Hello! You will be pleased to know that I just threw myself out of a plane at 15000 feet and I survived! Obviously having a parachute attached helped. It has been a beautiful day here at Lake Taupo, hardly no clouds and I could see for miles whilst going up in the smallest plane ever. Next thing I knew my 'tandem master', as the professionals are known, had pushed me out of the plane! The cold air hits you like a ton of bricks and I felt my hands were going to drop off pretty much straight away. It was incredible and you feel as if the free fall lasts about ten seconds when in face it is a minute. The camera guy tries to get you to pull poses and he grabbed my hand and we all spun around. Next thing you know the cord has been pulled, parachute is open and you are flying back up into the air. This is when you can enjoy the view as opposed to seeing the ground rushing at you very quickly. And what a view - the lake (bigger than Singapore!), volcanoes, mountains, snow, fields. It was fantastic. We did some more spins which were fun if a little sickening. Next thing you know we were back on the ground! My right ear is now pretty much deaf and my hands still haven't recovered but I would be up there again right now if I had the chance (or could afford it!). http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2255009&l=575bc&id=61410081 this is the link for photos.

Now I will backtrack. I left Queenstown and travelled up the East Coast of the South Island. We had a look at Mount Cook but it was quite foggy so it wasn't the best view. Saw Lake Takapo (in the picture with this blog) and the church which is called the CHurch of the Good Shephard and is non denominational and probably enjoys one of the nicest settings for a church. Carried onto Christchurch where I did precisely nothing as I have been there before. Watched a film in my room with all the people I was sharing with which was quite nice. Then it was on to Kaikoura where I did . . .nothing again as once again I had been there before. To be honest I think Queenstown wiped all my energy - I read my book in bed at about 3pm and next thing I knew it was gone 7! Most eventful thing before that was buying my Interislander ferry ticket for the bargain price of $39. Next day was ferry time up to the North Island. This crossing was rough so a few of us decided to ignore the massive rocking and shuddering by retreating to the bar; this turned out to be a great strategy as everyone else upon disembarking looked a little peaky where as we were fine! We also talked to an older Kiwi couple who were Salvation Army ministers and who had lived in Russia where the man was in charge of distributing aid across the country so they had a few interesting stories.

It was a short drive to the hostels and then I met some people off the bus for some drinks but I was once again exhausted so it was an early night. The next day I visited the Te Papa museum which was really good if a little overwhelming. The best exhibits were all about the natural disasters that NZ suffers from (anything and everything) and they had this room that shook as if it was an earthquake. I wandered around a little before going out once again for dinner and drinks. This was a good night! Next day I went to look at the Parliament Buildings - you can walk straight up to them! No terrorism problems here it seems. Then I took a Cable Car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked around and got it back down. Feeling slightly worse for wear from the previous night I just relaxed in the TV room.

Got the bus early the next morning. Whilst waiting for the bus to leave Wellington a girl a knew at uni walked past which was a bit weird. We headed up the West Coast of the South Island to Taupo. Pretty uneventful drive - the scenery wasn't as good as the South Island and the awful weather meant you could barely see anything anyway so we watched Borat and then Casino Royale! Once again the main event was ringing stupid HSBC who seem determined to now block my card every fortnight. But anyway . . .

Last night we went to an Irish bar to watch the Rugby which was fun. Some Kiwi guy was getting annoyed that the English people were cheering Ireland as NZ are in the Commonwealth so apparently we should cheer them. And all English people just want to be loud. I resisted the urge to a) smack him or b) point out that an awful lot of english people have Irish in them or c) ask why they don't cheer Australia as that country also has the Union Jack on the flag. What an idiot. But I did have a nice portion of nachos. And we got a dollar off every drink.

Tomorrow I go to Rotorua, then Waitomo on Tuesday to go abseiling/caving/black water rafting/glow worm observing. Then it is Auckland on Wednesday and the Enlgand v All Blacks game on Saturday! I will try to upload my skydive video but I fear it will take ages. Good bye for now! x