Skydiving and bungy jumping

This will be the last blog post from New Zealand soil. As I'm writing we only have 8 hours or so left until we board our flight to Tonga, and chance mayhap has put us in the same hostel, in the exact same room, where we also slept our very first night in NZ. This is, however, not a farewell message this magnificent country we've spent the past 10 months in. We'll leave that 'til later once we've had time to reflect on it on the golden beaches of the island kingdom.

This blog post is just to tell you that we skydived (tandem) and bungy jumped (solo) in Taupo last Tuesday (14 July)! We did both extreme activities on the same day since the weather turned quite bad the rest of the week (we had to abandon our plans to go skiing on the volcanoes in the Tongariro national park). Skydiving from 15,ooo feet (that's 4570 metres!) with 60 seconds of freefall was bloody awesome! It's something we feel is worth experiencing once in a lifetime, but it's not something we'd want to do every day.

You're allowed to look a bit funny just before jumping out of an aircraft at 15,000 feet, right?

Bungy jumping is completely different from skydiving, at least in our experience. We jumped over the Waikato River in a beautiful gorge. In some ways bungy jumping is a lot harder than tandem skydiving, since you actually have to launch yourself with your own willpower and lack a 90 kg tandem master who pushes you into the sky. Neither one of us hesitated though as we stood on the edge of the drop. Maybe there was something magic in the voice of the jump master as she called out "One, two, three, bungyyyyyy!", because on the last word we were both compelled to lean forward, and then it was too late for second thoughts.

The location of our bungy jumps. You can see the jump platform up to the right.

Neither one of us got wet, which was just as well since it is winter here and we didn't want to catch a pneumonia. But we did get close enough to the still murky green water to see the reflections of our faces before our fingertips shattered the image into thousands of wavy concentric rings.

Not a bad way to finish our great time in New Zealand!

A few MORE PICTURES of our jumps are available here.

Fantastic fjords

The conclusion to the story of the road trip together with Juuso and Eeva:

On day 6 of the road trip (Monday 30 March) we left Queenstown and headed for Te Anau in Fiordland, a place very well known to myself and Giigan by then, since this was to be our third visit to the region. Giigan was the driver for the first hour of our journey, but as we'd cleared most signs of human habitation and only the stray possum was in any danger of becoming overrun, the driver seat was relinquished to Juuso, who had expressed his interest in experiencing what it's like to drive "on the wrong side of the road".

Later on, the steering wheel was commanded by Eeva, who didn't want to miss the opportunity either. For the second time since buying our green Bluebird, Giigan and I found ourselves in the back seat! We could have gotten used to it.

A slightly confused Eeva.

Arriving in Te Anau we quickly checked in to our hostel, the Rainbow Downs Barnyard Backpackers, which has become our usual place to stay in that region of NZ. We had a nice lunch at the Sandfly Cafe (luckily devoid of the little buggers) before having a competition at the nearby minigolf course. The loser had to buy a round of beer at the opposite Red Cliff Cafe (which contrary to its name actually is a terrific restaurant), and if memory serves right, the drinks were on Juuso. While enjoying the cold beers in the sunny weather we took the opportunity of playing petanque in the court at the back of the cafe. With an almost crushing victory, team Eeva/JBB disillusioned the cocky arrogance of team Juuso/Giigan. Högmod går före fall, as we say in Swedish.

In the evening we came back to the Red Cliff Cafe to have dinner, and what a dinner it was (we had dinner with Giigan's parents there too and it was just as good)! The Red Cliff serves delicious, distinctive food and possesses a warm, cozy atmosphere as well. No wonder some of the stars of the Lord of the Rings movies liked to dine there too!

Day 7 saw us going on a day trip to Milford Sound. Juuso and Eeva went on a cruise and afterward we all shared a picnic in the fantastic scenery and late afternoon sunshine.

Is there a better place for a picnic than this?

The next day we got to admire another fantastic fjord: Doubtful Sound. Giigan and I went on a day cruise, while Juuso and Eeva went on an overnight cruise. Both cruises depart from Manapouri, which is a small town 20 km south from Te Anau, and start with a cruise across the island-studded Lake Manapouri. At the Manapouri underground hydro power station you board a coach, which takes you on the Wilmot Pass road to Deep Cove. The day cruise includes a tour of the underground power station before the coach trip. The power station is very impressive. The coach drives down a spiraling vehicle access tunnel which is 2 km long until you're 200 metres below the surface of Lake Manapouri. The machine hall is deep inside the mountain and looks like something from a James Bond movie. There are seven generators each providing 121,5 MW of electricity. If you're interested in reading more about this fascinating hydro power station, go here.

