Queenstown

I left off in Wanaka, where we camped close to the lake (one of the prettiest places I've ever seen). We cooked chicken quesadillas on our camp stove that came with the van and the boys play frisbee whenever we have downtime (kinda like marking their territory?). The next day we stole showers from a camp ground (the boys were starting to grow moldy) and then drove out in a valley of Mt. Aspiringly National Park to do a hike up to a glacier. It was another gorgeous day. After the hike we drove back to town to our camping spot from the night before. I think we cooked chili dogs. We got kicked out of our camping spot at 5 am by a security officer, but since I'm the girl, I got to keep sleeping while one of the guys (I assume) drove us to another spot. We stole another shower in the morning and drove down to Queenstown. Another big lake and mountain setting. Adam and Cramer went hiking while Nate and I went skydiving. It was just a little too easy and an hour after walking into the place we were on our way. Queenstown is kinda the adrenline, adventure capital of the world, having invented bungy jumping in the 80s, they have several of the tallest in the world, also parasailing, jetboating, rafting, etc. So the skydiving place was definitely busy! They have 2 planes taking people up constantly, every hour there are about 10 people going. Nate had been before a couple of times and said this time was the shortest safety speech ("Fall like a banana, arch your back") and the most traffic he'd seen. They really send a lot of people through, very organized and efficient. I was scared up until I paid to go, then I wasn't scared again until we were in the plane and at 3,000 ft I thought we were pretty high. We climbed to 15,000 ft and could see about every mountain in the southern hemisphere, it was a completely clear day. We were very high. I began to feel a little odd about falling out of an airplane. (Next time you fly, picture the side of the plane opening up like a sliding door and try telling yourself its okay to sit on the edge with your feet below the plane). I was scared when I saw the people in front of me fall out of the plane. That was more strange than me actually getting ready to fall. Supposedly we (tandem jump master and I) fell 60 sec. of freefall at 120 mph. It seemed shorter. There's enough wind resistance that it didn't make my stomach feel as crazy as when I bungy jumped. I just tried to enjoy the scenery and breathe and keep my goggles from flying off. I can't wait to do it again. Much less scary than bungying. Problem is that its an expensive 2 minutes!
Sunday morning the MBs took me to Mormon church. They try to go every Sunday, no matter where we are. The church meets in a funeral home and only had about 25 members. It was the smallest branch the guys had been to. Afterwards they invited us to a potluck so that was lucky (no wonder the guys like to try church out everywhere). The speaker that day actually manages a penguin colony on the east coast and invited us to come and take a special tour with the scientists, getting to take pictures up close when usually no photography is allowed. Its only on Tuesdays that the scientists come in though, so I will miss it. I'll miss it because I'm headed back up to the north island by next Tuesday to meet David and his friend Garrett when they fly into Auckland. After the potluck Cramer wanted to drive up the road to one of the nearby ski resorts (of course its closed cuz the snow is gone but Cramer is a sponsored snowboarder who is obsessed with snow..."I just want to touch some snow"). We did that then drove out of town about 45 minutes to camp, so that we were closer to the trailhead this morning. The guys are doing a 3 day hike but I decided to be a girl and spend the time shopping and communicating. Yesterday when they were getting permits and food, it was pouring all day, reassuring me I had made the right decision. There are huts to stay in, but I would have had to rent a sleeping bag and the odds are good that there would be a lot of rain. I'm pretty much a fairweather dayhiker. I dropped them off at one end of the trail and will pick them up at the other end, about 20-25 miles away on Wednesday. They were thankful for my transportation services but also made me feel welcome to come. I would have struggled to keep up the whole time and they had long days planned. So I came back to Queenstown, paid $5 to a hostel for a shower and to charge our electronics (ipod, speakers, camera). I cooked Ramen noodles for lunch on our stove. Then I did a short hike up a hill with a view and laid in the warm sun for awhile before heading down, washed my 2 pair of socks in a bowl (I expected to wear sandals more often!) and have been working on logistics for the latter part of the day (flights, possible free car rental, whats cheaper, what day to go, which of my friends will be where, etc). Planning to grab some groceries, then head to a camping spot from a couple of days ago, do some reading, go to bed early, get up and do a pretty hard hike tomorrow. Might have a friend coming into town tomorrow, a tour director at RCT who has been on a 4 day hike.

This trip is working out really well, I'm enjoying all aspects of it. However, writing all these details was annoying and I'm glad its over.