Living the Good Life

Skydiving above Abel Tasman National Park

That's right folks we did it!
I wasn't too sure if I would ever be able to say it but I went skydiving. And it was awesome. We went out of a town called Motueka, which is right at the foot of the Abel Tasman National Park. From the sky we could also see Kahurangi National Park, Farewell Spit, the Southern Alps, the North Island. There were also tons of orchards to see from up there, as this is a big fruit-producing area. We had a gorgeous day, couldn't have asked for better weather. Here is a video that pretty much sums up the whole skydive experience:

As you can see, right before we were about to jump out of the plane I was absolutely terrified! I have never been so scared in my life. Jared and I had a pretty good laugh after, watching the video and seeing how scared I was. Jared had been skydiving once before so was not nearly as big of a chicken. It was so unbelievably windy up there, hence why I look so ridiculous in all of the pictures.

Here are some still pics in case you couldn't get the video to load:

Jared wasn't scared....

.....I was!

Is it too late to turn back at this point? I am so terrified right now

Out we go!

Sweet As!

Safely on the ground

Jared too!

Celebration!

While in Motueka, we met up with our Canadian pals, Tristen and Alex. They are picking Kiwi fruit in an orchard just outside town. They put us up for the night and of course, gave us some Kiwi fruit.
The next day we went into Motueka with Tristen and Al and checked out the Farmer's Market. It has now been 3 days in a row that I have had RealFruit Ice Cream, and I am quite pleased about that.

Until Next Time!

Baby Seal Party in Kaikoura

Hi guys!
After we left Chch (Kiwi slang for Christchurch), we headed north for Kaikoura. The original plan was to do a whale-watching tour but for some reason every time we go through there the weather is garbage. It was rainy and none of the tours were running so we kept driving north. About 15 mins north of Kaikoura is the Ohau Stream Walk, and this is about a 10 min nature walk up to a waterfall. We did the walk back in February, but this time it was infinitely cooler! Why, you may ask? Well the baby seals that were born in December and January have grown up enough to go out on their own (but not too far). So as a way for the parents to go off hunting all day and not have to worry about the kids, they swim/waddle up the stream to the waterfall and play there all day long. It's also good for the babies because they get to practice their swimming, playfighting and rock-climbing. It's amazing for us humans observing because you come around the corner on this nature walk and there is 60-80 baby seals swimming around in a pool at the base of a waterfall. Ok, enough talking you get the jist of it, here's some videos and pics!:

Turn your head to the left when you watch this

Playfighting!

The seals up on the rocks were fighting off anyone that tried to take their place

See the little guy to the left that wanted to be part of our picture?

Until Next Time!

Hot Air Ballooning

Hey Folks,

It has been a while since you heard from us. We didn't have anything too exciting to tell you about. We were finishing up work at the dairy practice in Invercargill and were on call, so couldn't really venture too far away. The weather was quite cool and rainy much of the last two weeks down south. We pretty much stayed enclosed in our bedroom at the little place we were staying in because that was the only place with a heater...Brrrrrr...That is one thing I won't miss about NZ: the lack of insulation and heating in their houses.

Well we have now finished up work and have entered into our last month of trip. Oh how time flies. Our rough plan is to head back up north over the next weeks as we fly out from Auckland again in the first week of June to Fiji for a week and then back to the homeland. We had to readjust to van living again which only took a couple nights to get into the routine again.

Rakaia Gorge

We decided to head up the east coast of the South Island to do a hot air balloon ride over the Canterbury plains. We had heard great things and there was a deal on it so all was good.

When I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and looked out in the darkness I could see that it was quite foggy around the street lights, so I wasn't sure that our ride would be a go. But I wiped off the dry slobber on my cheek and got ready anyways. We met at the balloon pilot's house and it was still dark and foggy by the time we got there.

The pilot believed that the fog was going to rise so we headed out on a bus to our launch site. We all had a hand in helping set up the balloon for the ride. We got the basket out of the trailer and then rolled out the huge balloon.

We then used two fans to fill the balloon with cool air. As the balloon filled with air you really got an appreciation of the the immense size of it. It was quite an awesome sight with all of its colors.

After filling it with cold air, the pilot turned on the burners to lift the balloon and tip the basket upright. It was surprising actually how little the burners had to be on for to start to lift the balloon.

It was still foggy when we were ready to take off so we just waited in the basket until we could see some blue sky. After about 20 mins we were off. It didn't take long to get above the fog and into sunny skies and then the view hit us like a freight train. There was a perfect blanket of fog with the mountains sticking up.

As we floated around we could sometimes see the ground through the fog holes, but it just wasn't lifting like the pilot thought it would and after a while we stopped seeing the holes as well.

The normal flight time was usually 1 hour, but we couldn't see the ground yet so we kept on floating. Because we were moving with the breeze, it was quite nice above the fog. We ended up staying in the air for 2 hours and 15 mins which was just fine with me. The pilots said it was the only time this had ever happened. Because of the cloud the person on the ground couldn't see us to follow us, but I showed the pilot my gps on the phone so he could tell her where to go.

We landed in a grass paddock that was 65 kms on the road from where we started! We packed up the balloon and had a traditionally champagne toast.

After arriving back at our vehicle, we decided to head into Christchurch. It is still rebuilding from the earthquake that rocked the city on Feb 22, 2011 and closed down the whole central business district. I've talked to a lot of people around New Zealand who really liked the vibe of Christchurch before the earthquake. Now, you can still feel the sadness from the loss of lives and the destruction of the earthquake. It is quite sad actually. I was feeling quite tired (and maybe a bit grumpy), so I decided to have a nap while Roberta went on a bus tour of the "Red Zone."
Hey! Roberta here:
The Red Zone tour was very good, but also very sad. It really made me realize how dangerous it would have been if you were in the CBD that day. Here are some pics: