Queenstown, continued.

Wow, I love Queenstown so much.  I've met such amazing people here, have done such amazing things, and have seen such amazing landscapes.  If I were to live in New Zealand, Queenstown would be my obvious location for my home.  You guys would love it down here; this little city situated on the side of a huge lake, surrounded by unbelievably gorgeous mountains-- does life get any better than this?  Well, as you can tell from my last post, yes, if you skydive.  I just wanted to write this post to tell everyone how much I love them and miss them (for people back in the States and everyone I've met here).  As for the people I've met here, you've truthfully changed my life and I'm so glad for everything and this opportunity to travel to New Zealand by myself.  For everyone I met in Christchurch while working (Gemma, Mia, Antony, José, Caroline, and everyone else), you guys are great and made my time in Christchurch bearable.  I miss you all and hopefully will be able to see you again in due time.  The clean team rocks and it's all because of you ( :  For the people I met in Queenstown because I was so luckily placed in your room (Danielle, Craig, Jay, John, Daniel), thank you tons and tons for making Queenstown my favorite city; it definitely wouldn't have been the same without you all.  Danielle, you rock and are my North American buddy woo!!  Craig, you're a great guy and ridiculously silly, freaking monkey on the top bunks!  Jay, we have the same birthday, and we're kind of a big deal-- enough said, haha.  John, you're hilarious, and like to pass out all the time after getting drunk; also, "AH JESUS!!!!!!!"  And Daniel you crazy old man (just kidding!), well, you're CRAZY!! haha.  I hope I get to see you all very soon (I'm like 85% positive I'll see Jay and John again, yay! and Craig once I head up to Auckland for my flight home) because you're all amazing people.  Thank you for being such great friends and really helping me acclimate to good ol' Queenstown.  Anyway, I've decided I'm definitely going to stay here until at least Tuesday (was originally going to leave Sunday) because my Milford Sound trip on Saturday got cancelled due to road conditions, so I'm pretty excited-- I love it too much here to leave so soon!

SKYDIVING!!

Finally the weather was clear enough to go skydiving!  I got to NZone that's about a minute walk from X Base and filled some paperwork out that basically signed my life away, then watched a video of people jumping.  After about half an hour, all of us jumpers piled into a van and took off to a location about 15 minutes outside of Queenstown, towards Milford Sound.  The jump zone is directly above the Remarkables, which is amazing.  Once there, we stood around watching other people in front of us land, one by one, which really helped with any nerves that may have started to build up.  I had a muesli bar (thanks Chantelle and James!) and a cup of tea, then decided that I was being dumb for only jumping at 12,000ft; I'm here in one of the only countries that allows jumps at 15,000ft, and I'm choosing to jump at the mediocre 12,000ft?  I immediately went inside and asked to jump at 15,000ft, and they said it wouldn't be a problem at all.  Yay!  After waiting for about an hour and a half, it was finally our turn to jump!  We suited up in this silly jumper thing, then into the harness, completed with a silly crazy-person hat, goggles, and gloves.  After meeting our diving masters (the people we're strapped on to go tandem with) and photographers, we made our way towards our plane, which was this tiny little one-prop thing.  I was definitely expecting it to be a bit bigger inside; we've all seen videos where the divers are waiting on benches that are lined up against the plane's wall.  This plane was NOTHING like that.  I walk up to get in, and it was LITERALLY (and when I say literally, I really do mean literally) three and a half, four feet wide (maybe), and about 10, 12 feet long for nine people to fit into (three divers, three masters, three photographers) the main compartment.  It was absolutely insane.  The plane took off, and we were soon climbing over the gorgeous Remarkables; the view was breathtaking.  I didn't freak out at all, though I definitely made sure that I was attached to my master (I was like, we're not gonna die, right?  I'm attached to you, right? haha).  Finally we reach our altitude, and my master goes, alright, you're all hooked up, let's go!  So the door is opened, my photographer jumps out and clings onto the side of the plane so he can capture me exiting, and my master sits at the edge of the plane with my entire body dangling over the edge.  I was so totally stoked and not scared at all, it was nuts.  So my master basically swings to the count of three, and on the third swing just propels us out of the plane into a headfirst dive, then a flip, then finally to a belly-towards-the-ground position.  Exiting the plane was absolutely my favorite part about the entire thing; that feeling right as you leave cannot be imitated by anything.  It's like you're falling, but you aren't scared about hitting the ground because it's so far away, almost like you're falling in water, and you look around and see the beautiful landscape and mountains all around you meeting the sky and clouds; irreplaceable.  After the exit I freefell for the next entire minute, which was awesome.  My face was sooooo cold, which kinda sucked, and it was hard to breathe (think trying to breathe during a five mile run outside in the dead of winter), but it was absolutely incredible; seeing the ground like you see it in google maps (haha), the feeling of the wind rushing past your face, oh man, I'm in love!!  Towards the end of the freefall my master set us into spins, which was soooo fun, haha.  Then he counted down from three on his fingers and released the parachute, and we went flying upwards in an amazing rush (definitely my second favorite part).  After that we just flew around and did some G-force spins and talked about how cold it was and how beautiful everything is.  It was amazing.  After about five minutes of that, we came down for our landing; I lifted my legs up and we basically slid to the ground.  It was the most amazing experience I've ever been through and am SOOOO glad I did it, I totally want to do it again!  I have a $50 off coupon for my next jump-- who knows?  haha.  But it's totally the kind of thing that I could become addicted to and just take classes and whatnot.  I had no clue I would like it so much, but seriously, oh my god.  Words can't describe what it was like.  EVERYONE should do it, seriously.  It's not scary at all (and this is coming from the kid that held up the water slide for like 10 minutes at summer camp when I was little while I cried and said no no no!).  It was amazing.  I don't know what else to say.

