I heart Queenstown.
I did the Canyon Swing yesterday. This is the prize Justin won at the 'Poo Pub'.
They strap you onto a cable attached to another cable that's strung across this huge canyon.
There are 18 different ways to jump, I went for the backwards fall. There is a 60 meter freefall before the slack of the cable starts swinging you horizontally.
You swing 200 meters horizontally reaching speeds of 160km/h.
The swing was about 10 times scarier than the bungy jumps I did in Auckland.
Today I'm tackling the big guy- the Nevis bungy.
The Auckland bridge bungy was 43 meters, this is 147 with a 9 second freefall.
Justin and Andrew swear they are doing the bridge jump tomorrow, I have my doubts.
We are in Queenstown for two more nights before we head up to Christchurch.
From there we head North, completing the loop of the South island, cross the ditch to the North island, and back to Auckland.
From Auckland we fly to Melbourne for a few days, then probably hitchiking back to Sydney, and flying home.
Welcome home party?

Heartbreak.
I finally made my goal weight to go skydiving. I found out today that the company I want to jump with has different regulations and I'm now over THEIR limit.
Screw Flanders, I'm eating pizza tonight.
Last night both kiwi buses went to the 'Poo Pub' for a 'no clothing' themed party.
People wore shower curtains, wrapping paper, one girl wore only her backpack.
I made a three piece suit out of some tarp and plastic bags, Justin naturally dressed up as a robot. He won the best dressed contest.
The prize was a free canyon rope swing which he gave to me.
We've made two great friends with a couple of English lads, Andrew and Ryan.
The four of us did a two day kayak trip up the coast line. The scenery was nice, and we saw some seals, but we were so unprepared it was a pretty cold and miserable trip.
We've split up with everyone else from the original Auckland bus. I hope you are all doing well.

Must...... update......... blog.........
The past few days have been a blur.
Every day has been packed and we have very little down time. Justin and I decided to take a timeout and stay in Wellington for an extra night to recuperate.
A few days ago we took on 'The Abyss'- a 5 hour extreme cave tour.
With wetsuits and helmets we repelled 250 feet down into this cave. We strapped our harnesses to a cable and did a 100 meter 'flying fox' swing down ever further. From there we all got on rafts and went black water rafting in the dark. The whole ceiling of the cave was lit up with glow worms.
Planet Earth did a segment on the cave we were in.
From there we had to squeeze ourselves through tight jagged rocks, climb two waterfalls and find our way out following the light.
The next day we did an 18k hike up a mountain. One of the toughest things I've ever done, but I did it. Justin and a few others broke off and tried to climb the big mountain (Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings series) but they quit about 10 minutes in.
The whole climb took 8 hours.
Today I'm going to try busking with my friend Nick from Syracuse.

Reunited, and it feels so good.
Justin finally made it to Auckland late monday night.
The next morning we boarded the kiwi experience bus and began our journey.
It started off lame. We all had to go to the front of the bus, introduce ourselves and say whether we were green (single) yellow (kinda single) or red (not single)
This company is very well set up, and although we are going to miss the freedom of having our own vehicle, it is a nice change to sit back and have someone show us around for a while.
I made a really close friend with a girl I call Vegas. We played poker on a sandy beach for my birthday.
My birthday night wasn't too crazy, everybody was tuckered out from the first day of adventuring.
We are never on the bus for more than two hours without stopping to do or see something.
Some highlights so far were Hobbiton (the city built for the Lord of the Rings movie) natural geysers, Rotorua which is town that smells like rotten eggs, nature walks, street lugeing down a mountain, and a bunch of really nice beaches.
The weather and scenery here beats Australia hands down.
Today we are going to Taupo, which is the party capital of the north island.
Justin says he is going to do a bungy jump today so I've been messing with him all day.

I am very ready to leave this city.
I've been here for a week and I'm running out of things to do.
I've walked from end to end about 30 times, watched every busker, shopped for things I can't afford, watched about 7 movies a day.
I'm also tired of making 'one day' friends, who are always leaving the next morning.
Weight report: I am down 6 kilos. (probably from all the walking and lack of money to buy food)
A couple more kg's and I'll be skydivable.
Justin arrives here early Tuesday morning, which happens to be my birthday (some present)
We are hopping on a bus first thing Tuesday and starting our Kiwi Experience.
I watched some huge rugby tournament tonight with an English girl who filled me in on all the rules. Games are only 14 minutes!
Her boyfriend was at the game, and it was live, so I kept hoping to see him with another girl- no such luck.
The cars here are interesting, have you seen this? They have Cavaliers, but they are made by Toyota.
They have Hummers, but they are made by Holden.
Mid to large size pickup trucks are in HUGE demand here. I saw a 2002 fairly stock looking Dodge Ram for $120,000.
The 'all new' Chrysler 300 STARTS at $60,000.
Weird wild stuff.

Sick as a dog.
Just got back from a 3 day trip up to the Northern tip of New Zealand, to a place called the Bay of Islands.
I did a jet boat tour, sandboarded down some huge dunes, went on a few nature walks...
The trip was great, but I'm suffering from a pretty intense head cold right now.
Australia vs. New Zealand...
It's too early to tell, but there are definitely things I prefer here, and miss from there.
I love how it cools off at night here (Cairns is 35 degrees at 3am) I love being able to swim in the ocean without fear of jelly fish, and I actually prefer the kiwi accent.
I miss exotic birds flying around city streets, warm water temperatures and goon from Aussy.
Hostels and internet seem to be more expensive here, food and alcohol are a bit cheaper.
Another dating disaster.
I met this girl from Denmark at the 'Pipi Patch' hostel in Paihia and we hit it off. We were inseperable for two full days, this girl made me laugh like no other.
One night we're on the computer together and she added me to facebook- she wanted to show me pictures of her girlfriend.

Auckland!
That concludes the Australia portion of our trip.
I'd like to thank you all for coming.
Arrived in Auckland Wednesday night and was pretty surprised.
The hostel they recommended was in the middle of the sex shop, strip club and massage parlour section of town. Not the rolling green hills I was expecting.
Thursday I spent the entire day getting lost around the city. Sydney is very grid based, Auckland is a free for all with streets zigging and zagging wherever they please.
Friday I rented a motorcycle and did an extended tour of the area. There are some really nice beaches here a couple k's from downtown.
I learned the hard way about the hole in the ozone layer right above New Zealand.
Today I jumped on the Kiwi Experience bus for a free tour of the GAA.
We climbed to the top of the harbour bridge and I BUNGIE JUMPED OFF IT!!!
It was great.
The city is nice and all, but I really don't want to sit around until Justin gets here. I booked a tour for monday to the northern tip of NZ.
Last night I entertained two Swedish girls. We might go skiing tonight.