Michelle and Brent

Tuesday April 15, 2007 1:30pm

This is our last day in New Zealand. The remainder of our Contiki Tour was pretty fantastic. We left you in Queenstown after Michelle's Canyon Swing. That night we went to an Ice Bar, which is exactly how it sounds, a bar made of ice. There were sculptures and benches and it was very cold. Everyone going in had to wear a parka.
The next day, we did our full day hike within a national park. It took about 7 hours for the whole day, which included 10 km up a mountain to a lodge where we had lunch overlooking one of the most spectacular views we've ever encountered. We could fill our water bottles from the natural glacier-fed rivers and streams and did not see another peson for hours at a time. After lunch we hiked back down the way we came and back to the van. There were 7 of us plus one guide who was extremely friendly and informative. We explained to us about native flora and fauna and lots of tidbits about the national park...and pretty much anything else we had questions about (Michelle had lots about sheep).

The following day was our time to leave Queenstown. On the way out the bus stopped at The Kawarau Bridge, home to the first commercial bungy site in the world. This is where I leapt off with a giant rubber band attached to my ankles. It was awesome! Nothing like sky diving, but very exciting and exhilarating as well.
The next adventure for us was a boat cruise down in Milford Sound. It was an overnight experience with amazing views and great times! Michelle did some kayaking, while I jumped off the boat with some other people into the 13 degree water. The neat thing about this sound (which is ACTUALLY a fijord) is that due to the immense amount of rainfall the area gets (about 300 days a year, or up to 9metres), the top 5metres of water is freshwater, with the rest being salt water. We got to sleep on the boat, which neither of us had ever done before also.

We then spent a further two days on the bus heading back up to Christchurch where we are now. We are spending the day around the city, shopping and hanging out before catching our plane to Sydney at 6pm. Once in Sydney we will be heading to my cousin Jessica's apartment for a few days before starting to tour around.

We now have about 2 and a half weeks before we come home!

Brent

April 10, 2008 7:30 pm

"Cheers Mates"
As all the New Zealanders and Australians say around here.

We are now on our Contiki tour. After Wellington we caught the ferry to Picton in the south island. The ferry took about 3 hours, with some of the most spectacular views. We then hopped on a bus into Christchurch that afternoon. Our tour started the following day in Christchurch.

So far so good! We had a lot of time on the bus on our first 2 days of the tour, but saw some wonderful things, made it to the west coast and everyone on the tour is pretty cool!

Yesterday we hiked up a glacier and out onto the top of it which was amazing. A good climb and freezing for the hour we were out on it. The coolest part is that the glacier is beside a rain forest and has no snow on it, just ice.

Today we are in Queenstown. Arrived last night and went up the mountain side gondala for a delicious buffet dinner. Today we wondered around the town and did some shopping. I went on a Canyon Swing, which is essentially a bungy jump, in a canyon, which you swing out over. Crazy scary! and I cried, but fun as well. Although I dont think I will be doing anything like that again. I dont even like rollercoasters that much. Also on a side note, it was a thousand times scarier than sky diving cause you had to jump yourself.

Tomorrow we have a full day hike on the Routeburn trail. Brent goes for his bungy jump the next day of the first bungy jump bridge ever done by A.J.Hackett.

Thats all for now. We are both doing well and looking foward to the Ice Bar we will be going to tonight.
BYE!!
Michelle

Saturday April 4th, 2008 5:30pm

We have made it to Wellington, NZ which is the capital city, despite being quite small compared to Auckland. It is at the southern tip of the northern Island, and our home for the next couple days.

Yesterday was one of the most exciting days for us as we embraced the adrenaline junkie lifestyle needed for New Zealand. If you do a quick internet search of the place we just left, Taupo, it will reveal what we did. Any guesses??

We threw ourselves out of an airplane at 12,000 ft. I know, I know, it may sound crazy...but we did it. And it was absolutely incredible! We had a professional strapped to our backs so there was no real danger, but it was terrifying nonetheless to be sitting on the edge of a place with the door open and nothing below you but clouds. The freefall was about 45 seconds, but it really felt like about 10. The adrenaline is still pumping in both mine and Michelle's bodies and we are still giddy about the experience. The views were amazing all around. We could see the whole town (very small, about 20,000), the large lake, the mountains off in the distance. There is a reason it is said to be the best place in the world to skydive.

Now that we are in Wellington, we are staying with a friend of mine, Sarah, who I got in contact with thanks to my good friend Karly Mundy. After a few days here, we will be heading to the South Island and down to Christchurch for our Contiki Tour which starts on Tuesday.

Thats about all the excitement that we have had the chance to do...but this is the land of adventure tourism, so it is sure to not be the last of it!

Rock on,

Brent

April 3 2008, 7pm
Rotoura, New Zealand
We made it out of India last week and are now enjoying the fresh air and wonderful fall weather of New Zealand. It is so much like home, just on the total other side of the world. We are both at ease and picking up our tourist pace after a few wonderful days at Rachaels.
After travelling for 10 weeks without a home cooked meal, we were thrilled to have a home to go to after our flight from Mumbai. Rachael, a friend I met a few summers back at camp in the States, showed us all around the east and west coast of the Auckland area on Saturday. We saw a surfers beach, some city parks and volcanoes, they are everywhere in Auckland. Every hill in the city is, or was, a volcano at some point in the past. On Sunday we headed to the city after and excellent sleep in and went up the Sky Tower (just like the CN Tower) and checked out the views. On the Sky tower they have all these extreme activities like sky walks, where you walk around the outside of the tower and jumps off.
On Monday we took the ferry to an Island volcano just in the middle of the port which is the youngest volcano around, 600 years young, in volcanoe terms thats young. We hiked up to the top and checked out the crater pit, and then climbed down into some lava caves. On Tuesday morning we caught an early bus to the Waitomo caves. A popular tourist stop where we went black water rafting. This means we put on full piece wet suits, climbed down about 100m into a underground cave river and went tubing. The cave was full of glow worms. An amazing sight!
Our clothing is now jeans (of which we both just bought a pair) and t-shirts, and fleeces in the evening as it gets a little cool. So far the weather has been beautiful, clear and blue. Just one day of rain. Today we are in Rotoura and went to a place called the Agrodome, where we saw an awesome sheep shearing show, with tonnes of different sheep and all the sheep dogs hearding them up. Both Brent and I participated, being seated close up to the front. Brent tried to milk a cow for the first time and I fed a lamb. We were both very impressed and liked the hearding dogs.
We were at the grocery store today and are making dinner tonight for the first time in months. It's great! Tomorrow we are heading further south to Taupo for some more fun. New Zealand is the extreme adventure capital of the world with all sorts of fun adventurous things to do. We cant wait to do more.
Also, we booked a tour on April 8 of the south island for 7 days and then we've got our tickets to Australia on April 15.
Cheers and good luck to those starting exams and everyone one else at home for making it through the long winter. Miss everyone and well be home in a month today.
Michelle