Jake and Melissa's Adventure Down Under

Day 64-67
Basically for the last couple of days all we have been doing is lying on the beach and walking around town going into cool shops. It has been a great couple of days. Weather has been great, with today being the best. A couple of days ago Jake saw a humpback whale, maybe 50yrds from shore. You could also see them far out on the horizon as well. It was pretty cool. Saturday night after sitting on the beach all day we wandered up to the point. The sun was setting and gathering of musicians began to play various instruments together. Mostly drums and a couple of guitars. A big crowd gathered. It was all different kinds of ppl just grooving to the towns. Looking out over the water watching the sunset drop behind the mountains, a pod of dolphins decided to come hang out right off the point. They just sort of stopped for a while, almost like they were listening to the tunes too. It was a perfect last night in byron.

Tonight we arrived in Sydney and went to Darling Harbour for dinner. Turns out it was some crazy soccer festival set up for world cup. Fifa soccer fest they call it. It was enclosed but you could see the gist of everything and hear the concert playing. They had a massive screen playing the game and a soccerball shaped screen playing the game also. It was pretty cool to see. The lamp posts were also soccer balls. All and all great last night to our trip. Tomorrow we begin our long journey home. Sad to say goodbye. It has been a blast!!

Day 57
Milford Sound..which is really a fiord. Took another tour company fiji experience. Our driver was the coolest driver we had on all the tours. He opened the bus doors as he was driving because we were singing wheels on the bus. He did all the actions in the song. Beautiful scenary of course. Got some great photos. The boat ride was rocky. Melissa did not like this. When we got back to Q-Town we bar-hopped in hopes of finding our friends. We ended up at World Bar again and ran into our tour group from the beginning of our tour of the north island (our most fav ppl ever). It was great seeing everyone again. They were the best bunch of ppl anyone could ask for. We stayed out pretty late and went to ferburger one last time.

Day 58
Drove to christchurch. A cool city. Lots of churchs. It was kind of a sketchy town. Didnt really do much there as we had limited time. But we saw the gist of it all. Oh on our drive to christchurch we saw some really cool lakes and the church of the good sheppard. Nice scenary yet again.

Day 59
Drove to Kaikoura. Dolphins, whales and seals. We stopped and took a tonne of pictures of cute seals. But we never saw any dolphins or whales. Walked along the beach collecting rocks that looked like jade. Good relaxing day. At night it was the big football match between NZ All Blacks vs. Ireland. we went to the irish pub to watch the game strawberry tree. Good times. Watched LOTR 3. It was cool seeing all the scenary in the movie that we have been seeing on our journey around NZ.

Day 60
Drove to Picton to catch the ferry across back to wellington. Rocky boat. Once in welly we walked up mt victoria a spot used a lot in the LOTR films. We took the hobbits hideway path..also a scene from the movie. It was really dark so not too sure if pictures will show up. Climbed the moutain summit and got some photos of the entire city at night. That evening we met up with our friends from the tour for one last drink. As it was our last night in NZ together.

Day 61
Drive from hell. Drove straight from welly to Auckland. Longest drive ever!! The highlight was stopping in Hobbiton. Also a location used in LOTR. Pretty cool. That night we walked around auckland trying to pass time for our 3am departure for the airport. Watched Robin Hood. Cool movie if you haven't yet seen it. Got to the airport and just waited till we could sleep. By that point we had been up for 24hrs.

Day 62
Arrived in Gold Coast. Nice warm weather. Took a shuttle to Byron Bay, where we are spending out last remaining days. Weather was awesome. Walked around town and down to the beach. Nice relaxing day.

Day 63
Spent the morning on the beach. jake went swimming and caught some waves. Walked to the most easterly point of Australia. More walking around town. It is such a cool place.

Day 64.
Shopping and checking out the city. Weather is good yet again. Hopefully it stays that way for the rest of the days we are here.

