Hold on to your seat, this is gonna be a good one...

I woke up and immediately peeked outside to see what the weather was like because today, today I was going to fulfill another life goal; I was going skydiving! The clouds were prominent, but there was a promise of better conditions at Fox Glacier... After driving the twenty minutes to Franz Josef to Fox Glacier, the clouds still looked pretty low. Is this a sign? Should I really be doing this?? Didn't I see on the news last night that a skydiver passed away after her chute failed to open? Yes, I did, but that was because her psycho-lover she was having an affair with tampered with her release mechanisms and is now resting in jail. I end up thinking that if the company is still up for it, then I'll do it. Upon arrival at the skydiving barn - not a completely reassuring sight - I met my fellow skydiver, Patrick, who looked absolutely scared to bits. "Have you done this before?" he asks me, with a slight shiver to his voice. "Nope, but it's gonna be awesome!" I say with eager delight. The pilot and the manager are standing right beside Patrick and I, inspecting the plane for the source of the "weird noise" they heard during the last flight. Umm.... once again, not the most reassuring situation for us, until the pilot eased our minds by saying, "Well, if the plane goes down, at least you've got parachutes!" Heh. Heh. Freakin' pilot humour. So Patrick and I get squeezed into the cockpit of the ultralight plane. Ladies first - to jump, not to enter the plane. I'm squished in front of Rod, my trusty skydiving partner/lifesaver. Up, up, we go! The pilot graciously releases all the controls during flight and takes our photo from the front corner of the cockpit. Thanks, man. I'm slightly confused by my lack of jitters. I can feel Rod's breathing rate is much faster than mine. Is he scared? It must be just another jump for him, but maybe this is something you always appreciate with a little pre-jump jitters. So, why am I so relaxed? Maybe it's because I'm taking in the amazing scenery - oh, yes, the clouds parted, by the way. Here are the peaks of Mt. Tasman on the left and Mt. Cook on the right. The glacier has a whole new meaning for me now... How lucky am I to be here, flying up to 12,000 feet and absorbing such immaculate beauty? All of a sudden a helmut is popped onto my head from behind, the straps joining me to Rod are tightened, and some rather tight goggles are placed over my eyes. I know it's absolutely time to go when the big window opens up right beside me. "Legs out, cross arms, body in the banana shape, keep eyes open" are the instructions running through my head over and over in hopes that simple repetition will lead to the appropriate body movements at the crucial time of leaving the safety of this airplane. I have this ability to 'let go' during times where I need to do something scary. I don't think about what I'm about to do, I just breath in and then do it. So, once my body was more outside of the plane than inside, we suddenly dropped and did a big sommersault. I don't remember following the instructions as much as watching the plane drop from me, or rather me drop from the plane. That was the best! There was no falling sensation, really. You know the creepy stomach falling feeling? Yeah, none of it. There's just a lot of cold wind stretching my facial skin in all shapes as I smile wildly during my 200kph vertical drop. With banana shape well mastered, we turn towards the mountains and glaciers, and I watch how quickly we are falling relative to the few clouds nearby. Holy moly on that one. Heck. Then Rod makes a small change to his hand position and we turn quickly to view the open ocean and sweet coastline. Are we still falling? or are we stationary? In that fraction of a second, it was difficult to tell. Then "SSHwooop!" the parachute successfully opens reducing our speed to that which makes conversation possible. Rod is stoked, and I have to say, so am I. How awesome was that? and now we get to glide all the way back down to the sheep. But first, Rod asks me, "Dee, do you like rollercoasters?" You bet I do. So, Rod let me take hold of the control handles/ropes, and we pulled down to make a hard left spiral down, followed by a hard right spiral and then pulled both ropes down to stall and then continue gliding once again. I immediately want to make "learn to paraglide" the next thing on my life goals list. All of a sudden it was all over as we butt-scooted the landing and I started to tell Beth, "It wasn't scary at all! It's awesome!! You gotta do it!" Instead of taking my advice, Beth got into the car and we headed to Gillespie Beach to see some big, and I mean BIG waves. And to end my exhilarating day, I spent a few hours on the breezy beach in Haast doing yoga before the sand flies gathered their most annoying troups to torment me during my meditation.

Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers

This was our day of multi-hikes. First, a small hike to see Franz Josef Glacier from the barrier, some 200+ metres away from the glacier's edge.There are signs everywhere noting the dangers of being close to the glacier, i.e., don't get too close or you'll end up like the numerous tourists each year that get squished to their death. The sign below was quite a scary comic rendition of the consequences of approaching the elusive glaciers. Our second hike of the day was only a kilometre long before we bumped into a fence across the trail with a sign stating that the trail was closed due to rock falls. Hmph. Onto the next hike... and the next glacier. Fox Glacier is only twenty minutes down the road. Up close and personal was the feeling of our third hike. The trail took us right up to the edge of Fox Glacier, and it was quite the sight! In the photo below, you can get an idea of how big the ice is from the small people in the bottom left corner. Beth and I sat behind the barrier and admired the dirt-crusted, massive glacier about 50 metres in front of us. Suddenly, a huge chunk, about 50 feet tall or more, broke off the wall, fell into the river and made a big "Sploooosh" and crashing sound as it busted into smaller pieces. HOLY MOLY! It made our hearts skip a beat! Hike number four was over an hour and a half up the side of a deep valley to a spot overlooking Fox Glacier. We saw wee little black dots about 1/3 of the way up the side of the glacier, which appeared to be a guided glacier tour ($$$). We prefered the easy, free, self-guided, less risky tour. On our way through the forest, I captured one of the baby firns in the typical spiral shape the Kiwi's frequently show in their art and jewelry. Back to the hostel for a 3-hour nap for me, and then back up and awake again at 9:30 PM to go for hike number 5: a night hike to view the glow worms! They were so cool, so magical! It felt like being in a fairytale, honestly. These little larvae light up just like phosphorescence in the sea, but the glowing stars are under fallen tree-trunks and on the bottom of exposed rocks. They were pretty neat. I tried to photograph them, but ended up making an art piece by moving the camera in random fashion during the 30-second exposure. I like it. I should call this one "Spazzy Larvae."

