The West Coast

From Blenheim we went to Nelson, where we had to kill time for a day before our skydive, so we did the Cable Bay Walk and then went to Mapua. Mapua is a small village with a very nice harbor with lots of little shops, cafes, and restaurants. Then it was time for our skydive. I was pretty excited, but until the moment we had to jump, it was more joyful excitement. We climbed up for about 20 minutes and had a fantastic view of Motueka and Abel Tasman National Park, and we could even see Mount Taranaki on the North Island. Since we were flying from a height of 16500 ft, we received oxygen on the way up. And suddenly, the moment of the jump had arrived, Kevin (my tandem partner and instructor) slid with me to the door, because I was already strapped to him, I could hardly move, and then I had to swing my legs out of the plane, and that's where my fear of heights kicked in, but luckily I didn't have much time to think about it, because Kevin simply jumped out of the plane and we did a few somersaults before assuming our posture for the next 60 seconds of freefall. And even then, I didn't have time to think about my fear of heights, because Rebecca (my camerawoman) made me make funny faces, and so the time until the parachute opened went by damn fast. Once that happened, Kevin and I could also talk and I could look at the surroundings before it was time to land, we did a few turns and then I was already back down. It was an incredibly great experience and luckily the weather was good too.

Our next destination was the Nelson Lakes National Park, but we didn't stay there for long because there were too many sandflies, which are insect-like mosquitoes that are a real nuisance on the West Coast. After that, we went to Hokitika, where we searched for jade on the beach, drove to Hokitika Gorge, where the water is incredibly milky blue, and then we booked a course where we could make our own jade stone. Jade jewelry has great significance in New Zealand and is almost always worn as a necklace in the form of a Maori symbol. I made a fern because it is the national symbol of New Zealand, and I think it turned out pretty well too.

From Hokitika, we went to the glaciers, where we walked almost all the way to the Franz Josef Glacier. Unfortunately, nowadays you can only access the glacier by helicopter, and that was too expensive for us, but it was still impressive to see the glacier from such a close distance. Our next destination was Wanaka, where we naturally took a photo of the famous Wanaka Tree and then took the 16-kilometer hike to the top of Roy's Peak. That was really incredibly exhausting because even though the mountain is only about 1350 meters high, you walk up the mountain in switchbacks for 5 hours, so we were overjoyed when we finally reached the top. Fortunately, you are also rewarded with an incredible view of Wanaka, Lake Wanaka, and the mountains in the surrounding area.

Today we are in Queenstown, and since that is the adventure city of New Zealand, I had to do a bungee jump. Since I had already done a regular bungee jump in Poland 2 years ago, I decided to do the Nevis Swing. This jump includes both a bungee jump, as you first fall 70 meters, and a swing, as you swing through the Nevis Valley after the freefall before being pulled back up. Bella and I did a tandem jump where we looked at each other. I jumped backward and couldn't see how we were getting closer to the ground, which was very beneficial for my fear of heights, so Bella was the one of us who screamed loudly. The whole thing was over faster than it started, which was really sudden because you are unhooked very suddenly, but it was really a lot of fun.

Later, we will continue to the Fiordland National Park, where the day after tomorrow we will take a boat tour through Milford Sound.