4 Seasons In A Day

We headed up to Franz  Joseph with the determination to conquer an epic Glacier but unfortunately the weather had other ideas! Horizontal rain is an understatement we must have missed the announcement  for a monsoon!! 

So we stopped for a coffee (of course) and made the decision to head on up to Greymouth to avoid anymore bad weather. We spent one night at Greymouth as the hurricane winds set in we retreated to our cabin for cover.

As morning arrived we concluded there was only one place to visit in a hurricane complimented by torrential rain...Greymouth Pier of course!! Lets just say we got another free shower...

Feeling fresh we set off over the notorious Lewis Pass the rain started to ease only to turn into a snow blizzard! Out came all the snow plough's to clear the cliff hanging roads as Nay drove us safely to Hanmer Springs where the natural hot pools awaited! On arriving in Hanmer the weather flipped again to blazing sunshine! Couldn't believe how unpredictable it was over a distance of just 300km's!

(First pictures in the rain taken at about 9am, Lewis Pass snow pictures 

above taken at about 12:30pm and the one below at about 3pm!!)

Today was a chance to chill out after smashing more than 2800km's in the van to date. We basked all day in the natural hot pools at Hanmer. 

The afternoon provided a chance for me and dad to get a quick 18 holes of pitch and putt. Approaching the tee for the 13th hole mum noticed a "strange" cloud over the mountain. The sky was totally vacant and blue with the exception of this rapidly expanding column of white cloud. We weren't sure at all weather there were any volcanoes over the mountain, but it looked exactly how you would imagine an eruption cloud to look. 

Once we finished our round the bloke told us it was smoke from a controlled forest fire, which they have during this season to remove areas of woodland that are particularly vulnerable to bushfires. 

NZ is extreme in many ways - and the weather makes no exception!

One Crazy House

After a mental few days in Queenstown, which along with the skydive and jetboat included a gondola ride, downhill luge race, steamboat sailing, extreme-hardcore-hurricane-mini golf and a massive burger, we moved up to Wanaka to camp by the lake for the night. 

(Queenstown Luge Race....I win...Just)

(from the top of the Queenstown Gondola)

(Fergburger)

Wanaka is a popular winter town for skiers and is home to the toy and transport museum, a cinema where you sit in Morris Miners and also a place called Puzzling World. It is very puzzling indeed. Full of weird optical illusions that make for some interesting photos ops.

We’ve now booked flights for Canada. We’ll fly into Vancouver from Melbourne in early March. We’re keen to explore British Colombia, check out the ski town of whistler, take a look round the remnants from the winter Olympic as well as discovering Vancouver.

Walking on Sunshine

“There is no such thing as try. There is only Do and Do not Do”. Awesome marketing. How can you read that and not think that you are now committed to jumping out of a tiny plane?

Nay and I have always talked about doing it and once we hit Queenstown we knew that it was on. What we didn’t know, was that it wasn’t going to just be the two of us….

As you’ll have seen from the pictures there is a more distinguished gentlemen with a tache in a third photo. We knew something was up when the lady said that the total came to $900 bucks…I’m no Pythagoras but even I know that at $300 a dive, $900 doesn’t quite match for two of us. I turn round confused and was confronted by a dad with a huge grin! THE OLD MAN’S GAME AND THE GAME IS ON!

A line I remembered from the disclaimer – “despite best efforts there is a possibility that you may be injured or killed as a result of this activity. Accidents can and do happen”……Reassuring?

(signing disclaimers...)

The firm who threw us out where absolutely awesome. My master jumper was Scott, who had been jumping in Queenstown for over 10 years. Naomi was paired with Wesley, also a Kiwi. Dad was hooked up with a massive German who probably having heard that there were three Brit’s up next fancied a bit of payback for old times sake. We each had our own cameraman who would jump with us as there was no way in hell we were not going to have the whole ordeal recorded so that we can show future generations when they try to make out that Grannie and Granddad aren’t cool. Suited and booted we climbed into a 10 seater plane…with no seats. Just a spongy floor to kneel on. We sat in between the legs of our jump masters in that weird conga formation that you’ll have seen at weddings on the floor.

