NEW ZEALAND

It's hard to accurately describe my trip to New Zealand. First off, scenery-wise, it's by far the best I have seen in my somewhat minimal experience. Nowhere else can you see a glacier, tropical rainforest, teal blue ocean hundreds of waterfalls and dozens of huge mountains all within a half hour of each other. We drove 1500 KM, well Davs did almost all the driving, as my only stint on the left side of the road left both of us queasy as I was toeing the outside line where the only thing between you and a gorge is a barrier that barely reaches above the tires of the camper van. 1500 KM is a long drive, that's for sure, but it gets a lot longer when you need to stop every 10 minutes to get out and take more pictures. It never got old looking through palm trees and lush green rainforest and seeing glacier lakes and snow-capped mountains.

Secondly, about skydiving, I would HIGHLY recommend doing it, regardless of your fears. I was as horrified as anyone, and can prove it with the pictures of me on the plane and leading up to the jump, as I hate heights and flying, but this was the coolest thing I have ever done. The hardest part by far was the initial ready position because it means dangling out of a moving plane 12,000 feet above the ground, but once the first 2 seconds of the fall happened, it was unbelievably exhilarating and truthfully not scary at all. I never actually felt like I was free falling because from these heights, the ground is so far away that it never looked as though it was rushing towards you, if anything, it felt more like floating with a ton of wind in your face.

The actual fall took about 45 seconds, but to me it felt more like 15 at the most.

The chute opening was 1. relieving, because I knew I wasn't going to die; and 2. peaceful, as I could have the most clear and easy conversation with my jumpmaster as we floated above the most picturesque views I could ever want to see. He even let me handle the controls which was amazing, though he showed me the sheer power of gravity by doing a controlled spin, making me feel like I was on an inverted roller coaster at Busch Gardens, the scariest part since dangling from the plane. I plan on skydiving again, so that should say it all. next time though, I plan on staying sober the night before because a hangover is amplified by a hundred when you have the biggest adrenaline rush of your life, then come down from it. It felt like Jim Beam booted me in the groin, then asked his buddy Jager to kick me in the duodenum.

The next big part of our trip was spent in Queenstown, a sweet mountain town that is known as the adventure sports capital of the word. You can do every dangerous activity you can imagine, but Davs and I worried more about going on pub crawls, and luging down the mountain on go carts over their paved paths. Most people go once or twice, we went 8 times, and could have easily done a dozen more if money wasn't an issue. I wish I could say more about Queenstown, but to be honest, after 5 each day, it was, "which 5 bars should we go to, and should we do Jager bombs, or beers, or both?" I like those problems.

All in all, I am so grateful that I got to see this country, as I would have never expected to see it in my life. It's the most unique place I could ever hope to see and if you get the chance to see it, don't hesitate for even a second, because I promise it will be worth it. Middle Earth is a once in a lifetime place to visit, but hopefully, I'll see it again.

If you'd like to see a bunch more pictures here's the link to my facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2136049&id=1701105&l=2c06dabc7a