Day 55
Drove from Makarora to Wanaka. Went to PUZZELWORLD!!! Sweet As! Lots of cool stuff. Saw how they made the hobbits in LOTR smaller then regular ppl. We took photos of our selves growing and shrinking. The maze outside was difficult. One member from our bus was still in the maze as were were driving away. It was funny! Drove to Aj Hackett Bungy headquarters, first bungy in the world!! Signed up for the Nevis 134m bungy 8.5secs freefall (3rd largest in the world), but techinically it is the largest free bungy in the world as they dont have guide wires to guide you down. Arrived in Queenstown, instantly our fav place our of everywhere we've been. This includes fiji and OZ. Small town, surrounding a lake, with giant moutains all around in every direction. Went to Fergburger. An iconic place in Queenstown for good reason. The burgers are massive and delicious! so delicious we went there twice in less than 24hrs. At night met up with ppl from the bus. Went to Altitude Bar and World Bar. World bar was cool cause they put your mixed drink in a tea pot. All and all good first night in Q-Town.

Day 56
Early rise to plummet to our death...not so much as we are writing this now and are still alive. Anyways..got to the sign up place and picked up in a van. There was 10 ppl jumping from our group. Jake found out he was the heaviest which means he goes first. The drive up to the mountain was scary. Our driver was insane. The bungy was suspended on cables between two mountains. You had to take a scary cable car to the bungy platform. Jake did not even really get a safety speech, he arrived and then basically jumped. Before jumping he noticed there was a frayed bungy cord, he laughed and asked whose cord it was, the man looked at jakes wrist and laughed back, as the cord was the one he was going to use. He was the only one to use that cord, cause of course he was over 100kg. He looked very gracious. The most gracious of all the jumpers that we saw. Melissa however, jumped but could pull the cord at the end, so she came up upside down, amongst the crew teasing her calling her a fishy. She was one of the 2 ppl who could not pull the release (which makes you flip so you get raised up by your harness in a sitting position). Whateves she jumped and is alive After that were pretty pumped so we decided to do the Nevis Arc, which is the worlds highest swing 300m arc 160m high 70 m free fall. We went together which made it more fun. However we were limited to positions because of our weight difference. We got videos of it all so don't worry. Amazing time! Came back, got fergburger and walked around town. Melissa hearts Q-town!! Jake likes its more, its Banff on speed!
Tonight we are meeting up with the rest of our nevis crew and bus ppl for some celebratory cocktails! tomorrow we head to Milford Sound..one of the most spoken about places in NZ.

Day 50
Walked around Abel Tasman national park. Took a water taxi, saw some baby seals and some birds that look a lot like peguins...but they weren't Hiked around, saw some pretty cool caves where ppl carved their names in them. Found Jakes name a bunch of times, but not Melissa. Overall, the national park was very nice! Best part was anchorage bay.

Day 51
Skydive. 13,000ft. We both got videos so don't worry. Jake got put with a small little woman, who was quite scared about his size. They had a hard landing because jake was over 100kg and 100kg was the maximum for skydiving so they came down too fast. Melissa was with a man, who apparently forgot about pulling the shoot so the camera-man missed out on that part. But all was well. Sweet landing. Awesome experience!! We jumped over Able Tasman national park, the only place in NZ where you can see both islands during a jump. After our jump we jumped on the bus and headed for Barry Town. Stopped at some cool beaches with massive waves. Saw the famous Pancake rocks in Paproa National Park. Barrytown was pretty awesome. The bartender was a dredlocked maori dude, who didnt really pay attention to what he was pouring. Lots of free drinks i.e. poured wine in pint glass..filled it then realized it was in a pint glass so poured another wine glass and charged same price for both glasses because he messed up lol. P&G night..had to dress up as something that starts with a P or a G. Jake was a priest, Melissa was a Glow worm. Fun times!!

Day 52
Bone and Jade carving. Jake did Bone carving. He designed his own necklace which turned out pretty nice! Everyone was impressed with how it came out. Melissa did Jade alone..so it was pretty cool having her own private lesson. All and all cool NZ experience designing and making our own traditional necklaces, that otherwise cost $$$$ in the store. Departed B-Town for Franz Joseph. Stopped in Greymouth and Hokitika. Went to Jade Factory. At night just chilled out in Franze preparing for our full day glacier hike.

Day 53.

