Photo updates from Christchurch

Hello from Christchurch! Today was a long day on the bus, but I'm here safely and have just gotten back (about an hour and a half ago) from an awesome reunion dinner with one of my former HVHS students who's here in ChCh studying music at university. It was so great to see her again! Now it's just after 11pm and I'm checking in with the blog before having a (hopefully warm) shower and then heading to bed. Our last hostel had crappy lukewarm/coolish showers and it was almost painful to stay in long enough to get clean.... crossing my fingers that these ones are better!

Anyway, here's what I've been up to for the last couple days (click to enlarge the pictures):

I posed for a self-portrait at Lake Pukaki today on our lunch break. It's SO beautiful there, and we were really lucky to have very clear and sunny (but still chilly) weather!

I love Christchurch at night. These pics were taken on my walk home from dinner with Alex (former student).

Cathedral Square in ChCh = beautiful

This is the sign on the ladies' washroom at the Nevis bungy yesterday. Too funny!

Mid-bungy! SO COOL!

(Screaming my head off at this point, FYI)

Here's how I felt before and after the jump! Heh.

And for good measure, here are a couple pics from the Swoop in Rotorua! We did the Swoop about 2 weeks ago but I didn't get the pics until last night in Queenstown, as the girl in the middle had the picture CD and we left each other in Taupo before I could remember to snag them from her. We ran into each other last night so that was perfect timing!

So fun!

And there you have it! Not much else to report tonight, as all I did today was sit on the bus from 8:30am-4:15pm, writing postcards like my life depended on it (I think I wrote 30-35 postcards to my students today?!), visiting with the people in the seats around me about our bungy jumping/canyon swinging/glowworm caving/white water rafting etc. experiences, and taking pics at the various "Kodak moment" spots we stopped at en route. The end. A very long day on the bus but am glad to be having a relaxing night in Christchurch before heading off to Kaikoura in the morning. It's an early start tomorrow, 7:15am, but I think the drive is pretty focused, with not too many stops on the way, so that should be alright. I'm sure I will sleep well tonight.

Hope all is well at home or wherever you are reading this from! Arohanui!

NEVIS!!!!!

I DID IT!!!!!! I FREAKING DID IT!!!!!!

Ok, UNREAL. The biggest thrill of my life. Beats the crap out of jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet, even. I was terrified for I'm sure at least 30 minutes before I even jumped. I was pacing around and figuratively bouncing off the walls of the jump pod. I wasn't the only one though - there were quite a few people out there with me who were completely paralyzed with fear as well. There was a whole lot of nervous laughter out there as well, but without fail, every time somebody would come back up from their jump, they'd be all smiles (and nervous/exhiliarated giggles). SO AMAZING! I had to pull my foot release cord 3 times before it worked, but was glad that I was able to turn myself upright, as at least 3 or 4 people before me ended up coming back up upside down.

Alright, so the moment you've all been waiting for...... watch me bungy jump here! (Turn up your speakers for full screaming effect)

And now, just out of curiosity, in a word or two, how did you feel watching that? Impressions? Comment away! I want to know how that was for you viewers at home! I remember watching my first Nevis bungy video (posted by my friend Maddie on her facebook profile) and I literally felt weak in the legs just sitting at my computer. :op

I DID THE FREAKING NEVIS!!!!!!!!

Nevis bungy in 45 minutes and counting....

I have just paid for my Nevis bungy jump here in Queenstown and am going to be boarding a bus in 45 minutes to take me out to the jump site. This is by far the most insane thing I've done, and I'm totally terrified! I've heard great things about the bungy though, and I'm sure I'll love it, especially once it's over! Haha.

Yep, breathing shallow already in anticipation! 134 metres above the Nevis River, 8.5 seconds of freefall......... HOLY....... CRAP.

Bungy video!

B-U-N-G- WHY? Cause we GOTTA!

Check another one off the bucket list! I did my first bungy jump today in Taupo with a friend I made on the Kiwi Experience bus, Jade from England. We were both keen to try a bungy, so we decided to do the tandem jump, which was actually called "Couples Therapy." We definitely got a laugh out of the name. The laughter soon turned to nervous giggles and quivery-voiced profanities as we shuffled our feet over to the edge of the bungy platform. I can't really tell you how crazy it looks when you're actually up there and looking down, knowing that you're about to (willingly!) jump off. It sure seems a lot higher looking down than it would if you were just standing on the bank across the river watching somebody jump. I also wore one of Brent's "Badd Habbits" band t-shirts, which he gave me when we met up in Vancouver on my layover en route to NZ. I promised him I'd do some advertising in NZ for him! Voila! :o)

Smiling for the camera before taking the plunge off the platform

Screaming madly as we jumped off

Mid-jump shot from across the river

I've been waiting for a whopping 2 1/2 hours for the video to upload to my blog, but I really can't be bothered to sit here any longer so I've canceled the upload and will try again later! It's so painfully slow... and my patience has run out! Peace out until next time! Love you guys!