Hitch-Hiking to Wanaka and Skydive number two!

So, as I never got around to blogging about my first skydive in Australia (maybe one day I will write that 7 week trip up!) I thought I definitely need to write about the 2nd - and it was quite an adventurous journey there.

We had been WWOOFing for two weeks with Fay, sanding down her house and painting undercoat on, plus stripping wallpaper and other odd jobs like gardening at her daughters farm. We had the Saturday off before leaving on Sunday to our casual job on a local Vineyard in Alexandra, Central Otago.

So we asked if we could use the car to get to Wanaka to do our skydive, which was all good so we booked it. But the night before at 8pm Fay told us that she didn't think the car was safe enough to take as she had bumped it into a tree stump earlier that week and the bumper had half come off, which was fair enough. The only problem is we couldn't cancel the skydive as we would lose our money and we didn't know when to reschedule for. It was too late to try and arrange a lift there so our only option left was to wake up a little earlier and hitch hike there.

We had never hitched before so it was bound to either be a good experience or a bad one and we were hoping for a good one after the 2 weeks of bad weather.

In the morning we woke up super hyped and excited, made our signs to Wanaka and back to Roxburgh and then waiting on the road outside the house, thumbs up, signs out, boobs out and skirt hitched up (haha only joking). It didn't take long (around 10mins) for our first ride to pull up, James, a lovely dreadlocked dude from Dunedin. He was headed to Queenstown for a concert so he could take us to the junction in Cromwell which was a huge chunk of the journey done!

We made the normally hour long ride in record time (40mins) as he was a speed breaking lunatic but he could handle the roads and was a great character to chat to.

He dropped us at the junction in Cromwell and then we had our last leg to go - and it was only 10.30am! We walked a little further along to a fruit shop with a layby as there was another hitch-hiker and we didn't want to ruin his chances as he had all his bags too. There we waited for no more than 5-10mins when a van load of guys (about 10 of them) from Vanuatu came along and picked us up - lucky they had space for us! And drove us the 40mins to Wanaka. Again they were a lovely crew and we got to listen to some local music of theirs from home.

Once in Wanaka it was lunch time and so we went and got lunch from New World and had a picnic by the lake and ended up sharing our space with a lovely elderly Canadian couple who we had a fabulous chat with.

It was then...pickup time!! While our guide drove us to the airport we watched a safety video and how to prepare to jump out of the plane. In Australia they call it 'The banana' because you basically have to form the shape of a banana on the edge of the plane two seconds before jumping. Legs under the belly of the plane, hips out and head against the instructors left shoulder, hands holding onto your harness...then you jump! But to be honest you only literally have two seconds to do all of that so I have no idea if anyone actually ever really becomes a banana, more like a 'oh shit' and then your gone.

So we got to the skydive base where we signed in, paid for Pierrick's pictures (I didn't get pictures as it was too expensive and I already have them from Australia). We then had to change into our full body suits (they make you look like a condom its hilarious!) and wait until our names were called.

I was quite impressed as Pierrick still didn't feel nervous, or at least that's what he told me! We then had a lovely girl from Taiwan strap us into our harnesses and 10mins later, after the plane before us had landed, our instructors re-packed their parachutes and cane in to meet us...ready to go up again. You could tell they were tired - imagine every hour you have to go up, jump, then come down and do it all again.

Everyone in our plane headed off with their instructor, except me, who seemed to be missing an instructor, I had a little mini panic thinking I wasn't jumping with the same group as Pierrick but then good ol' Boris came running out apologising as he had needed the toilet - bless, I'd forgive him! He was from Serbia and had been jumping for yearsjump was actually excited it was my second jump as he said he could 'do more exciting things' this had my heart pumping. The only question I had was how to breathe during the freefall and he laughed saying many 2nd timers asked this as they normally find out in their first jump whether they found it hard to breathe, which for those of you who have seen my skydive video know that I had 60 seconds of sheer panic because I couldn't catch my breath lol its very entertaining - cheeks puffed out like a hamster struggling for breath with a 'oh fuck I'm going to pass out' expression! He told me that once he levels out and taps me on the shoulder I could either put my hands out in front of my face to shield the air flow, or breathe threw a teethy grin or my nose. So at least I had this down now, maybe I could actually enjoy the freefall this time.