After 22 km along the Wilmot Pass road we arrived at Deep Cove, the head of Doubtful Sound, located 40 km from the open sea. There we boarded our vessel for the three hour cruise on the fjord, which is about three times longer than Milford Sound. Doubtful Sound is in fact the second largest of the 14 fjords in the Fiordland National Park (Dusky Sound is the largest), and as we soon discovered, completely different compared to Milford Sound. Nonetheless immensely beautiful, but in a another way. Whereas the water of Milford Sound is surrounded by sheer, at times even vertical cliff faces, the overall look of Doubtful Sound is a lot more round and undulating. The fjord is also a lot broader and has three arms. Comparing the two fjords is, however, like comparing Salma Hayek and Ksenia Sukhinova. Sure, both are very beautiful, but a verdict can be nothing but subjective.

On the Doubtful Sound cruise.

The following day (Thu 2 April) we picked up Eeva and Juuso as they returned from their overnight cruise of the fjord and headed back to Queenstown. We had lunch at the Arrowtown Brewery in the former gold mining town Arrowtown just north of Queenstown. This time we stayed at the Garden Court Apartments in Queenstown; an option on par with our apartment accommodation in Wanaka.

Friday 3 April marked the 10th and last full day of our road trip. To honour this we played a round of golf at what has to be one of the most scenic golf courses in NZ: the Queenstown Golf Course located on the peninsula Kelvin Heights, which juts out into Lake Wakatipu. It was absolutely amazing, and I think I speak for all four of us when I say that was one of the most pleasant games of golf I've ever enjoyed, despite the results which aren't worthy the light of day. The perfect day was topped off with a home-made farewell dinner á la JBB & Giigan. We finally got to uncork the bottle of sparkling from the Christchurch hotel too.

JBB teeing off at the Queenstown Golf Course.

Saturday was a day of goodbyes. Juuso's and Eeva's flight left in the morning and the two of us were left wondering what to do next. The past 10 days had been so action-packed that we were suddenly at a loss of what to do with ourselves. The process of getting back to everyday life, meaning not living in comfy motels and apartments and eating gourmet food, had to begin.

We had the most amazing time together with Juuso and Eeva, and are looking very much forward to them visiting us in Australia too. Thanks for not choosing a pacific island resort! :-)

Juuso and Eeva enjoying a massage before the ~35 h flight back home.

MORE PICTURES are available here.

See a VIDEO CLIP of a remarkable dawn over Queenstown here (during an earlier visit to Queenstown on 26.2.2009).

Koriksen MM kisat, 2-12.7. Auckland

Olen saanut nauttia todellisesta huippukoriksesta täällä Aucklandissa ja alle 19 vuotiaiden poikien MM kisat on juuri saatu päätökseensä. Varsin täyteläiset kaksi viikkoa ovat takana ja on kiva taas laittaa rinkka selkään ja suunnata kohti uusia seikkailuja (Tonga yms.). Tässä vielä katsaus kisoihin:

Jännittävien vaiheiden jälkeen USA selviytyi kisojen voittajaksi (edellisen kerran USA juhli kultaa alle 19v kisoissa vuonna 1991) Kreikan taistellessa hienosti hopealle. Prossipelissä nähtiin kaksi kisojen pirteää yllättäjää Australia ja Kroatia. Kroatia vei tämän taiston niukasti ja heidän fantastiset faninsa, jotka jäivät kaikille mieleen, saivat ansaitsemansa mitalijuhlat! Joukkueet sijoilla 5-10 olivat varsin tasaväkisiä ja sijoituset oisivat voineet mennä toisinkin. Tällä kertaa järjestys oli seuraava: Argentiina vahvalla joukkuepelaamisellaan viides, Puerto Rico iloisella ja nopealla heittopelillään kuudes, Kanada seitsemäs, Ranska kahdeksan ja kisoissa yllättävän heikosti menestynyt Liettua yhdeksäs. Espanjan materiaali ei aivan riittänyt ja heidän sijoitus 10. Egyptin ja Kazakstanin joukkueet (11. ja 12.) taistelivat hienosti, mutta tasoeroa oli yksinkertaisesti liikaa, eikä heistä ollut yllättäjiksi..

Palkinnot odottamassa finaalia.