here's a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpwK0vPUDU8

Rainy Mornings.....

sunny afternoons, but unfortunately my skydive was for 1120a today, so it's been cancelled and rescheduled for tomorrow.  It'll still be fun ( :  A couple of friends I've met while down here (Danielle and John) and I walked around the town a bit this morning, checked out movie times (after having breakfast), then did a little window shopping.  The mountains around Queenstown look beautiful with mist shrouding their tops, it's absolutely amazing down here.  The atmosphere is something I could definitely live in, but there's no way I could live without you all!  So move to NZ stat!  hah no not really, and I'm really excited about coming home, though I'm starting to consider pushing it back a FEW days because the weather down here is really shifty and my trip to Milford Sound might be cancelled, I still need to talk to the Fox Glacier people, AND I definitely have to go skydiving, however long that takes.  Oh and the more and more I hear about people doing Nevis, the more I'm considering it.  John showed me and Danielle his video yesterday and it was hilarious, the guy counted down to three and he was like, "No no!  I can't do this, wait wait wait." haha.  Then when he jumped he said, "OH JESUS!!"  I'm guessing my reaction would be similar, except definitely with tears, haha.  I've also been missing my friends from Base Christchurch that I met while working there, if any of you are reading this, hi!  I'm having a really great time this week, much better than the two weeks before that and it's really making me stay optimistic ( :  Anyway, Ima go since I don't want to bore you with what's happened since last night (nothing, besides sleep, haha), so have a wonderful day and I missese yous!!

Queenstown!!

Finally!  I'm super stoked to be here.  Today it finally cleared up and you can see these GORGEOUS mountains that are the backdrop to Queenstown, which is set on a lake.  It's just absolutely incredible.  Apparently this lake is 300 meters deep at some points, as well as 84 kilometers long, which is absolutely nuts.  I didn't even know that Queenstown was built on the side of a lake, how dumb do I feel!!  Anyway, the people I'm staying with at X Base are really nice and we get along, which is great, but it definitely sucks to have to be paying for accommodation again-- I had forgotten how it can really eat up my money!  Anyway, last night I went out for awhile with the people from my room, but it was kinda slow and I wasn't really feeling it; maybe tonight we'll go out to World Bar and I'll have a couple of teapots, that ought to solve the problem!!  I'm currently in between rooms right now because I didn't book it in time to stay in the same room for tonight, which sucks, but my roommates from the last few nights and I are all hanging out in our room so it's not that bad.  I GO SKYDIVING TOMORROW!  Wow, I'm actually getting pretty terrified of it, but everyone tells me it's amazing, so I'm sure I'll have lots of fun ( :  Anyway, I'll be going now because I'm pretty hungry (and tired!) so I'm either going to eat or sleep, haha, but definitely one of the two.  I hope everyone is having a great time back home and I miss you lots and lots!  Hugs and kisses to you all.

finally, leaving Christchurch!

Okay, Christchurch is pretty cool, but honestly, when you're working for accommodation at X Base there, it's pretty freaking easy to get bored of it, and quickly.  I mean, it doesn't seem like working until 1p would blow any plans for your day, but it seriously does, especially when it gets dark at 530p.  I met some nice people here, and it was kinda nice to get into a routine, but it's DEFINITELY time to move on.  Oh, and I've also talked with two of the same girls who shared a room with me in Wellington at X Base, which is a little embarrassing because that was the night I was bawling my eyes out.  So, Queenstown, here I come!  I'm pretty excited about finally getting down to Queenstown, and I think tomorrow I'm going to book a skydiving thing, it should be pretty awesome.  I'm still completely terrified of the bungy jumping, so I might not do that.  I feel like once I get down to Queenstown, things will start picking up speed, so I'm pretty stoked about that because it means I'll be home on no time.  In fact, I only have 16 more days here!  I definitely need to call Air New Zealand about a return flight though.  Also, today I went to Akaroa, a little French-influenced city about an hour and a half drives away from Christchurch, and hung out for a few hours.  It was nice to finally get out of the city, and it makes me even more excited to move on from Christchurch.  Anyway, this is just a small update of what I've been doing for the past few days, I hope everything's going well back home.  I love you all.

