Bungy Jumping (2)

So as I was showing Paul around NZ I thought (stupidly) that we should bungy. NZ is well known as the Bungy capital. I thought we'd be daring and bungy off the Auckland Harbour Bridge (just over 135 ft) over water, the harbour. You walk 10 mins along a walk way just below the bridge to get to the bungy pod just below the bridge. As we began the walk I started to get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. All I could see was the water below me a long long way down . As we got to the pod thing strapped just under the bridge I was truly petrified. The bungy boys then open up the pod door and you can see the water below. They write your weight in huge numbers and in red on the back of your hand (in case you forget) and strap you up and you then jump. Here are a few pictures to tell the story a bit better.



This is me starting to freak out and smile at the same time. I was ready to cry here so that Paul would say it was ok if I didn't jump.



This is a close up of me freaking out and smiling at the same time.



So here I am ready to jump, with the wind in my hair, and the fear of life in my heart. I am freakin out right about now!!!!!!!!!!!!



This is me jumping. I have video footage but its long as because i was so scared to get going and they were helping me to calm down. Its quite hillarious, in fact everyone that has seen it ends up laughing as!!! I think I'll save the footage for a rainy day.

On the other hand Paul was a trooper and ready to take on the challenge. Here are his pictures and they are total opposite of mine.



I got some great footage on my little digital camera of Paul that is just awesome. Enjoy!!!!

If you ever decide to bungy I'm sure it is so much more comforting to bungy over water as opposed to a slab of concrete. In NZ you can bungy off just about anything. The bungy operators are cheeky as and typical kiwi humour, ya gotta love it!!!

Bungy Jumping ...

We are in Auckland and getting ready to go bungy jump off the harbor bridge. I had a horrible dream about it last night but I will blog about it when we are done. You can go to this link http://www.bungy.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/193 to get an idea of what we are going to do and I will post pictures later. I won't lie I'm scared as!!!

A Kiwi a day .... (Pt. 1)

So while has been here we've tried to give him a little Kiwi (New Zealand) treat a day. We really love our food and I forgot how good everything is. Here are a couple of his treats to date.



This is Paul having a Macdonalds Kiwiburger. Of course he loved it and was excited for more.



This is Paul and I having Fish n chips for dinner. We have such good fish and this is a kiwi staple. Again of course Paul loved it and we've had it again since this picture was taken.

Sorry I have not been consistent with the blog but I promise to catch up in the next few days.

The Kiwi Journey to Down Under, Middle Earth, Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand

Well the trip has had some fun moments so here they are. One of my talented beautiful neices Kotahi flew to NZ with us and it was fun having her. She was a fun little addition to our travel party. I kept giving my little history speech about NZ to her and Paul that just kept us alive and full of fun. I had so much luggage and between us we had 5 carry on pieces. Plus we had to take off our shoes and coats at check in and I was hammered before we even got on our first flight. We flew southwest to LAX and got our drinks and snacks and Paul managed to get us extra snacks so we were living the good life. The flight seemed quick and we were awake the whole time and landed in no time. This picture is of us on our leg from SLC to LAX (2hrs). We are still happy and having fun.



When we arrived in LAX there was tonnes of people. So we made our way to baggage claim to get our bags and make our way to Air New Zealand (ANZ). I love that at the baggage carousel your heaving and struggling trying to get your bags off and the people around you are just watching you saying "hey". We got 2 baggage carts and packed up our bags (3 on each with 2 carry bags) and made out way to Air New Zealand. ANZ is the terminal next to Southwest. Paul and I were racing our carts while my neice was laughing at us saying "Aunty you guys are so funny". We managed however to stop take a picture under the ANZ terminal sign. This is Paul and Kotahi and yes we are still having fun.



When we got to ANZ there were only 2 people in line which was awesome and we got this very nice lady that informed us as we put one bag on the scales that it was overweight (suprise). But she was awesome she checked all 3 of us in and figured how much we could have for 3 of us and then totalled the bag weight and only charged $30. All our bags had a heavy tag (our bags not us). We then made our way to our terminal and the security lines were insane. We stodd in line waiting to get through to security for about 45 mins (fun, not). I spoke with a few kiwis (people from NZ named after the bird not the fruit)while waiting in line and try to make the process a little more fun. When we boarded our flight (and we were right at the back) it was about 4 hours till we had left SLC and we are still having fun. Our flight to NZ was only 12.5 hours (usually 13). So what did we do for 13 hours you ask? Between the 3 of us we watched 6 movies, 2 tv show episodes (we each had our own TV screens) slept (well wriggled around trying to sleep), ate 2 meals (dinner and breakfast) and slept some more. I slept well as I'm used to this flight but Paul and Tahi struggled a wee bit. When we arrived (25 mins early) we were the last off the flight and took the long walk to baggage claim. It was so beautiful to see all the maori carvings on the doorway as we entered into the passport and immigration check.and here is a picture of us. We have made it to NZ!!!!

Arrived Safely In NZ

Well we arrived safely in NZ. It was so nice to travel home with people rather than just myself. The trip was as long as I remembered but the security check line in LAX was crazy. When we got to SLC airport all my bags (and Pauls cos I filled it up) were overweight and I was going to have to pay $50 per bag ($200). Luckily my borther worked his gift of spotting the polynesian and was able to get all my bags through with simply a faa fetai tele lava!! Thanks bro. It is Winter here but the days have been absolutley beautiful and the cold kicks in at night and in the morning. After living in Utah though this is nothing. The kids are running around with no shoes and t-shirt and shorts its so funny. I've eaten so much food already and we are going to see Transformers this morning (10:45 show). The big movies come out a day earlier here cos of the time difference and Paul and I are big movie fans!!!! I was up at 5am and yesterday still trying to adjust to the time difference and was in bed at 8pm last night!!!! I miss everyone but I'm loving having Paul here. He is loving everything about NZ and is such a fun person to host. This is short and sweet but I will upload pictures tonight.

Love you all Nance