Uuden Seelannin joukkue sijoittui 13., mutta heiltä olisi voinut odottaa enemmänkin. Alkusarjassa kolme tiukkaa tappiota, 2 pisteen tappio Argentiinalle, 7 pistettä Kroatialle ja 7 pistettä Kazakstanille osoittivat, että Uusi Seelanti kykenee tasaväkiin kampailuihin kärkimaita vastaan, toisin kuin Kazakstan, jonka taktiikkana oli voittaa vain Uusi Seelanti ja he hävisivätkin muut ottelunsa selvällä erolla.

Myös ensimmäisten kisojen mukanaan tuomat paineet ja se tosiasia, että Kiwit ovat varsin kilpailuhenkisiä ja menestys haluisia, olivat liikaa ja tarvittava viimeinen rutistus jäi puuttumaan. Sijoitus ottelujen vakuuttavat voitot Syriasta ja Angolasta toivat viimein tarvittavan rentouden ja tulevaisuus näyttää lupaavalta. Mielenkiinnolla jään odottamaan tulevaa Suomi-Uusi Seelanti maaottelua 2.8.2009 Vantaalla. Menkää ihmeessä katsomaan vaikkei koris niin kiinnostaisikaan, onhan luvassa varsin mieleenpainuva Haka esitys.

Viimeiset kolme maata olivat siis Angola (14.), Iran (15.) ja Syria (16.). Syrian kohtaloksi jäi tällä kertaa olla viimeisenä ilman ainuttakaan voittoa.

Näin budjetti matkaajan kannalta ja miksei myös muutenkin oli oikein hyvä idea osallistua kisoihin vapaaehtoistyöntekijänä. Sen lisäksi, että pääsi seuraamaan otteluja ilmaiseksi (puolet otteluista työn ohella) ei tarvinnut huolehtia ruoasta yms. ja pääsi näkemään mitä kulissien takana tapahtuu. Pelkkänä katsoja olisi kisaelämys varmasti jäänyt laimeammaksi, miksi se nyt muodostui!

Pääasiallinen työn kuvani oli Usher eli ohjata ja auttaa katsojia omille paikoilleen ja vastailla heidän kysymyksiinsä, mutta jo toisena päivänä löysin itseni varsin nuoren vapaaehtoisporukan team leaderinä. Onneksi tätä kesti vain päivän verran, koska muuten kisojen seuraaminen olisi pahasti häiriintynyt.

Kisojen virallinen työasu.

Kisojen edetessä työtehtävät vaihtelivat mukavasti ja välillä pääsin huolehtimaan joukkueiden pukuhuoneista ja siitä, että joukkueilla on kaikki kunnossa pelien aikana. Käytännössä tämä tarkoitti ottelujen seuraamista joukkuepenkin takaa, ilman mitään "oikeita hommia".

Vapaaehtoistyö kisojen seuraamismuotona osoittautui toimivaksi ratkaisuksi ja voin suositella sitä lämpimästi!

Olin itseasiassa ainut ulkopuolinen/ulkomaalainen ja muut työntekijät kuuluivat paikallisiin organissatioihin ja yhteisöihin. Tämä takasi sen, että työn ohessa avautui minulle oiva tilaisuus tutustua Uuden Seelannin koripallokulttuuriin ja vaihtaa arvokkaita mietteitä.

Turnauksen MVP:ksi valittiin Kroatian Mario Delas ja hänen vakuuttavia esityksiään oli ilo seurata. Minäkin valitsin Delaksen parhaimmaksi pelaajaksi, mutta all star viisikkoon olisin valinnut hiukan eri kaverit: 1 (Point Guard): Ranskan Andrew Albicy, 2 (Shooting Guard): Puerto Ricon Michael Rosario, 3 (Small Forward): Kreikan Nikolaos Pappas, 4 (Power Forward): Kroatian Mario Delas ja 5 (Center): USA:n Howard Thompkins. Virallinen all star viisikko oli Tyshawn Taylor ja Gordon Hayward USA, Toni Prostran ja Mario Delas Kroatia, ja Nikolaos Pappas Kreikka. Lisää tietoa kisoista ja kuvia/videoita löytyy tämän linkin takaa.

Glaciers, golf and good times

The blog has almost caught up with current events, there is just one road trip to tell you guys about, and then we're finally done with all the old stuff! The road trip in question lasted for 10 days, started in Christchurch and ended in Queenstown, and had three passengers besides myself: Giigan and our newlywed good friends Juuso and Eeva. They opted for a slightly different honeymoon: no isolated pacific island resort for them, instead they flew all the way to NZ to visit us, which we appreciated a lot since we couldn't attend the wedding.

Queenstown - who wouldn't want to gaze upon a sight so breathtaking on their honeymoon?