So we started our ascent in the plane, I was in front of Pierrick, I kept checking he was OK and he was...until he saw the first two girls jump at 12,000ft, then he began to get nervous! The view from 15,000ft before we jumped though was amazing. You could not only see Lake Wanaka, the surrounding mountains and river, but also Queenstown lake which is over an hour away by car, and what they call here the Southern Alps - so many snow capped peaks! Mount Aspiring national park, Mount Cook (the highest peak of new Zealand) all the ski resorts (Treble Cone, Cardrona, Twin peaks, Coronet etc.) And you could also just about aee the coast line on either side. It was amazing! In fact, my lasting memory of this skydive will forever be the freefall I actually enjoyed, looking out over the lake with the snow capped mountains behind, it was quite literally breath-taking.

So when we had reached our jump height (15,000ft, 60 second freefall at 200kmh) it was time for the guy in front of me, then me to jump (Pierrick was unfortunately last, afterwards he told me he was shit-scared when we started seeing everyone else sit on the edge and then just disapeer, and it says its all in his photos!)

So we took off our oxygen masks (they gave us these at 12,000ft for some reason (we didn't have this in Australia), Boris quickly adjusted my harness, we put our goggles in place and our awful hats, which completed the condom look, and then banana-ed! Just before we shuffled down to the door, Boris shouted in my ear that the exciting thing was he was going to flip me loads (more than first timers) before we levelled out for the freefall. So I was suddenly excited-nervous. And let me tell you he certainly flipped me! The only feeling I can describe the fall out of the plane, is complete weightlessness, Pierrick said it was like a bungy, that feeling when you are falling in your dreams except this time you don't wake up, you live it out. You have no idea which way is down as most of the time you just see sky when you flip, and your heart goes into your throat, your stomach into you lungs and you momentarily forget how to breathe. It really is the most surreal feeling but somehow that adrenaline burst just keeps you going back to have that feeling again and again (well for me its like that). Boris must of flipped us around 4-5 times, normally you only flip once or twice if you are a newbie, and then he levelled us out. He then, bless him, put his hands in front of my face to block the air for me to breathe, but far enough away so I could still see the view, and my God, it helped sooooo much! I actually breathed normally the whole 60 seconds and I just remember laughing and admiring the amazing view, I took a mental note to snapshot this moment and I still can see the picture in my mind, the lake out in front of me, the snowcapped mountains to my right, the turquoise river beneath me and Queenstown lake and the hills/ski resorts to my left. The rush of the freefall ends when the parachute comes out and then you just float your way down to the ground. They let you have a go on the ropes sometimes, but even though it was a hot day, the wind draft was crazy so we lost height pretty quickly and Boris had to control the parachute so we didn't crash into the other jumpers (one went right beneath us, my feet skimmed their parachute). I also remember seeing Pierrick free falling as our parachute opened, it was pretty cool knowing he was currently shitting his pants lol.

Unfortunately a skydive is over before you know it - within 5-10mins, especially when the wind is not on your side. So our landing position was legs up and slide in on your bum!

Once down I waited for Pierrick to land before grabbing a quick photo from his photographer, then we went inside, took our gear off and had fun watching his picture slideshow - hilarious!

The trickiest part was yet to come - the bitch hike back to Roxburgh. We decided to pitch outside the airport as there was no point going back into Wanaka, as the airport was on the way to Cromwell.

It took us 1.5 hours in the blazing heat to get our first ride...and that was with the skydive pickup guide who had also picked up 3 other hitch hikers from Wanaka and was headed to Luggate on his way home, so be could drop us there, which was at least 5 mins up the road!

Then when we got out in Luggate an American guy left the pub opposite us and seeing we were about to put up our sign, called out an offered us a lift to Cromwell - woo! He was a lovely guy from New York who had been here for 9 months already and was going home soon. It turned out he didn't really like the look of Cromwell to spend the night in so decided to head to Alexandra and took us with him...even better that was only half hour from Roxburgh. Bless him we were so thankful!

