From: asanders@email.com
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999
Subject: Leaving New Zealand
Someone emailed me the other day and said I was on a death wish (Cheers, Phil). Hmm... not a bad way of putting it. Only I think I've become desensitized to near-death activity. Time to take a rest, I believe.
After 3 but long-but-fun-despite-the-sandflies-days on the Abel Tasman trail, we headed down the stunning South Island of New Zealand. My diary goes something like this: it was gorgeous, stunning, beautiful, insane, breathtaking views. Have your pick at an adjective. I've run out.
Highlights included spending time with some superb, top quality people, cross-dressing parties, all day glacier hiking in Franz Josef with crampons and ice picks, bungy jumping, partying like mad in Queenstown, and the most spectacular (how's that for a new adjective?) landscape I've ever ever seen -- Milford Sound!!!! What a buzz.
I'll elaborate on a few.
Bungy jumping was by far the most terrifying thing I've ever done. It took me a good 10 minutes to get off that platform... head first... and fall 110 feet. I kept asking one of the jump masters what I'm supposed to do. He kept telling me to jump. I kept telling him I didn't know how. He kept rushing me off the platform. I kept swearing. My definition of gravity was suddenly warped. But before I broke out in hives, I closed my eyes, grabbed my rear end, and went down. If I hadn't spent so much money in NZ as it was, I probably would have done it many times thereafter.
What else? Milford Sound! Don't know if there are the right words for Milford (go ahead with all those adjectives at once). Liz and I hired a car (liberating) for a few days to go down into Fjorland and the sounds. I was ill at the time and still walked out of Milford Sound with the greatest buzz ever (no alcohol req'd). Went sea kayaking in the morning. Took a cruise in the afternoon. A seal followed our kayaks for a good hour singing, dancing, and playing with us. It was so special. Dolphins followed our boat all around the sound. This was definitely the best part of NZ thus far.
Liz and I are off to Sydney tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to some more sunshine. Fiji tans are fading. NZ has almost become too familiar, but still not enough time to do all I wanted to do.
I'm sending off six photos (I hope this works). One is of us in Fiji after Liz and I have our first dive together at The Great White Wall. Vanua Levu is the island in the background. Aren't we cute? Another is a group shot of us geared up to begin our Indiana Jones abseil and black water caving, glow worm experience in Waitomo. Another is of me at the ropes course in Taupo jumping for the trapeze from a pole 30 meters high. Another is me all geared up on a bridge for my bungy jump. There is a fifth photo of Liz and I in a cave at Franz Josef glacier. Finally, there is one of me squatting with Queenstown at dusk in the background (we stayed there 8 glorious days).
I'm certain I have forgotten a ton of things, but here is some of it. Emails are great, especially because the majority of them I receive now are from fellow travellers.
Everyone, be well.
Kisses,
Amy