Glacier hike in pouring rain!!!!!!!! They said they would provide waterproof jackets, pants and boots...keyword Waterproof, which apparently equals water absorbant in New Zealand. We were completely soaked, ringing out our gloves every 5 mins. It was ridiculous, especially because it was glacier water..very cold! However, there was tonnes of cool little caves and crevaces that we walked through. An experience that we would not do otherwise. The most interesting part of the day, was getting down. Our guide just strolled along in front not looking at if ppl were okay. One girl from our bus slipped and lost footing and slid down the glacier almost plummeting down into a infinite hole ...only thing saving her was her 1 leg . It was scary. Luckily we were behind her so we saw it happen and could call for help. We are heros!!

Day 54

Depart Franz for Makarora. Saw fox glacier, lake matheson (glacier mirror lake), mount aspiring national park, haast pass, ships creek, thunder creek falls, blue pools and mt cook (highest mountain in NZ). Pretty relaxed day just doing walks. Absolutely gorgeous scenary. Melissa hearts NZ!!! Jake likes it too..

Day 46 Continued-----internet time expired..

So after zorbing we went to some cool thermal pools. Travelled to some mud pools which smelt disgusting. It is basically boiling mud, but it looks pretty cool though. We went to Huka Falls which is 11m high and is the most visited natural attraction in NZ, or at least according to this book I read. The water flow could fill an olympic size swimming pool every 3secs (nothing on niagara falls). That night we arrived in Taupo. Pretty cool city. It was one of the guys on our bus birthday. We went out for some drinks at an irish pub. Good times.

Day 47
Tongariro Crossing. It is NZ 1st national park. it has 3 volcanoes, and the walk was 19.5km and took about 7-8hrs. Super tired after that one. The coolest thing about this place was not only its amazing scenary but that a lot of LORD OF THE RINGS (LOTR) was filmed there. We climbed up next to Mt Doom, saw the battle fields of mordor and the planes of rohan. It was so awesome. We took so many pictures. It shouldn't have taken frodo so long, maybe they should have got us to carry the ring. They told us to wear a tonne of layers, that it was going to be really cold. It wasn't. Jake ended up climbing in an under shirt and shorts lol...ahh they have no idea what cold is. The people who didnt do the walk got to see the water fall where gollum eats the fish in the movie. Strange enough that is our drivers nick name. Our hostel/hotel was in the national park and had some sweet hot tubs. Good for your back and feet after all that hiking.They said the hotel was mexican, they clearly have no idea what mexican theme is either. It looked like a cabin.

Day 48
Went to wellington. NZ capital city. Super cool. Went to Te Papa museum. Best museum in NZ! so many interactive things. We saw a giant blue whale skeleton, it was massive. They have a huge oceanic display, all kinds of aquatic animals and their skeletons. They are home to the one and only Collosal Squid on display. It was gross looking and amazing all at once. This thing was massive. The discovery channel documentary of this. Didnt know this was the museum until we got there. At night we met up with the people from our group as they were hoping off bus and we were moving on. It was sad to say goodbye to some ppl. It was a fun night though. Jake lost a bet and had to chug an entire beer. Round (house of commons)--ugliest building ever. They also have electric run buses like street cars at home.

Day 49
Ferry to the south island. Our original plane was to sky dive to the south island, but apparently they dont do that any more. Something about international airspace and legal obligations that would have been sweet as! Ferry ride was cool, we slept the entire way. It was the biggest boat we have ever been on. It had a line up of 18 wheelers to get on to it. Left 'Gonad' behind to get on 'Mr T' the names of our buses. gonad was a better bus, but mr t is still one of the best stray buses out there. Drove through Nelson, 1st city in NZ, home of the first "all blacks" rugby team. Also where the rings in LOTR were made, the real ones the actors wore. Cool! Stopped for some wine tasting at Marlboroh. They make ice wine, but its not the same way we make it at home, it is cheating, as they make it in a big stainless steel container then they freeze the juice. Cheaters!!! Takata ranges ---more LOTR set. They are limestone moutain range, and home to the largest cave in the southern hemisphere according to our bus driver. Arrived in Abel tasman national park. Here for 2 days. Best coast line in NZ. Cant wait to see it in the day-light tomorrow and then friday from the sky. Yes we are sky-diving friday morning!!

Thats it for now..hope everyone is well at home