I tripped on a cloud and fell 8 miles high

So we said our goodbyes to Freddie at the end of our Rotorua stay and headed for Taupo. We're looking forward to meeting up with him in Nelson, at the northern tip of the south island a month from now. We really enjoyed hanging out with him, he's a great guy. And it was fun seeing the interaction between the most English of Englishmen and the most Irish of Irishmen. Yes Freddie, the Irish have a language, what do you think we spoke before you came around? And I believe Dermot can now use the word "whilst" more often...

Good times.

We got up to a lot in Rotorua. The highlight being white water rafting. For an hour we battled level 5 rapids (level 6 being too difficult for commercial rafting). The instructor for some crazy ass reason put me in the front, despite me arguing that I wasn't that light... but now upon reflection maybe it was because I am in fact not light (10,000 cheesburgers later, remember?) The crew paddled at my at my pace and we managed to not flip our boat as it went down a 7 meter waterfall. I was surprisingly calm because at the back of my mind I knew I was a good swimmer. Dermot, on the other hand was more nervous. After the waterfall, I switched places with Dermot and Freddie as they took to the front and I got in the back. They got the chance to be nearly drowned as we went head first into a rapid. All the pictures I posted have us smiling like idiots. It was awesome.

We also went to a Maori Hangi in Rotorua, which is the equivalent to a Hawaiian Luau. It gave us tourists a chance to dig into Maori culture and food. We got to see an hour's worth of dancing, singing, and fearsome haka's (seriously, look up the word "Haka" on Youtube and see what I'm talking about) then we stuffed ourselves stupid in typical Maori cuisine. Mmm... vegetables. Then after it got dark they took us to see some glow worms, or the Maori fairy eyes. Touristy, but mandatory. It's their country after all.

We also did some luging, which gave the men in our party a chance to be boys again and the girl in the group to worry. Haha, it was fun. Little tiny carts winding up and down a steep, concrete track.

Rotorua was great.

But seriously, they should change the name of the town to What's That F#cking Smell

It's a volcanic hot spot. The gut wrenching odor of molten rock and sulfur hit your nose at the most undesirable of times. By the third day I was ready to leave or one of those gags of mine was gonna turn into puke.

Picture it!

Anyway... Taupo was our next destination and since it was pretty close to Rototura the drive there was easy. We checked into our hostel then proceeded to book some events for the days ahead.

There are two things to do in Taupo. One, is the Tongariro Crossing, i.e. for LOTR fans it's Mordor and Mount Doom. So to me, that was my priority.

Two, is skydive.

We wanted to do both.

It was 2 o'clock and we were thinking of getting something to eat. But the lady behind reception had better ideas. She suggested we go sky diving instead, and do the crossing tomorrow.

Ok, whatever you say lady.

4 o'clock comes around and Dermot and I are hoisted off to Taupo Airport in a limo.

5 o'clock we're strapped into harnesses and suits and thrown in a plane.

Shortly after, I'm dangling my legs over a the side of a plane and thinking what on God's green earth am I doing!?

Too late! WHOOSH!

Dermot said I screamed but I don't really remember much.

I was the first to jump (i.e. get pushed) out of the plane, but we both experienced one minute's free fall and 5 minutes of floating from 15,000 feet.

We both agreed that it was the longest minute of our lives, versus the popular argument that it goes by too quick. We didn't anticipate the speed at which we were going to fall. For 60 seconds I struggled to breath (and in the DVD you'll see that that struggling looks something like a fish trying to breath out of water) and my head felt like it was going to explode from the pressure. We fell through a cloud and green earth came up to meet us then, thank God, the parachute unfolded and we were hoisted back up in the sky for the most unbelievable 5 minutes of life. Because the instructor is behind you, you feel like you're alone, in the windowless, bottomless world of the sky. You could see for miles and catch your breath. My instructor pointed our Mount Doom in the distance, I squealed with delight.

Our instructors landed us both safe and sound on the ground.

It was the best thing we've ever done.

We'll show you the DVDs in person, cause they take too long to load here on the blog. Check out the photos.

It was good that that was the best thing we've ever done because the following day was the worst thing we've ever done. I can look at the pictures now and see the beauty and I can feel the pride in me knowing that I completed a 12 mile trail of tears around volcanic wasteland in the searing, ozone-less New Zealand sun. I mean, what else could I have expected? It's Mordor for crissake, it's not gonna be a walk in the park, like the hike up to Murren in Switzerland now seems. I was weeping by the end of it, under my breath because I didn't want to test Dermot's nerves anymore. I basically made him carry me down the side of a volcano. It was the steepest of slopes with a surface of loose, sharp rocks. I had already wiped out and bruised my spine and cut my hands trying to do it on my own. So he ushered me down for 45 minutes of terror like my brother used to help my 93 year old great grandma climb the step to our house if it was icy. We walked up the devil's staircase, then down jagged crags, then up steep inclines, through snow and then surfaces that looked like the surface of the moon. I got my pictures in front of Mount Doom but that was only the beginning of the hike, so don't be decieved by the smiles, haha. Aw man, I'm never going to yell "hurry up" at Frodo and Sam running up Mount Doom at the end of Return of the King anymore because I know how hard it is.

