Going Down! (South)

Sunday 25th, but rather than chill out reading the newspaper like any sane person would on 'The Day of Rest' we had woken up with the plan of diving off an 80m bridge!! The bridge in question was at a place called Gravity Canyon, the highest bungy in the North Island, a stunning setting across a deep narrow gorge! But disappointment (or more accurately relief!) lay ahead as the bungy was operating that day, they did have the World's longest Flying Fox but that seemed a bit tame compared with a bungy....so not content to walk away without any adrenalin fix we opted for the Bungy Swing!! This involved being strapped into a harness (both together), left hanging in midair above the gorge, then suddenly without warning being dropped 50m freefall into the canyon below, before the line catches and you're swung out in a massive arc through the gorge! What an experience, absolutely gut renching, but such a buzz...so we did it again!!!

The picture doesn't do the experience any justice...you'll all just have to come out here and do it yourself!!!

After such an adrenalin rush its very hard to just get on with normal stuff - but thats what we had to do. So we drove off to cover the final part of our journey in the North Island, the South West Coast. We spent that night parked up at Te Horo Beach about 45km North of Wellington, before making the final part of are journey the following morning, with the occasional stop to fill up on free samples of cheese, chocolate and liquors at the gormet tourist shops along the way! Our priority in wellington was getting 'Mo' to doctors for a check-up, she'd been coughing and spluttering the last few days...hopefully nothing too serious! So with Mo parked up at a garage in the city we spent the rest of the day shopping, booking ferry to South Island and chilling out by the waterfront! It took till 7pm to get Mo all fixed, costing $200 (about 70 pounds), but she's running like a dream again now!

We booked ferry for Wednesday lunchtime giving us a day and a half to explore Wellington, during which time we went to Te Papa Museum (mixture of the Natural History & Science Museum....and free!!!), did short trip up tram to Botanical gardens, had swim/much needed hot shower in public pool, ate fish & chips (their national dish!) and our favourite activity...a trip to Pak'n'Save supermarket!!! We then boarded the ferry for the start of our next adventure, The South Island!!! Its a 3.5hr crossing, supposedly the most picturesque commercial ferry route, but nobody had told us and seeing as it was a bit windy we stayed inside and watched cheesy american movie on TV!