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.