After a day of rest, we left Taupo and headed to New Zealand's capital city Wellington. It's built around a bay at New Zealand's southern most point in the north island. The major highway into Wellington was basically on the beach. High tide was in and only one strong gust of wind would've drenched the cars in ocean. It was so strange to see. Our hostel was located a good distance away from the center of the city, in a little town called Plimmerton. Our hostel was right by the ocean, it was beautiful.

In Wellington I got to get my geek on with a full LOTR day tour that took us to several locations including Weta Studios where all the magic happened (the CGI, the costumes, art design, etc). Dermot got to shake hands with Lurtz, the massive Uruk-hai leader - just look at the pictures I'm not talking crazy! We got to visit where the Hobbits left the Shire, The Road where they encountered their first Ringwraith; Rivendell where we really had to use our imagination; Isengard where Gandalf of Saruman had a stroll; the river Anduin; and Helms Deep. Now, nothing looks anything like the movie, except for maybe The Road. Peter Jackson and crew manipulated the scenery so much with CGI. But you could still see traces of the crew and you got to hear the stories of how everything was done.

I remember back in 2001 trying to explain to my parents as we were heading to the theatre to watch The Fellowship of the Ring about the books and the story. My mom asked me "where is Middle Earth"? I said, well, it's made up, it's Tolkien's fictional world. But I said that in 2001, before I had been to New Zealand. New Zealand is Middle Earth, there can be no other country on earth more suitable to be the place that millions of people have visited in their minds since 1937 when the stories were first published.

It's magical. The Maori call it Aotearoa, or the land of the long white cloud. To me, as I can't see it from space, it's like driving on the back of a sleeping dragon, one of those mythical sea creatures from the Dark Ages that foreign explorers would devise to occupy the farthest stretches of maps. The jagged edges of mountains and beaches look like claws. The green, its scales, the parched earth, it's haunches. The volcanic fissures are its breath. You must drive slow and careful around the slithering mountains, and take in all the beauty.

Because our hostel in Wellington was away from the city and by the beach, we got the chance to see the famous New Zealand stars. They twinkle. And the sky is actually a dark blue, except if you looked to the far left to see the bright lights of Wellington that seem to be from a distance something out of War of the Worlds.

Anyway, Wellington was great. It was a very vibrant, artsy city. It was surprisingly small for a capital city, but that is not a complaint, because it was very walkable and warm, people wise. Dermot and I looked lost, what else is new, and a woman came up to us and said as much and pointed us on our way. You don't get that it most capital cities.

After Wellington we headed to Christchurch on the south island. We boarded the Interislander Ferry with our car. When the ferry started to churn about in the Cook Straight, we headed down a level to the movie theatre to pass most of the "turbulence" for lack of a better word. Sea sickness is never fun.

Christchurch was very nice. It was colonial in appearance, kinda like if Tommy Bahama designed Boston. Not as youthful and hopping as Wellington was, but it still had a lot for us to do... like pub crawls! Which are always a great way to meet people and see the city (and hopefully remember it the next day).

But the highlight of Christchurch was the day trip to "Rohan" (stay with me, more LOTR references here). Rohan featured in the 2nd movie, The Two Towers, it was the home of the horselords and Edoras, the capital and the Golden Hall. Tolkien described Edoras as this isolated kingdom surrounded by 360 degrees of mountains. Peter Jackson wanted to build his own Edoras in a studio because the chances of finding such a place on earth were slim to none. But him and his film scouts were in a helicopter, flying around the south island to map of other film locations when they flew into this place, Mount Sunday as it's called in real life. The helicopter pilot said, as they flew through a cloud and Mount Sunday was revealed to them, "holy shit, is that for real". And it was. And it became the location for Edoras in both the 2nd and 3rd movies.

The crew built The Golden Hall upon Mount Sunday in 8 months for little under 3 weeks of filming.

That's where Dermot and I went that day, on this tour. We alongside a few others hopped in an off road vehicle to visit the site of the Golden Hall and I got to stand where Eowyn stood in The Two Towers and, and, it was the greatest day ever. I got to sword fight Dermot in front of the mountain. The tour guide wanted me to use the sword, but I said gimme the battle axe. And I got to sit where the fire place in The Golden Hall was, and...

And, I can die a happy person... many, many years from now, heh.

My geekness has been fulfilled.

So we're in Dunedin now. A sleepy, little Scottish town 6 hours south of Christchurch. It's raining today too, pouring actually. Kinda funny, we go to the "Edinburgh of New Zealand" and it's our first rainy day. Dunedin was founded by Scottish immigrants in the late 1800s and the town is rife with the celebration of all things Scottish. Rainy days, included.

We head to Queenstown on Thursday, the party central of New Zealand.

So ah, I figured I'd blog now while I had the time.

Sorry for the long entry. There's so much to do in New Zealand, it's hard to find the time.

Hope all is well, Happy Thanksgiving to all the yankees to read this.