New Zealand – Best bits part II

Dear All,

New Zealand went by in such a flash that we didn’t have time to write much so I thought I would supplement Ben’s post with a few more of our best bits, and of course some good pics! The skydive was without a doubt the best bit for me too but as Ben’s already waxed lyrical about that subject (it was absolutely amazing!) here are a few others;

1) Milford Sound

This is a fjord in the south west of the South Island, carved out of the mountains by glacial movement many years ago. We took a boat trip down the sound to experience the incredible views first hand. The scenery was even more spectacular as it was preceded by 48 hours of torrential rain which made the greenery lush and the waterfalls gush (although not so lucky seen as we were camping for the 48 hours before!).

2) Driving the West Coast

For our last week, I decided to take my life into my hands by hiring a car and letting Ben drive me around (I had conveniently forgotten to bring my licence).  It was fantastic to have the freedom to go where we wanted after spending 2 weeks on a guided tour and Ben even learnt how to put petrol in a car! We drove all the way up the western coast of the south island and back down to Christchurch. We even managed to fit in a 26km hike which I would definitely not recommend as I could barely walk by the end.

Ben and the wheels of steel!

3) Unusual rocks!

A slightly unusual title you may think, but New Zealand is absolutely full of weird and wonderful rocks which cannot be explained by scientists. Here are a couple of our favourites;

Moraki Boulders

Pancake Rocks

Oh yeah, they also have great names!

More news from down under soon!

Love Lau xxx

New Zealand – Best bits part I

Hello readers!

As promised, due to the fact that we have been camping in the wilderness, and only partly due to laziness, here are our belated New Zealand blogs. It is difficult to to single out only a handful of things to write about in a country so laid back, with it’s breath-taking scenery, mystic Maori culture and death-defying adventure sportrs but here are some of my favorites…

Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?

A good question. Especially at 15,000 ft – well, 16,200 ft to be precise because of Queenstown’s elevation. It’s actually illegal in some European countries to jump from that height as it’s too likely you’ll pass out during your descent. Just before exiting at that altitude however, you can see the curvature of the Earth and, after disembarking, you accelerate to a terminal velocity of 200 kms/h in 8 seconds. Most people’s brains don’t actually comprehend what is happening for the first 10 – 20 seconds of the minutes free fall, as the experience is so extreme and unknown to the body.

All I remember is the feeling of weightlessness and absurd acceleration at the same time as I hurtled down through the amazing views of the Remarkables mountain range. Sadly, the photos of the sky dive cost 80 quid, as you have to pay for an extra camera man has to do the jump with you, so you will have to use your imaginations for the look of terror on my face as I screamed my way down 15,000 ft.

More white water… and knuckles

In a bid to stem our financial hemorrhage this year, Lau and I decided to only do each activity once. However, I enjoyed the white water rafting so much in Argentina, that I was sold again down the Rangitata river.

The Rangitata offers Grade 5 rapids, which is the most dangerous commercially available rafting in New Zealand… and probably therefore the world. So I spent another 2 hours, giggling like a school girl at the front of a raft, with a ridiculous look plastered on my face.

PADDLE!

It did get a little scary at one point, when a boat flipped on a rapid and we needed to perform an emergency rescue… our cameraman had time to cooly take this photo though.

Boozing in Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo is a glacial run-off lake in the Otago region, which is beautifully colored due to the tiny sapphire fragments contained in the water from the glacier’s erosion down the Southern Alps mountain range. It is around 5 – 10 degrees in the water, but a few of us braved the cold for a few/ several sun downers one late January evening.

I guess it served me right then when I woke up with a stinking cold the following day.

We are now off to Australia, over the Tasman Sea, where we plan to try and survive a week with my parents and Lau’s mum in a car driving the Great Ocean Road. We will let you know if we succeed!

Bendy x

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Kia ora bros! Hope you all had a brilliant New Year’s Eve and have some relevant resolutions for the coming 12 months!

Apologies for the lack of compelling stories recently… we have been under the radar camping around New Zealand. So, like a lazy Friends episode where they compile all the best old clips, we will post up a run down of all the most exciting things from this amazing island when we get the chance.

We will also be doing a blog similar to a Friends ‘what if’ style episode where Laura is fat and I’m skinny.

Take care all and we will speak to you soon!

Love

Bendy & Laura x x x x x x

Bermuda Triangle

Well, maybe not quite the Bermuda triangle, but still we managed to lose something quite important, just as mysteriously…

A day. Monday December 15th to be exact. 24 hours of our lives lost somewhere over the Pacific. How could we be so careless? Will we ever recover this misplaced time? I can tell you now with no amount of certainty – I don´t have a clue.

The problem is, confused readers, that they never really existed at all. That´s right, that whole day just never occurred for us.

We took off from Santiago at 11pm on December 14th for our 11 hour flight, and landed in Auckland at 4am on December 16th. How spooky. It is intangible enough to gain or lose an hour or two on a long bus ride in South America, but a whole day? This is surely a case for Mulder & Scully.

At this point, we must expres our sincerest apologies to Helen Cockroft, who´s birthday did not exist for us this year. Does this mean she can claim that she isn´t a year older? Sorry Helen, no.

I´m sure there is an scientific explanation for all of this…. but while I wait for a geek to post the answer on my blog, I´m off to see if I can steal someone else´s December 15th! At least Christmas will come sooner this year… or will it?

Benicio x