The planning of the road trip was more or less entirely in the hands of me and Giigan (the bride and groom naturally busy with preparations for the ceremony and subsequent celebrations), and we tried our best to combine attractions we hadn't seen ourselves before, but still keeping the standard top-notch.

In hindsight, I think we can say that we succeeded and even surpassed the expectations. At least a terrible feeling of nostalgia swept over both myself and Giigan as our dear guests finally had to return home. But I should not get ahead of myself; there's 10 action-packed days to walk you through before we reach the end! Since we did do a lot of stuff, I'm going to keep it as short as possible, but still split the story into two blog posts in order to avoid the birth of an essay out of this.

Right, so part one is hereby commencing.

After nearly 40 non-stop hours in an airplane, Juuso and Eeva arrived in Christchurch on 24th March. Needless to say, they were feeling tired, dirty (NOT that kind of dirty!) and unfortunately, feeling the symptoms of an emerging flu. The comforts of the suite d'Amour we had booked for them at a hotel in Christchurch for the first night were undoubtedly much appreciated, even though the complementary bottle of sparkling had to be saved for later use. Most of this first day we just spent catching up and then going early to bed, since we had an early departure the next morning.

Day 1 of the actual road trip consisted of driving most of the day, destination the Franz Josef glacier on the West Coast. Once there Giigan, Eeva and I went to have a look-see at the retreating glacier, while Juuso felt too drained to make it out of our motel room. Both the Franz Josef glacier and the nearby Fox glacier (which all four of us got to see the following day) were very impressive, alas global warming doesn't bode well for them.

Juuso and Eeva in front of the Fox glacier terminus.

Day 2 was intentionally also a day of much driving as we continued south along the coast until the road cut inland towards Wanaka. We did have time to stop at a few places along the way. Fox glacier was one of them, as well as Lake Matheson, across which you can have splendid views of Mt Cook/Aoraki and the glacier on a clear day. From the beach at Ship Creek we got to admire the acrobatic skills of a large pod of dolphins, and in Haast we enjoyed a traditional lunch consisting of fish 'n' chips.

Our accommodation in Wanaka was superb: a modern apartment with a double and a twin bedroom, a large living room and a more than passable kitchen. We stayed for two nights and got to take full benefit of our temporary home the next day as it was raining most of the time. We did go to the Rippon vineyard for wine tasting and a game of GolfCross, but we had to suspend play after only three holes. In short, GolfCross is a Kiwi invention which is basically like golf, but the ball is in the shape of a rugby ball and there are goals instead of holes. The objective is to hit the mini-rugby-golf-ball through the goal using the least amount of shots possible. Because of the shape of the ball, you can in fact control the trajectory, spin and fade/draw of the ball like you were a pro by just adjusting the angle and rotation of the ball on top of the tee (all shots are made from tees).

Eeva teeing off on the GolfCross course. A goal can be seen to the right in the background.

While the rain was pouring down the rest of the day, Giigan and I prepared a four course dinner for the evening. How does strawberries, brie and Moët & Chandon champagne sound for starters? The rest of the menu was a bit more arduous for us chefs though.

Strawberries, brie and champagne for starters.

The morning of day 4 saw us teeing off on the Wanaka Golf Course - a lovely course in the middle of some astonishing scenery, you'll no doubt concur. After a pleasant game devoid of any serious injuries, although the new Mrs tried very hard to have her arm pulled out of its socket during two shots, we continued to Queenstown.

View across Wanaka from the golf course.

We spent two nights there. An eight bed dorm at the YHA Lakefront hostel sufficed to us backpackers, while the newlyweds occupied a suite in the "slightly" more luxurious Hotel St Moritz. Since our guests were curious about life in a hostel, we arranged an excursion to the lovely premises. Coffee and tee was included in the tour. Satisfaction wasn't guaranteed though, as one participant made the (to us) hilarious comment: "I couldn't live in a hostel anymore". Luckily for him, there are places that have dropped the "s". :-D

The excursion wasn't, however, our main activity in Queenstown. On day 5 we rode the gondola under a spotless blue sky to the complex on Bob's Peak. The views of the Remarkables mountain range and Lake Wakatipu from there are unsurpassed. Just like in Rotorua, there is a luge track at the top of the gondola. We had great fun racing each other down the sealed track propelled by gravity alone.

Giigan on the Luge. The Remarkables mountain range in the distance.

Check the PHOTO GALLERY for more pictures and a more detailed narration of the first half of the road trip. And stay tuned for the second half which will be published within a couple of days or so.