Hi, everyone!! It's been a while since I've mail bombed everyone and I suspect that this will be my last big email until I get back to America next Monday night. I've spent the past 10 days or so in New Zealand and I thought I would give you an update on the crazy stuff I've been up to (and this time it's a little crazier than usual). Read on...

Patrice and I arrived in Christchurch last Wednesday and joined up with a tour group two days later. The company is called Stray and they, like pretty much all of the others here, target the 18-35 crowd. We didn't get off to a great start on this trip. We were supposed to take a shuttle bus from Christchurch up to Kaikoura to meet with the people who were already on the tour (we were joining mid-stream). We assumed that we had seats booked on the bus but the driver had never heard of us. Uh oh. Fortunately a girl named Angie (who was on our tour) had a booking for three even though she was by herself. We assumed we were the other two and hopped on. =)

That night we met the rest of the group. There are a number of different characters and when you see the photos I'll explain who's who, but basically we have:
* me and Patrice
* a Dutch couple and a Swiss couple
* one loud, obnoxious (but very funny) American guy
* seven single British chicks (woo hoo!)

The driver is named "Auto" (I don't know his real name) and he is totally crazy. There are two trainee guides, one Irish girl and one Kiwi guy, who are only slightly less crazy. I've been with that group for about ten days now and everyone gets along great (no cliques or anything like that) and I'll be very very sad to have to say good bye. There have been lots of fun nights of drinking and dancing and general debauchery but those stories will probably have to wait. =)

Rather than go through the trip chronologically, here are some of the places we've been and the things we've done:

* We spent two days in Abel Tasman National Park. This is one of the smaller parks but is by far the most visited. We had a three-hour hike along the coast, and then we kayaked back. I had never been kayaking but fortunately my kayak partner had and she talked me through it.

* We took a cruise around Milford Sound (which is actually a fiord, not a sound... long story). This is where the Tasman Sea (separating Australia from NZ) carves its way into the glaciers and the mountains. The scenery was amazing (think "Lord of the Rings").

* I went hiking on a glacier. It was a short hike (around four hours) but we got to wear the crampons on our boots and climb through ice tunnels and such. Unfortunately I didn't get to use the pick axe.

Yes, yes, all that stuff is fine and interesting but let's get to the really crazy stuff:

I went bungee jumping again. Three times, actually. Three times in the span of 24 hours, to be exact. There is a company in Queenstown that runs three of the bungee jump sites there, and they have a deal called The Thrillogy, which allows you to jump all three for a discounted price. So how could I say no?

The first one I did was Kawarau Bridge, which is the original commercial bungee jumping site. At 43m, it is significantly smaller than the one I did in South Africa (216m) but still holds a special place in the heart of jumpers worldwide. Because of the relatively low height, you can actually get dunked into the river if you so choose. A girl on my tour named Caroline was a bit scared of jumping and asked if I would do a tandem jump with her, ie both of us jumping while holding onto each other. So that's what we did.

She was a bit nervous at first but when we got to the platform, she was absolutely terrified. When they said we were ready to go, she freaked out. She was yelling "I can't do it! I can't do it!" and the guy came over and gave her a little talking-to. He basically said "you need to get off this platform one way or another, and I don't care whether it's by jumping off or turning around and walking off without jumping". She was very brave and decided to jump. We hoped that we would just barely go into the water but I pretty much ended up getting completely soaked. But Caroline was very glad that she did it and even though it wasn't as exciting as my first jump, it was still fun.

Later that day, I went to another site called The Ledge. This is at the top of a big mountain overlooking Queenstown. The jump itself is only 47m but the difference here is that you are attached to the rope at your waist, not at your feet. So you can run off the platform (as opposed to just jumping or falling) and do somersaults and such. I did two flips and it was really great. Still, the adrenalin buzz wasn't what I remembered it to be but the view from the top was amazing.

Does it sound like I was actually getting bored with bungee jumping? In some ways, I guess I was. The next day we went to a place called Nevis River for the third jump. If I was getting complacent, this totally changed my mind. At Nevis, the jumping platform is actually a cable car suspended 154m (or something like that) above the river. To get to it, you need to ride on a little gondola, and believe me, I was far more scared of that thing than of jumping! Being on the jump platform was scary enough (it was windy and the thing is moving around while you're standing there watching everyone!) but the jump was fantastic. As opposed to the other big one I did in SA, for this one I was pretty confident and not really as nervous, so I remember a lot more of it and enjoyed it so much more. It was definitely the best one I've done.

So where do you go from here? I've jumped off the biggest one and also did the three most popular in Queenstown, "the adrenalin capital of the world". All that's left is something crazy, like.... oh.... I don't know... sky diving.

Ah yes. Could it be that bungee jumping was getting boring because 24 hours before I jumped 43m off the Kawarau Bridge, I had jumped 12,000ft out of an airplane??

I almost didn't get the chance to do this. I had signed up to do it on the same day I did the glacier hike, but because of bad weather my hike was postponed and I had to choose one or the other. I opted to do that hike instead of sky diving because I figured I'd never see a glacier again but I could sky dive in Queenstown. Fortunately, the sky dive folks were nice enough to slot me in the next morning, so I got to do both!

After lots of waiting around that morning, they put me in my jump suit, told me how it all worked, and we climbed into a teeny tiny little airplane. So tiny, there were no seats. We were just sitting on the floor, me and the instructor (I may be crazy enough to jump out of a plane but not crazy enough to do it myself!). We had a 20-min scenic flight above the glacier, providing me just enough time to start breathing heavily and panicking a bit. At 12,000ft, it was time to go. I don't know if any of you has done this before, but if so you will agree that when they open the door and you hear how loud it is and feel how cold it is, you think "they're gonna have to push me out because no fucking way am I jumping out!"

We slid over to the door and the instructor hung me over the side of the plane for my photo. I haven't seen it yet but I assume it will be pretty hysterical. Then... out you go!! We rolled over once (so that I could get a look at the plane I had just been pushed out of) and we started our free fall: 7000ft in 45 seconds. It was so awesome. I was yelling "WOO HOO" the whole way and seeing the mountains and the sea and the ground was really incredible. I don't think the view at 12000ft is terribly different than it is at 5000ft, so it's not like the ground is rushing up at you.

At 5000ft, the chute opens, and everything goes quiet (except for me screaming). It takes about 4 minutes to glide back down to earth. I was never really all that scared once the chute was open, though it was a bit weird because at this point, the ground almost IS rushing up towards you. I got a ton of photos and hopefully some will come out really well. The instructor spun us around a few times and it was like being on a big roller coaster a mile above the ground. Finally we landed and I had a big smile on my face for hours.

So those are the highlights. As far as I know, there are no more crazy things in the plans, but you never know I guess!

The tour gets us back to Christchurch on Tuesday and then Patrice and I (and, coincidentally, a few people from the tour) are going back to Sydney. I'll probably check email later this week. I am leaving Sydney Monday afternoon Sydney time, and I get back home very late Monday night Eastern time.

I hope all is well wherever you are and I will definitely let you know once I've made it back to the US. Talk to you soon!!!!

Chris