Last Days in the South Island...

Looks like a painting
Feeding the little wild pigs at Mel's!

Lake Manapouri A Kea....really funny bird that apparently likes to break into peoples' cars and destroy anything they can

The water was FREEZING!

For Anna and Fergus!
The southern-most point of New Zealand

The view from behind our hostel

Our English friends we made

The best dancing I have seen in awhile!

Signing the form for sky diving....promising that they are not held accountable if death occurs

You could play chess while waiting
After the jump while the adrenaline was still pumping!

Out for a friends' birthday in good ol' Invercargill

Our dancing buddies!

Hello again! I'm now in the last couple of days of my month stay in the South Island. I head to Auckland in two days where I will stay with Stumps and meet up with Salsa. We will then begin finding jobs and a place to live. I've had such a great time in the South Island and absolutely love it. It has some of the prettiest places I've ever seen.....and "dream locations" that I would like to live in! Dream location for me is any place that is open, green, has mountains, and a big lake!

Since I last wrote I have gone on weekend trips to Te Anau and Queenstown. We went to Te Anau to visit Cheeky's older sister's family and hopefully to go on a day cruise in Milford Sound. A sound is a lake created by glaciers and the Milford one is supposed to be gorgeous! However, the one weekend we tried to go on a cruise there there was an avalanche which closed the road to it for three days! We never got to go, but we did get to stay in Te Anau and see some sites there. It's a little mountain town with not much to do.....but beautiful landscapes. We ended up having a great time there and visiting with Nadia's family.

A week after our attempted Mildford trip we left for Queenstown. Queenstown is where they shot a lot of the scenes for "The Lord of the Rings.." therefore, it was gorgeous. The town isn't very big, but it is set by a lake surrounded snow capped mountains. We stayed in a backpackers place that had a great patio area that overlooked the lake and mountains. After shopping and spending time in Queenstown we sat on the patio with some drinks/music until nightfall. Very beautiful and relaxing! We then went out for the night and had a great time!

The next day we did something I have always wanted to do, but never thought I would. We went skydiving! It was the best thing I've ever done and really want to do it again! We sky dove with a well known company that had some really funny staff. I was nervous after booking, but once we got there I couldn't wait to go up. The staff there were great and really eased any nerves. They've jumpd thousands of times and do it every day. That helped knowing that it was just another jump for them. The flight up to our jumping point of 12,000 ft. was amazing......right over the mountains and lake. I was the second tandem to go and I think the worst part was watching someone jump out before me! Finally......it was my turn. Falling out was amazing and we free fell for 45 seconds. I was SO relieved when the shoot opened......and then we just glided down doing some fast turns that were really fun. I don't have many pictures of it.....but I have it in dvd! Such a great experience and can't wait to do it again!

Really excited about the coming week and getting up to Auckland! Hope you all are doing well! xxx