We then walked to the bridge on the road to Roxburgh and it only took us another 15mins to find a lift with a high school girl, her mother and her brother who were all on their way back to down near Invercargill from a motorbike event. They were lovely and we were chatting so much we almost missed our stop!

Needless to say our first day trip hitch hike was a success and if we ever need to get somewhere short-distance without a car again, we could definitely do it. We both came back exhausted after the adrenaline rush ended and we spent the evening laughing our heads off at Pierrick's pictures. Well we had at least finally done our skydive, something we both, Pierrick especially, had been looking forward to doing for over a year! Woohoo, success! Enjoy laughing at some classic pictures!

20km Tongariro Volcanic Alpine Crossing - like being on Mars!

So the day started before sunrise, 5am wakeup with everyone in our room groaning. On the bus by 6am hot-footing it out of Whakahoro for an hour and a half journey back to Tongariro National Park. It was freezing cold when we left but it was THE most gorgeous day by far and everyone kept telling us how lucky we all were and that it's very rare to get a day like today. In fact Stijn from our East Bro Tour was coming back to do it with us today because when they went a week ago it snowed and they couldn't see anything! That's how versatile the weather is here!

So, the Tongariro National Park, is the oldest national park in New Zealand, (established in 1887) the fourth National Park in the world, and a UNESCO world heritage site. There are 3 active volcanoes within the centre of the Park; Ruapehu (also known as Whakapapa - Fuck-a-papa, which is a ski resort), Ngauruhoe (also known as Mt Doom from lord of the rings and is magnificent) and Tongariro, which has a flat summit. The Alpine crossing is known as one of the best day hikes in the world and it really is stunning! You feel like you are on another planet while walking over such a diverse terrain. Mt Ruapehu last erupted in 2006/7 and since then there have been several volcanic activity warnings, the last one being 2012 - crazy huh considering its a ski resort?!

So we arrived at the place where we had to register and pay our transfer tickets, we had already paid so just presented our voucher. They also check you have the appropriate attire on - hat, suncream, at least 2 litres of water each, appropriate footwear for the hike you were doing (if you were climbing the volcanoes they were pretty serious about this as there are loose rocks and falling boulders!) They also don't allow you to hike unless you match their checklist - fair enough!

So then we all hopped on the bus at 8.30 and were driven 20minutes to the start of the hike. Then we were left to our own devises! We were given around 7 hours to complete the trek. We started at 9am and our bus picked us up at 5.30pm, if you were late, you have to pay $200 for the priviledge!! Better not be late guys! Also if you wanted to summit the volcanoes you had to do this within the same amount of time, considering it took between 2-3 hours extra there and back you ha ve to be a pretty fit and speedy climber to complete it all in 7-8hours! Needless to say, we skipped on that and just did the main walk, which was hard enough in itself let alone climbing loose rocks and dodging falling boulders as well! Some people from our group summites Mt Doom but they came back with stubbed toes and hellish stories to compensate lol.

So it was me, Pierrick, Stijn (the guy who came back for round two - crazy!) Yosuke (yos-kay) from Tokyo, and Roberto from Italy. We also managed to catch up with Hester from Netherlands, later down the trek (yay a girl for companionship).

The first part of the trek led us through volcanic bush and was a pretty easy hike, we then got to slightly rougher terrain - old Lava fields turned into volcanic rock - rough and rugged and of medium scope to hike up. Then...it got to the Devils Stairs...well, let me tell you they were not named lightly, they really were the devil!

Just before this we caught up with Hester and luckily I had a girl with the same ability as me, guys being guys just went off ahead and didn't look back but us girls stuck together!! It reminded me of the Gibbon Experience with another Dutch girl Miaake when we were in Laos - those Dutch girls are awesome hiking buddies! Love yas.

We all had to have several stops along the way up because even though we only climbed 1000 metres, it was a bloody steep climb and quite rugged - obviously because your climbing up a bloody volcanic valley!