Surf's up, dude

What an awesome day! The forecast was for rain, but luck was on our side because the sun was out all day loooong. The hot weather was perfect for our planned adventure: surfing!Two guys from Argentina wanted to go surfing too, so we all drove out to this simply amazing beach near Westport. We got a 2-hour lesson and rentals from a Maori guy named Mark, who was a wonderfully effective teacher and one heck of a nice guy! Looking super sexy in our wetsuits - NOT! mine wasn't fitting quite right with my long legs and shorter upper body - we got pommelled by the waves, but managed to get a few great runs where we actually got up on our feet. It was SO MUCH FUN. At one point, I had a grasshopper on my shoulder while I was surfing. Beth had to flick it off me. He got quite the ride! After a few hours, our surfing ability was decreasing at a far too rapid rate because 1) the tide was coming in and the waves were getting more difficult to surf, and 2) I suppose we were getting a little tired. Once we decided the boards weren't in our favour, Beth and I jumped and frolicked around in the big waves laughing wildly each time a big crasher tossed us like lettuce. Man, it was like being a kid again, and that's what it's all about! This photo below is the beach we surfed on... Starvation set in after giving back the boards... Beth and I have become picnic table queens; if there's a picnic table within 2 km of us, we're bound to find it. I think today's picnic table is the best one yet! Later that afternoon, we headed south towards Greymouth along the most stunning stretch of coastline I've ever driven along. It looked like a mix of the Oregon coast and Long Beach near Tofino, BC. Anyway, with scenery like that, we couldn't help but play the role of the typical tourist and stopped at almost all the look-outs and scenic spots. On the drive, we stopped in at the pancake rocks where there are supposed to be big blow holes when the tide is up. When we were there, the tide was not up. But the flat layered rocks were pretty cool. A short pit stop proved interesting when I saw the size of the toilet seat. Would my butt fall through? I didn't want to find out, so I did my usual germ-free "squat and hover". Upon arrival in Greymouth, I thought the folks who told me it was a dirty little town were wrong. It was small, but cute, in its own way. We got into this hostel called Global Village, where there was aboriginal art everywhere and loads of cool stuff like free bike and kayak use. Too good to be true? Apparently not - we took the old-school bikes out for a a spin all over town. It was at this point where my idea of this nice little town began to deteriorate a bit... First, some coolie in his hot rod got a speeding ticket for burning out in the town centre. The two little boys on bikes beside the car below then further reduced my liking of Greymouth. As Beth and I were passing the two 8-year-old's, one of them called us bitches, and then the other one tried to run Beth off the road. What the heck??!! Little peckers. We ditched them around the next corner and stopped to collect our thoughts: Beth: Can you believe those kids? Dee: Yeah, I know! Beth: How funny is that - two 8-year-old's picking on two adults? Dee: Yep. Crazy! It always happens after the fact that I think of something smart to say to kids like that, but at the time all I can think of to say is "Come on you little punks, you think you can take me on? Yeah, I'd like to see you try, you little dweeb!" Of course, in reality all I ever do is pedal my bike as fast as I can and ignore them as though I didn't hear one nasty word out of their mouths, and I pray they can't ride as fast as me... Dee & Beth: [laughter] So, now I'm about to take my sun-kissed, salty body to bed and hope tomorrow is just as freaking awesome as today was. The power of intention... P.S. I'll try to use the power of intention to get the bloke sitting next to me at this computer internet place to stop scratching his balls every 11 seconds.

Full Day in Golden Bay

After finishing the Abel Tasman Hike, we stayed overnight at a hostel in Golden Bay called Shambhala. It was a great little spot with cool decorations and a yoga studio overlooking the ocean... Pretty sweet. The next morning, we drove out to Farewell Spit, a place where the pilot whales continuously get stranded and receive help from strong volunteers. Beth checked out the spit and the sheep with the big binoculars. We ended up driving to the most northernly point on the South Island. I can't remember the name of the place, but from the parking lot, Beth and I set out on the wrong path to the beach... In the photo below, we're trying to make new friends. Where is this beach? Where are the other people? Oh, just over the hill and through the sheep field, we found the sweetest beach! I had a quick beach pee, and Beth thought it would be funny to record this event, so I might as well post it here on the blog. A seagull was eying up our lunch... Nice try. A big seal was hanging out on a rock right where we passed, and we didn't see him at first. He was sunning himself, and when he found out I was photographing him, he posed quite nicely. When we got back to the parking lot, we found the REAL trail and decided to find out where it went... Two hikes in one! REAL trail destination: big, expansive, flat beach with some cool rock formations and caves. After our double hike, we drove south to Pupu Springs, which is pronounced 'poo-poo' but it is the cleanest spring water in the world. So much so, that there was a park warden guarding the springs so that no one could contaminate it. Apparently, there is a big scare that a certain algae will get in the springs and create big clumps of orange goo. We asked the warden about the algae and she said it was from Canada.... Um, yeah, we're from Canada. No, nope, we haven't seen that kind of algae before..... On the way to another hike, we stopped in Takaka for some stellar ice cream. Ooooh boy, it was good. Our last little walk of the day was to Wainui Falls. Here are some photos of the short hike: All the postings from today have described the stuff we crammed into the past week. Happy reading...