skydiving

Who's the Man

We Conquered the Glacier

First Post From Melbourne

Kia ora,

I have just arrived in Melbourne and wanted to share with you all my adventures in New Zealand the past three weeks. When I originally decided to study abroad in Melbourne, I had no idea that I would have an opportunity to travel in New Zealand. Little did I know that my third cousin Idan, his girlfriend Dana, and their 11 month old son Omer have been living in Auckland for a year while Idan worked towards his masters. With my semester not starting until March 1st, I decided to spend a few weeks in New Zealand. The plan was to spend a week in Auckland and the North Island with my cousins, and than make my way down to the more spectacular South Island of New Zealand. I spent my first couple days in New Zealand just exploring Auckland and spending time with my cousins. Auckland is a very warm, sunny, and compact city that is also a popular destination for students looking to study abroad. I visited the Auckland museum, which had fantastic exhibits on Maori culture and spent a good deal of time walking along Queen Street, the Broadway of Auckland. Auckland is a very diverse city with a very large Asian population. The typical foodcourt in Auckland has food stations serving Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Indian, and Filipino food. I also met some nice people from the small south pacific island of Tonga. After those few days in Auckland, I flew down to Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island at about 300,000 people. New Zealand only has around 4 million people total with 75% living in the North Island. I only spent one night in Christchurch but noted that it was modeled after a traditional English town or city with the cathedral placed at the center of the town square and every other street named after King George or Queen Victoria. To travel the South Island, I had bought a ticket on a KiwiExperience bus. KiwiExperience is a touring company that caters mostly to young adults in their 20s as well as to Brits taking a gap year between high school and university. From Christchurch, I took a 5 hour drive through the Canterbury Plains and then through Lewis pass, the northern most pass of the Southern Alps. It was incredibly beautiful and very green. We were traveling to a small town called Westport, which is on the Western Coast of the South Island. On the way there, I had the opportunity to go Jetboating which is one of the many thrilling activities they like to do in New Zealand. Jetboating is a high speed boat ride where the driver will randomly go into 360 degree spins as well as bank dangerously close to the rocks alongside the river. After staying the night in Westport, we began traveling south down the coast to Lake Mahinapua. On the way we stopped to hike the beautiful coastline and see fur seals at the Cape Foulwind Seal Colony. We also stopped to see the beautiful Punakaiki Pancake Rocks which have been shaped by the ocean into the most fantastic formations. Lake Mahinapua is famous for its Poo Pub where KiwiExperience has been partying for over 20 years. It is run by a 83 year old man named Les who hadn't shaved since the mid 70s. It is just a random pub/hostel on the side of the highway and I suspect that KiwiExperience are the only regular patrons. We had a P party at the Poo Pub (everyone had to dress like something that started with P), so me and my friend Eric dressed as champions Ping Pong players. It was a great night. The next day we drove further down the coast to one of the more popular KiwiExperience and South Island destinations, the town of Franz Joseph. On the way we stopped at a quaint little wildlife center/museum called the Bushman Center. Here they taught us about how the 80 million possums in New Zealand are wreaking havoc with no natural predators. They also showed us a fascinating video on how Kiwi's (New Zealander's) caught wild deer to begin farming them. In short, they would fly a helicopter over the deer and someone would jump off the helicopter and capture the deer. The United States hired Kiwi's to show them their methods when America was trying to reestablish the wild bison population. Franz Joseph is famous for it's glacier and it's 12,000 foot skydive which has been called the most scenic in the world by the Lonely Planet guidebooks. On the only full day I had in Franz Joseph I hiked the glacier. I was in the first group so it was are job to slowly make the path for the rest of the groups to follow. Unfortunately, we got a rainy and foggy day so the surrounding jungle was not as clear as it could have been. I also decided to wear shorts on the hike so when it began raining and I was on top of the glacier, it was uncomfortable to say the least. Luckily, it was not a very cold day. The next morning, I woke up at 5:45 to go skydiving. We were driven about ten minutes to the skydiving site where we were given a quick tutorial. The plane was only big enough for two people to go at a time, so lucky for me, I was chosen to go first. The flight up to 12,000 feet was a little nerve wracking but also very beautiful. Looking down I could see Franz Joseph Glacier as well as Fox Glacier and the surrounding mountains. There was also a lot of jungle and ocean far below. When the time came to drop out of the plane, I was ready. The expert I was hooked to slipped one foot out of the plane, than it was my job to dangle off the plane. We took a few pictures and than jumped. The best part was turning around and seeing the plane dropping away. Unlike a roller coaster where your stomach drops, there is no feeling like that because you were already moving fast in the plane. Instead, you feel cold high powered winds slamming into your mouth as you go down in the 45 second free fall. After that the parachute deployed and I was able to enjoy the mountains, glaciers, jungles, and ocean thousand's of feet below me. After skydiving, we met up with the bus and began the trip to Lake Wanaka. Lake Wanaka is a small town next to a lake (duh) that serves as a ski town in the winter and a beautiful hiking/adventure sport retreat in the summer. We spent one night in Wanaka before departing for Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. For most of the people on the bus, this was where they would be saying goodbye and spending a few days. Queenstown is home to the first commercial bungee jump in the world, the Kawarau Bridge Bungee. At 141 feet and a 3 second free fall, it is a popular destination for people looking for a thrill. It pales in comparison to Nevis Bungee in Queenstown. Nevis Bungee is the highest on the continent and comes in at 440 feet above the canyon floor. With an 8 second free fall, it is considered the best natural drug you could take. Unfortunately I did not partake in these activities (lack of funds, not guts) and went luging on Mt. Cook, which overlooks all of Queenstown and is incredibly beautiful. I also did a day trip to Milford Sound which is considered the most beautiful spot in all of New Zealand. It was a fantastic time but I was excited to get to Melbourne. I arrived back in Auckland, got my bags, thanked my cousins for their very generous hospitality, and arrived in Melbourne three days ago. More to come...