The day I conquered the Nevis

Not much needs to be said really. I gave my myself the fright of my life. It is completely illogical to throw yourself of a platform 134m up in the air, I know. But at the same time it is possibly the most exhilarating thing I have done in my life (yes, better than the skydive). The adrenaline rush that enthralled my body afterwards made me shake like a leaf for a good 20 minutes after the jump. As I screamed my way down the canyon, I couldn't help but think " what the f@#ck are you doing!...this is craaaaaazy". Yes, I screamed like there was no tomorrow.












You should do it too (famous last words!)

South Island, New Zealand

The first part of my itinerary round the South Island started in Wellington across to Picton, Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef, ending up in Queenstown for a few days. NZ is one amazing place, I've been oooh-ing and aaah-ing my way round this country. The north has a lot of beautiful scenaries and cool Maori stuff to check out. While on the south island it's all about the scenary and the cool activities and the sheer fact that it seems that NOBODY lives here.


I have on this leg met a few people on the Magic Bus. While you definitely feel like you're being pulled along (ie. like a tour) it does make things a little easier in terms of meeting people as you see the same people hop on and hop off at different places/times. So I have spent the last few days with a French girl called Emilie (a midwife working in New Caledonia), a Spanish girl called Bea (who changed her life and moved to Sydney!) and a Scottish guy called Grahame from Aberdeen (that i can barely understand hence I don't know much about it). So we've spent the last few days together hanging out and travelling around.


The highlight so far has been doing the ice hike on the Franz Josef Glacier. I had had the opportunity to strap on some crampons whilst in Argentina (Perrito Moreno) but I am glad I refrained and got to do it here. The hike to the glacier was quite challenging, scrambling across rocks, climbing up and down ladders ... walking a fair bit! Then we reached the foot of the Glacier, put our crampons on and up we went. Walking on ice is rather strange but heaps of fun. Unfortunately I opted out of the heli hike to the top of the Glacier so our ice was rather rocky and grey but we got to see some pristine clean blue ice and climb through an ice hole (magic!). I felt like a true adventurer !!!










The weather has been bitterly cold. I have been wearing pretty much all my clothes and I am still feeling the cold. The ski season has just opened here in Queenstown and I am still undecided as to go up for a day or not. The "domaines"are pretty small (4 lifts!) and it's rather expensive (count 100 Eur for the day) but it would be cool to get some snowboarding in this year...especially in June!

Other than that I will be facing my fears this afternoon and doing a bungy jump (The Nevis). Thought that if I was going to do one, I might as well do the BIG ONE. I am cacking myself. Literally.