Too be honest I was more apprehensive of the little plane than jumping out, as I get a little jumpy flying. The view was immense. We were climbing in a snowcapped mountain basin just outside Queenstown. You could see for miles. The sun was blasting down and there was the odd fluffy cloud in the sky, which I couldn’t wait to swallow. We’d opted to jump from 12,000 feet and embrace a freefall of 45 seconds at 200kmph, otherwise known as TERMINAL VELOCITY.

Soon we were at altitude and the sliding door at the back of the plane was opened. The first two blokes were Chinese and you could see the whites of their eyes as they grimaced whilst being virtually thrown out by their masters. Suddenly I felt Scott begin to push me forward, and as I started to go with him I just caught a glimpse of Dad disappearing out the plane!! I remember looking round to Nay and shouting “MY DAD JUST JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE!”. I didn’t know weather I was scared about that or just excited to get out there with him. Almost instantly my legs were then hanging off the edge. I remember thinking – “Look at the cameraman, look at the cameraman. If you don’t you’re going to be

pissed off paying all that money for photos is the top of your head”. We rocked back and forward once, twice and then on the third time OUT!

I can’t describe the next 45 seconds. I don’t suppose you can to anyone who hasn’t done it. It is truly unreal, and to my massive surprise not at all frightening – just bliss. Pure happiness like I cannot explain.

All I remember was staring at my cameraman. He was dancing in the air and pulling out all sorts of moves for me to copy. My video is more like an audition for Strictly Come Dancing than a skydive but I guess it made for good photos. After what seemed like a very short time falling my cameraman waved goodbye and fell away as Scott opened our parachute. Fortunately, they worked for all of us. We glided down to the landing zone for about 6 minutes with an incredible view but very dry mouths. It literally felt as if I had been eating sand all the way down. The glide must have been a little rocky because both Nay’s and my master said they were struggling to get us down because it was quite windy. Ours was the last jump of the day due to the wind swell.

Even now 2 days later I still can’t really process it. I still feel like I’m walking on the clouds. So massively proud of Nay, Dad and myself for not trying – but DOING!

From Air to Water

Our adrenaline day was not just taken up with a skydive, Oh no. We also felt it appropriate to blitz around on 100kmph jetboat up the shotover river throwing in 360 spins as we went. Got this done in the morning as a little warm up to get the blood pumping before the dive. The boats can run in just 10cm’s of water and have a solid 7mm aluminum plate on the bottom to skim over the water as it is powered by two v8 jet engines. The driver was nothing short of a nutcase. Getting as close as possible to anything that would wipe the boat out without actually hitting it.

Sat behind the driver to get a view of what he sees, probably just as well because when we got off Nay and Jess told me the guy had been steering the boat with his knees and texting at the same time!!! Nothing quite like living on the bloody edge!

Freefall...!

There is no such thing as try only do or do not do.

General Photos

Icy shower anyone?

4 hours from Invercargill lies a breathtaking part of NZ, Milford Sounds. Unfortunately the heavens had waited for us to arrive before chucking liquid dream killer all over the magnificent landscape that we had all hoped to get that perfect picture of. Earthquakes cause disasters, floods can be devastating - all too often nature wins – WELL NOT TODAY! After a pretty hair raising drive through an avalanche highway we decided to stick two fingers up to mother nature and take the rain head on!

Once on the boat into the fiordlands the rain subsided a little and we were presented with an impressively dramatic landscape. The rain had caused waterfalls to swell to 4 times their usual size and the captain was kind enough to nudge the boat close enough for any nutcases who fancied a free icy shower – All the best things in life are free, particularly cold fiordland showers! An opportunity Nay and I were not prepared to miss! 

 

Next stop – Queenstown.