Jumping off of more high things

My apologies for not posting yesterday’s blog. We were up at 4:30 am for our flight at 8. The night before we had our farewell dinner for all the people that were leaving. It was good food and good company but I was tired so I wasn’t that much fun at the bar, fully energized on the walk back though of course. Also, at dinner Connie, Alex, and Paula made little joking comments about me talking so I just stoped talking and then THEY had the NERVE to get mad at me for that. Unacceptable honestly, can’t do anything right apparently…jokes, I’m joking, obviously. Kind of.

I’m trying to think if anything happened on the way home but I think it was mostly just a couple of us acting like fools. So anyway, then we gave hugs to Kirsten and Katie since they were leaving and we headed off to bed. I didn’t even bother unpacking because I was not about to repack AGAIN. We said goodbyes again in the morning since the others were awake and then we went to the airport where we waited to check in for probably close to an hour. Alex called the airport people demons because they were elate and cranky. The flight was fine, we were all absolutely exhausted but I of course couldn’t sleep. I was in the middle seat next to Ingrid and Faith and since I didn’t have my neck pillow (amazing investment by the way) I had no where to rest my head. It was less than 2 hours though so I just listened to music. Once we got our bags from the carousel we loaded into to 2 vans. The van I was in was chaotic to say the least, chaos is fun though…for me at least, Kira might disagree. Our driver gave us a bit of information about Queenstown, which is so so beautiful (like the rest of this country) as he drove us around. At one point he saw traffic ahead so he made the decision to turn us around in the middle of the street, which freaked Kira out, but he was still a cool guy. Check in at our hostel wasn’t until 2 and we got there around 11, so we had to put all our stuff in a storage room in the basement/parking garage area, that was fun. A couple of others and myself had an activity planned at 12 though, so after walking around for a minute we all met up and walked to the place we were signing in and meeting the van at. It was Connie, Lewis, Alex, Rachel, Kate, Kira, Faith, Lizzie, and I that went. About 45 minutes later we were being suited up in our harnesses because we were all about to do… the canyon swing.

It was a lot of fun, went by way to quickly though. I would’ve liked to go again and maybe even do it upside down. And next time I come I’m definitely doing the catapult..I want to be spiderman. Connie and I went together since we’re married, but Lewis went first (haha) and he did it by himself. That was a trip to watch he completely just disappeared. They took a picture then just dropped him. They did the same to us, and the drop was fine and the swing was fun, but like I said it went by way too fast. We were there and then it was over. I would say the anticipation for this was actually worse than sky diving and some of the others agreed. Alex and his friend Poppy did it twice and they went upside down their second time, it looked so fun. As we walked back up to the main area guess what song was playing…Unwritten. Can you believe it? It’s literally our groups song.

When we got back to town Kate wanted to go to cotton on and look at clothes. Now I had done really well up until this point. I had only bought 2 pairs of glasses and got a FREE teeshirt for skydiving (and for swinging too actually) but then SOMEONE (you know who you are) said “oh I’m gonna go and by a jumper real quick” (so British) and then left me alone..in the store…so I bought a couple things. No regrets. Stuff is cheaper here, at least thats what I’m telling myself. We headed back to the hostel around 5 to meet up with everyone else and meet the 3 new people. We also checked into our rooms, this time I’m with Faith, Kira, Lewis, Aiden, and the new guy Imi. He’s really cool, he’s 31 and from Hungary. Alex had us all meet in the cinema room to do one of his talks again and I nearly fell asleep, no offense Alex, you did amazing, I was just tired. We also picked names to play that stupid game again. Then we went to a welcome dinner, and afterwards went to some bars. Again, I was tired so I was not having the best time, but I stuck it out almost until the end. We went to this bar called cowboys and they had a mechanical bull, so I watched the others do that and then left with Shona shortly after. I got back to the hostel and literally 5 minutes later everyone came back so Im considering that the equivalent to me making it all night. We didn’t get to bed until midnight, so that was a long day.

Luckily today we got to sleep in a little bit. We didn’t have to be at breakfast until 9 so I woke up around 8/8:15ish and showered before meeting everyone else. I died at breakfast. Imi killed me. Good man. I thanked him. It’s actually funny how it happened, I reminded him not to take anything from anyone and then he passed me a banana literally 30 seconds later and killed me. Not a bad way to go out, the banana was very good. So now I’m out, which is so much better than being in. When breakfast finished some of us went to go paragliding. I didn’t get and pictures or videos of this but it was very relaxing. For those of you who have been to Disney it was basically Soarin over the world in real life. My guy didn’t talk much and it was freezing, but what made it all worth it was when he said “do you want to do some tricks?” to which I of course answered yes and that was sooooo much fun. We were flipping and flying and it was just great.

We went to this famous burger place when we got back, I kinda lost everyone but I wanted to try it out so I got in the long line for it and then guess who showed up? A bunch of them. Which was nice because I’m not fond of being alone as we know. The burgers were good and despite being the one to wait in line the longest I was the last to get my food…rude. But there was a nice cook who saw me waiting and made my burger for me. We sat at the lake and ate, to really is so beautiful. Think Tahoe mixed with what I imagine Italy looks like. I got cold though so I went back to the hostel after I ate. I don’t remember what I did though so…moving on. We had jet boating at 2. That. Was. Fun. I don’t know what I thought it would be but it wasn’t that. That was so much fun. We went so fast and we did turns and we went in water only like a foot deep because apparently thats what the boat was made for. It was the best time.

After that we went back to change and sort our lives out and then some of us (Faith, Lewis, Connie, Alex, Imi, and I) went up to the gondola to go luging. This really reminded me of Tahoe. Luging was sooooooo fun. We all went 3 times. It’s basically like go karts but down a mountain. They did take pictures which you can see below. We also saw some mountain goats, interesting fact, I can speak goat.

Then we got ice cream and walked to the lake. Lewis and I got in. Because sometimes I suggest things I don’t think through. But it was fun. Freezing but fun. Glad I did it, because why not. When in Rome and all that. It was obviously freezing when we got out, or so I assume, I was completely numb. So we went to the Sauna. Yes our hostel had a sauna. I’ve never been in a sauna before, it was a cool experience, figuratively of course, it was actually really hot and my nose started burning when I would breath in. We met a couple of dudes in there, some were playing cards and then another came in shortly after us and his name was Ben I think. He thought I was British, so now I am. I don’t even know what my accent is anymore. I’ve been asked if I was British and Australian but no one’s assumed American. Whenever someone asks where I’m from and I saw America they’re surprised, then I have to apologize and explain that for some reason when I’m around accents I automatically copy those accents…I’m working on it.

As I type this Lord of the Rings just finished. I spent most of time writing this, but hey at least I didn’t fall asleep. I always fall asleep during these movies. At some point this trip we ARE going to watch Mamma Mia though. Since I watched this now Lewis and Aiden have to watch Mamma Mia again. Thats the deal. Only Lewis, Emmet, Rachel, Shanied  and I made it to the end of this movie. Proud of myself.

Tomorrow we leave at 8:30 for the Milford sound. It’s about a 6 hour bus ride but at lest we have a private van this time. Im excited for tomorrow but I’m so sad because everyday we’re closer to being done. I officially have less than a week left. I’m sad. I’m not ready. This has been the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I could cry. I won’t, but I could. Having so so much fun.

Update you guys on how the Milford sounds goes! If pictures aren't uploaded...come back later.