Woooooooooooooooo…..OMG!!!  What a week.  Was time to get the party started on this holiday so we stepped it up a gear, got engaged and jumped out of a plane. 

This week has been pretty much about blowing our minds, starting in Wellington, witnessing some outrages stunts at the X-Air event, which had FMX (motor bikes flying around), BMX, inlining, skate boarding and break dancing.

Next was Gisborne, NZ’s top surf spot where I caught some of the longest reef break waves ever. (won’t bore you with the details – was just very enjoyable)

Next was East Cape where, most of you would have heard by now, I asked Nance to marry me.  I asked her on a beautiful beach where we were staying, at about 6am, with the first sun rise of the world on Valentines Day.  The setting was beautiful and she was half asleep stacking the odds in my favour of her accepting, which she did!

Next was the mind boggling smells of Rotorua.  This place stinks!  However, it has some awesome sites of bubbling mud pools, erupting geysers and picturesque hot springs.  The earths crust here is really, really thin in places, allowing gases to escape, heating pools and cracking the earth’s surface all over the place.  Crazy driving round as you’ll just see steam rising all over the place.  We’ve been to couple of thermal parks all giving names like Hell’s Gates and Devils Cauldron to these natural phenomena.  We also went to a Hangi which is a traditional Moriori feast as well as a show of their traditional dances and rituals.  This was brilliant and well worth a viewing if any pops over.

Next, SKYDIVING!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!  That pretty much sums it up.  Anyone who has done it knows what I mean and people who haven’t, there is nothing to explain it.  Has to be done if you ever get the opportunity!  An absolutely crazy sensation.  Far better than I thought it was going to be.  Nance also enjoyed it; however she is still coming to terms that she actually did it.  I’m told she’ll stop rocking and come out of the corner any day now.

So that’s it for the south island.  Half way through our trip.  On to the north and it’ll be interesting to find out what every local has said it’s so different to the south.  When questioned again on why it’s so different, they just said, “cos it’s just so different”.  This reminds me of another incounter with a local we met.  We asked about the water being able to be drinkable.  This is the transcript of the conversation

Me:      “Excuse me, is the water drinkable here as there are signs saying please boil in the bathroom, but not in the kitchen!”

Local:   “The water?  Ah yes, we put them up after we’ve had heavy rain.  The water is fine, but we put them up”

Me:      “Ah right, so is it ok to drink?”

Local    “Ah yes, we drink it….. just boil it.”

Me:      “Ok, so we need to boil it?”

Local:   “We drink it.  It’s fine, just when we’ve had heavy rain we put them up.  It’s UV filtered ….. <10 minute explanation into how they get there water>… “

Me:      “Ok, so we don’t have to boil it then?”

Local:   “We drink it.  It’s fine….. just boil it.”

Me:      “Ok, do you boil it.”

Local:   “We drink it.  It’s lovely water.”

I still have no idea what we were supposed to do with the water there.  Anyways, onwards and upwards for the north island