Fear loves company

We said good bye to Arrowtown and headed back to Queenstown on Friday morning and thankfully the weather had improved 100% by the time we'd parked in the campsite. We decided to take the gondola up to the hill that over looks the town and do another Luge which was great fun. We then hired bikes and cycled through the park and wandered along the wharf enjoying the unfamiliar sun. The following morning we went straight to the lakeside to start our paragliding. Matt, Emma and I were strapped to the parachute and all headed up together.

It was a fantastic day to do it because the sky was a clear blue and we could see for miles. Matt and Emma loved it and decided that paragiding should be a daily occupation.
After lunch we said good bye to the campervan and packed up our car to start heading North and to the the AJ Hakett Kawarau bridge for the bungy. The Kawarau bridge bungy is the first commercial bungy in the world. It's a 43m drop into the Kawarau river which is a strong turquoise colour. Mick was really starting to sweat bricks at this point as he really doesn't like heights but when we got there and watched a few people doing it he felt a bit more comfortable and flew off the platform with no
hesitation. He loved it and would definitely go again.

We got back into the car and were heading out of the carpark when he suggested that I should do it. I wondered would I regret not doing it after leaving NZ so I thought I would go for it. I queued up and for the wait I wasn't that nervous. Even when I was getting the straps on I still didn't have butterflies but when I was standing on the edge and looking down into the valley I was so terrified!!
It looked so far to jump and seemed such a completely crazy thing to do. You're supposed to dive out away from the platform if you don't want to go too deep into the water which I thought I had done but ended up going into the river up to my waist anyway. I have to say I hated it. I can't imagine doing a higher one like the one a little further up the road which is 140m. In a way I'm still glad I did it even if I am getting flashbacks every couple of hours still.
We left the bungy and headed north towards Lake Tekapo where we stayed for the night and passed by Geraldine, a small town with the biggest jumper in the world. It was knitted by the owners of the wool shop that the jumper is in. In the back of the shop 'de husband' and knitter has recreated the Bayeux Tapestry in metal mosiac. It took him 25 years to complete. He is also a mathematician and puzzle maker. Geraldine isn't the most inspiring town in NZ but if you want to recreate the days you pulled sickies from school and watched Open University you have to visit this place and hear this guy talk.

We left Lake Tekapo early the following morning to meet Mum and Ettie in Methven, south of Christchurch. They have been travelling through the north Island for the past 10 days and are on their way to visit Jan in Invercargill. It was great to see mum again and hear stories of an unlikely friendship between Scruff and Mum's cat as when we left they were sworn enemies.

We said our goodbyes this morning they headed south and we headed north. We are supposed to be staying in our bach in Nelson tonight that we have for 2 weeks but decided instead to stop in Kaikoura and see if we could see some whales. It will probably be the last of our treats and excursions till we leave. We've done so much, especially recently, but when Emma was emailing a friend from school today I told her to put in some of what we'd been doing and she was going to write 'We've mostly been driving' GAH!