Day 10 - alternative Christmas

24.12.2019 - Christmas Eve - I am dreaming of a crazy day..... that was something. I almost can't find the words to describe today. But now I have two new career aspirations: either I become a helicopter pilot or a jet boat driver.

Let's start from the beginning: today we first drove from Altert Town to Makarora in the Mount Aspiring National Park by car (50 min.), and then we took off on a helicopter flight, and sometimes it pays off to be smaller and lighter. I got to sit in the front!!!!!! As a quasi co-helicopter pilot. It was really really great. A helicopter flight is so much better than a boring normal airplane flight, and in this magnificent Makaroa landscape on top of that. We flew over the mountains and glaciers of the national park. By the way, you could see the dust from the bushfires in Australia on the glaciers. The weather was once again excellent for the two Sunday kids. The Lord always means well with us. After a 20-minute flight, we were then "dropped off" at a river and had to hike for 3 hours, but due to the delayed departure, we only had a little over 2 hours to hike over a pass to the neighboring valley. It was magnificent: you felt like you were in wonderland because the landscape, the plants, the rocks, and the water were unique and magical.

Despite many photo breaks, we managed to arrive at the pick-up point on time and were picked up there by a jet boat and a very cool pilot. Jet boats only need less than 4 inches of water under the bow and can therefore move well in these shallow but fast-flowing streams. With 500 hp - that's power and it's fast. And I mean really really fast. So fast that your eyes tear up if you don't wear glasses. Then there were also furious 360-degree turns on the river, and the spray shot up high. Just amazing. And I was wet. :-)

Our current host recommended a small hike to the Blue Pools, nice, but after the previous experiences, everything pales in comparison... But we saw a very failed dive from the suspension bridge. That hurt!

Whoever comes here should do it too. It's worth it.

But to all of you, a blessed and merry Christmas! We miss our families and wave to everyone virtually. Consider yourselves hugged and kissed...

Dear mom, I survived!