swimming with dolphins + skydiving

Did I mention that I love this country??

After leaving Christchurch with a sadly depleted tour group on Thursday, we headed north to a town called Kaikoura which was one of the most beautiful places I've seen in an incredibly beautiful country. It's been really sunny here and Kaikoura combined cute little town, blue sea, stunning coastline, and incredibly green rolling hills and cliffs, with snow-capped mountains in the background to complement it all...the colours just seem brighter and more vivid here! We were staying at a charming little hostel which really felt like a home, complete with saggy sofas and an old record player with an, er, interesting collection of LPs.

Swimming with dolphins was something Vic and I were both dubious about for financial reasons - it was pretty expensive - but which we really can't regret. It was wonderful...they were wild dolphins, you go out in a boat and tour the coast until the driver finds a pod of dolphins, then jump in. We were in about 800 metres of water apparently (freaky! the Pacific ocean!! Anything could be down there!), freezing cold, but then we were well equipped with wetsuits, booties and balaclava hoods over our heads, as well as snorkelling equipment. (They did me a prescription eyemask, well impressed!) We were instructed to try to attract the dolphins' attention by making noise, singing underwater, diving down and generally being interesting and entertaining. (Lucky it comes naturally to me). So, a group of about 10 of us piled off the boat...and there they were! These big animals, swimming round us, circling us, leaping out of the water, swimming away and coming back again...it was brilliant. They came so close, close enough to touch although apparently that would have freaked them out. They seem to find groups of swimmers curious or interesting or something, rather than threatening.

Neither me or Vic have any idea how long we were swimming with them for as we were pretty overexcited, but eventually we had to pile back on the boat, which is when things got interesting as the water was VERY choppy and the boat very small and rocky...there were at least 4 people who spent the whole journey back hunched over with buckets, being severely sick. Eew. It was enough to make me feel queasy and I almost never get seasick.

That was a really wonderful experience, getting so close to wild animals in their own environment (yeah, yeah, I'm so in touch with nature, ah, the spirit of mother earth and all that jazz) but I think we just managed to top it: we spent the afternoon doing a tandem skydive over Lake Taupo (we're now in the north island)...oh my god. It was amazing, so amazing, brilliant...after landing all I could really do was repeat "the best thing EVER!!", and it really was. Terrifying, exhilarating, and just so, so much fun. Vic and I did it along with 2 girls from our tour, Susie and Emily (we've each been given a dvd of us before, during and after which is hilarious). You get all suited up in this charming red jumpsuit (we all looked like convicts, except for Vic, who was working the butch look with her buzz cut and boilersuit) and get into a tiny little plane with your parachutist guy (someone had told us that all the guys were incredibly good looking, so we were...slightly disappointed) and climb to 12000 feet. (The tiny plane ride was good fun in itself, especially as the pilot was writing a text message whilst steering.) And then the guys strap themselves onto your back and you just...jump out of the plane. It was so scary, I really couldn't contemplate doing it but it happens so fast and there's no time to freak out. Then there was 45 seconds of freefall which was aMAZing, but also terrifying, of course...but because it was such a long period of freefall compared with something like the canyon swing that we did, there was time to relax and enjoy it - plus I felt pretty secure and wasn't worried about crash landing or anything. Then they open the parachute (which was really painful!! all those ropes kicking in and holding you up...ouch) and everything goes incredibly quiet. Then there was about 6 minutes of FLYING, drifting down at about 30 miles an hour with amazing views of the huge lake (biggest in NZ) and the countryside (we're not so far from the mountain that was used as Mount Doom in LOTR). Oh man. It was so wonderful. Even landing was not painful at all.

I'm completely wiped out now...but it was fantastic, really, one of the best things I've ever done.