At the top held magnificent views over the north island and even into the south island where in the distance you could see the highest mountain in New Zealand - Mt Cook standing at over 5000 metres tall. That's how clear and beautiful this day was guys! It was 28 degrees back on the ground but due to the wind up top probably plummeted around 10-15 degrees so there's me in my bikini under my top with shorts on and a jacket on top of a bloody volcano in piercing winds! But it wasn't too cold, at least I wasn't climbing this volcano in flip flops! Haha.

By the time we reached the plateau at the bottom of Mt Doom we were already about an hour and a half in and about one hour from being half way! It was the next part to come - the halfway point when you can usually sigh a huge sigh of relief that was the goddamn hardest part!! We stopped off partway to have a snack - they tell you bring more than just enough food, because what you think is enough food, is never enough! And they were right, so glad we prepared well and came with like 4 sandwiches, Kiwi fruits, biscuits, crisps etc. It was well needed, even after an eggs, bread and porridge trekkers breakfast!

At this point we passed what was called the red crater and it really did feel like you were walking on Mars! And then the real climb came! To reach the highest point in the trek you basically had to rock climb up loose rocks and huge boulders - the was even rope at some points to pull yourself up! It was horrendous and the poor people who were doing it the opposite way were falling down and slipping so often...little did we know though that at the top, on the way down the other side...it was our fecking turn!!

It was literally what I like to call, rock and sand boarding. All you could do was run, surf and hope that you slide rather than fall, it was practically a 70% incline. The amount of sand and rocks in your shoes after was hilarious - I fell on my arse twice and Hester fell too. The guys were way ahead as always. It was a good solid half hour descent to the crater lakes or Sulphur lakes (Emerald lakes they were called) which were magnificent again - solid turquoise, green and duck-egg blue colours and ahead was a massive blue blue lake! We took tons of pictures obviously then continued down this AWFUL slip and slide route. It acutally was pretty funny taking beta on who was going to fall next. Then it was straight across another plateau to the massive blue lake where you saw the snow capped Mt Ruapehu behind the demonic Mt Doom.

We had lunch here, by now we were just over half way but didn't know that the longest part was yet to come. We'd been trekking for 4 hours and had at least another two to go.

So the last leg was around 10km. It took us round the side of a mountain where you had views of lake Taupo just below as it was super close to the Tongariro National Park. And then the route descended down to the end carpark and took you through some Forrest. But my God, it took FOREVER!! Winding then going up to come down again then winding round and round and round! Just get me down this goddamn volcano! We stopped at the Campsite area for another quick break and then the final 6km started which was the worst and pretty boring as most of it is through volcanic bush. Nothing to see and round every corner you kept thinking...this is it, this is the end...nope another 1km maybe? Nope, 15mins maybe? NOPE! Omg it was AWFUL especially when by this point you are tired and hungry and all your water is gone and you just want to sit down and not walk ever again.

Eventually at 4.15pm we FINISHED!! We had completed Tongariro in just over 6 hours - woohoo! But we had missed the early bus by a few minutes...boo! So we had a good hour before our bus would come to collect us so we all sat on some grass chilling and catching a few others from our group and swapped stories - apparently a few people had nasty falls up there breaking arms etc - happens every day the Park rangers say! Not from our group though. But we did have two injuries, one a very swollen ankle and the other was Stijns busted toe! I pulled the ligaments/muscles behind one of my knees but after a few days it died down.

When the bus came one of the girls had managed to get lost and wasn't back yet. She had tried to climb the summit of Mt Doom but her and another girl had turned around and not been seen since. Turns out the girl she was with had called to get a pickup from the start as she couldn't complete it and she had continued on but taken a bit longer to come back so she ended up coming back on another bus that was waiting for her. Our bus driver gave us a load of ice cold beers to celebrate the end of our hike and then we were driven back to the hostel.

We then had showers, dinner and played a few round of card games before calling it a nnight. Needless to say we were all pretty shattered and achy! Next stop; Wellington!