people doing this..” I guess he was joking, but you can never be too sure with the French…

Anyway, he got me into a ridiculous jumpsuit with helmet and goggles, and into the plane we went. Climbing to 12,000 feetwasn’t too unsettling, or at least compared to having to push the button to open the door on the side of the plane. Then, strapped onto Eugene, we rolled out of the plane. I’d love to be able to say that I enjoyed every moment as it came, but I know that the first few moments of flipping through the air, losing sense of which way was up and which was down were more than a little terrifying. It could only have been a second until we righted, but it felt longer. From there though, it was incredible – falling through the air in the stunning scenery of Wanaka (think the Alps, but prettier) at speeds roughly equal to 220km/h ~ 137mph for 45 seconds, spinning through the air to get a full panoramic view. After the parachute opened, and Eugene was able to take off my goggles, it looked even better. Gliding back down towards the ground, almost near enough to Denise to shout hello (she’d jumped immediately after me, Emily was still higher up), before finally approaching the airfield again. About 600 feet up, Eugene remembered he had to teach me how to land (he might have been drunk, I just don’t know), and we slid onto the grass landing strip with ease.

I have the red parachute, which I was most pleased about – Up the Boro!

And then, it was back to the car, and on to Queenstown. Most surreal, but absolutely incredible. The feeling of falling, the view, the thrill of it was intense. And from start to finish, it took about 40 minutes from us entering to leaving!

Queenstown was little more than a stopover for us. There are photos in my photobucket, but I won’t go into those here. It served it’s purpose as a restpoint ready for our next day drive to Milford, along one of the best mountain drives in the world… But for that, you’ll have to wait for Pt. 5!

And finally, I leave you with a link for Drop Bear Aware, a website dedicated to educating people about the dangers of Drop Bears – Australia’s unknown killer!