19 Days!!

Hi everyone!  Tomorrow will be my sixth day working here at X Base Christchurch, and boy, can I tell you how much working until 1p totally blows up your plans for the day when it gets dark at 530p!!  I haven't much gotten out and about around the city, but luckily I did a bunch of the cool stuff when my parents and Brad were here, so I feel like I'm not missing out on too much.  All the people I work with are great and make the job easier.  Today Mia got fired for basically moving a sweatshirt out of a room (she was accused of stealing), so that was kinda lame and all of us are feeling pretty negative about how the Base treats us (we don't even get free laundry!!).  This week all of us workers, more or less, are leaving X Base and moving on; Mia is going to Queenstown Friday, José is going to India tomorrow, Antony is leaving for god knows what on the 3rd (maybe back to England, I can't remember), Merl (I always thought it was Mel, luckily I was only around the guy misnaming him for a day) left 4 or 5 days ago, Nicole is moving to another hostel tomorrow, and I'm leaving for Queenstown on Saturday.  I plan on quiting on Thursday so I can go and to Akorua on Friday, which will be cool.  So yeah, they're definitely gonna be experiencing a shortage of staff soon, haha.  Christchurch is pretty cool, but I feel like I would like Queenstown about a hundred times more and am soooo excited about it.  Basically, my plan until I come home (which is in 19 days!) is to go to Queenstown on Saturday, hang out there and check out LOTR, bungy jumping (Nevis Bungy), and skydiving (NZone) activities until Wednesday, then do a day trip out to Milford Sound on Thursday and come back to Queenstown on Friday for one more day.  On Saturday I'm going to Fox Glacier and staying there until when I leave for Punakaiki on Monday.  At Fox Glacier I'm going on a half-day hike, it was recommended to me and I figure NZD$89 isn't too expensive to do something pretty cool.  As I said, on Monday I will be going to Punakaiki, which is where the Pancake Rocks and blowholes are; I'll be going to Dolomite Point that same day.  The next day I'm taking a bus to Greymouth to check out the town for an afternoon, then taking a train (which is supposed to be the most amazing train ride ever) from Greymouth back here to Christchurch, where I'll be flying out to Auckland the next day (for, get this, NZD$39).  I'll spend a day in Auckland, then fly home the next day.  It's gonna be a crazy next 19 days, but honestly I need to keep my mind off of everything that's going on in my life right now, or at least as much as I can so I don't get too depressed.  Oh and when I get back I might head up to Calgary to go on a roadtrip through British Columbia with my friend Lisa I met in Wellington, that'll be pretty awesome if I can manage it.  I hope everything is going well back home, I miss and love you all, and can't wait to see everyone!!

Jesus Town

Today was my first day of work here at X Base Christchurch.  I've definitely never made as many bed in the threeish hours that I worked today than any other threeish hours in my entire life.  But, it wasn't that bad and I get to stay here for free now yay!  I'm guessing I'll be here for about 2 weeks or something, just going around checking out everything and the surrounding areas.  After that I'm probably gonna head over to Greymouth and do the Fox Glaciers and whatnot, then head down the coast to Queenstown and Milford Sound for maybe a week or something.  When I'm in Queenstown, if my funds haven't run too low, I think I'm gonna skydive or bungy jump or something, who knows!  Possibly both, possibly neither, I haven't really made up my mind yet.  The people I'm working with are pretty cool and there's someone from Chile so maybe I'll Spanish it up with them or something, probably not though 'cause I'm embarrassed of how god awful my Spanish is compared to, well, native Spanish speakers.  Anyway, apparently the library has free wifi so I'm pretty stoked about that, it'll nice to finally not have to pay for internet.  Oh, and the Indian food place next door totally sucks, like really really disappointing.  Absolutely the worst I've had ever, even worse than that stuff that I was kinda raw in Monterey, Ean. haha.  But when I get back I'm gonna totally bring huge amounts of Tim Tams, ginger beer (for Brad!), afghan cookies, and Kinder Bars.  I expect delicious beer in return, seeing as how NZ has completely deprived me of anything remotely amazing.  Okay, I hope you all have lots and lots of fun this coming weekend (only one more day for you all!) and I love you and miss you bunches!!