Hello from Sydney!

Cheers from Sydney! It's a lot of fun up here, and the weather's been great to us. 25-28 degrees, no more room for the fleece!

If ever you do end up in Sydney, I really recommend the Sydney Central YHA as it is REALLY well located, extremely safe, renovated, comfortable and all. Even if you take a dorm room, you'll be in quad share with a locker in the room itself. It's very popular. Internet access is only 3$/hour, so I'm spending way too much time down here!

I met up with J one of my best friends from home, who's here staying with his girlfriend until tomorrow. On the night of my arrival, my travel buddy absolutely wanted to do laundry so I ended up out with J and his friends sharing a bottle of wine on the quay at the Opera House. Very magical scenery, especially at night, and it was nice to see people from home. In the days that followed, I went out with my friends and dined out on Asian cuisine (I was going into withdrawal :), tons of stuff like Sushi, good Phad Thai and spicy Malay. As well, you would love the seafood here; there seems to be way much more than fish and chips (which I can't look at anymore), unlike NZ. Just down from the hostel there's a little cafe and I had an excellent seafood laksa soup, it's like curry based stuff with calamari, mussels, crab, fish and scallops, yum yum. A whole meal, and fresh seafood at that:)

We went to Manly Beach 2 days ago and had a blast. It was Anzac day though, so it was really crowded. But the weather was very nice and we got to walk on fine, warm sand and suntan for real, with adequate temperatures (unlike Bay of Islands which was a tad chilly ;) ). Our friend from the NZ trip stayed with the tour hotel and is in a 3 share where one of the beds is actually a pull-out sofa! Sounds familiar eh :) we find that we're better off at this hostel, for less money.

Yesterday K my travel buddy had bought this package to go into the Blue Mountains. We thought that it was a hike - as usual, she looked too fast when she bought it originally and didn't pay attention - but it wasn't at all, it was just driving around for some photos and stuff. It was still a very good day though: we were driven up there, went to a few scenic spots, including the Three Sisters, and had a nice lunch of steak and sausage; finished the day attempting to throw returning boomerangs (these things are dangerous!) and went to a park at the base of the Blue Mountains where Eastern Grey Kangaroos roam around freely. Weird animals, but cute, and definitely very tame. After we got smashed in town in a few pubs that they knew well, so that was cool too. Didn't get home till 1:30 last night, so I had a late morning today :). If ever you are in Sydney, keep a day for the Blue Mountains ie. book a package with the agency at the YHA, just make sure that you get the one with the hike (it's cheaper, has the hike, but doesn't include lunch). The Blue Mountains are really worth seeing.

So that's the news. I'm doing well, although I'm still a little homesick at times and I've thought of booking a ticket home to see my sweetheart. But anyways, I'll be a tough girl and continue this trip as I planned. I'm curious to see what kind of people will be on this tour. I pray that there aren't too many American girls like the last bunch we had.

12 000 feet is 4 000 meters!

Guess what I did?

12 000 feet falling at 200 km/h for whole 60 seconds

How crazy is that?

Let me start by the beginning...

Greetings from Queenstown, the capital of adventure sports of the world. Sitting in the valley of the Remarkable mountains (6000 ft) and by Lake Wakatipu, it is completely magnificent. Everything is available down here, from bungee jumping to paragliding, hang-gliding, sky diving, jetboating, whitewater rafting, and everything else...

So this morning, I was supposed to go hang-gliding (deltaplane). It got cancelled because the sky was too overcast, and rescheduled to 12 noon if it was to clear out. However I had a hiking/jetboating/4wd expedition by Dart River to do at 12 so that was it for hang-gliding. Meeting my Contiki guide at the Dart River expedition pick-up place, there was a misunderstanding and we missed the bus. By the time a taxi got there to try to catch up with the bus, it was too late. Royally pissed, my day was ruined. I was so mad (at the guide) that she felt awful, and she suggested to rebook hang-gliding as the weather had cleared out completely and it had become an otherwise perfect day. We passed by another shop instead and found out that there was 1 last spot left for SKYDIVING right now and then, with the rest of the Contiki group who went.

So in fraction of a second, the decision was made...

60 seconds of freefall (beats bungee anytime...)

complete exhilaration!

Gliding in the valley surrounded by the Southern Alps and the Remarkables.

Need I say more?

Life is great. Cheers all. I'm still alive.

Dying skydiving anyways is pretty painless :)

Have a great day!

Greetings from New Zealand!

Greetings from Auckland where I've started my 3 month trip in the South Pacific. It isn't as warm here as we'd thought, and it's quite rainy, but the sun shows up everyday. Thank God for fleece and the goretex jacket!

We went to the Bay of Islands in the last two days, and although the little dip in the South Pacific was slightly frigid (18 C) , it was pleasant. More amusing (and amazingly close) were the pods of dolphins playing with the catamaran as we sailed through the bay. There was even a mommy and a baby dolphin, soooo cuuuute! You know, me and dolphins... My travel buddy is also a fellow diver, and unlike me, cold water didn't stop her from diving a wreck off the Bay of Islands called the Rainbow Swimmer; it was a boat intended for Greenpeace in the time of the nuclear experiments by France in Polynesia; however, the day of its launch 14 years ago in the Auckland Harbour, it got sabotaged and actually, 1 Greenpeace activist got killed. So as a symbol, the kiwis dunked it in the Bay of Islands and it's a diving destination. I decided to stay on a sailboat throughout the bay and watch the dolphins; she was more courageous and went for the dive, which apparently was worth it, although the 5 mm suit was not enough.

Today we went sea-kayaking, which was awesome too. NZ landscapes are up to the reputation so far, and I can't wait to see the South Island. Unfortunately the 4 hours of kayaking killed the (little I have of) muscles in my arms. Can't move my shoulders anymore, ouch ouch ouch!

After tomorrow we are heading more South, which means colder weather. I intend to try some hang-gliding in Queenstown, city of extreme sports and bungee jumping. We don't know yet if the ski season has started, but if it has, you'll see me on the slopes (with 100% hired equipment as I couldn bring both ski and diving gear on this trip!!!). And of course I hope to see some of the places where the Lord of the Rings was filmed; hopefully there will be some time on the tour for that.

Hope all is well with you, and you should get a postcard from me from Kiwi Country at some point. We're here for 2 weeks and then we hit Oz for 5 weeks, then Fiji for 2 weeks.