Goodbye New Zealand, Hello 2011

So I'm writing this on the flight between Auckland and Los Angeles, meaning I am currently knackered, grumpy, bored out of my skull and homesick - the recipe for a good blog post, I'm sure you'll agree. But having just watched four films on the trot, my mind needed some sort of re-awakening and I'm hoping that trying to remember/write down the events of the last few days in a witty and interesting way should do it. So after much recollection, blank staring at paper and reanimation of brain cells, here goes.

We spent a record three nights in Te Anau, the highlights of which were the glowworm caves and Milford Sound. The former is something I'd seen on David Attenborough programmes and expected to be a disappointment - maggots with bright arses stuck to a cave ceiling. Beautiful. But d'you know, it really was! The only thing I can compare it to are those pictures you see in museums of what a starry night would look like if humans hadn't polluted the ozone layer beyond all repair etc. etc. (like how I slipped that guilt trip in?). In other words, vastly more impressive than I was expecting and really very beautiful.

Milford Sound likewise. I was predisposed to enjoy this day because a) it was a boat trip b) our tourguide had a rather beautiful Irish accent and c) my mum had been going on about it ALL holiday. A Sound, in this sense, I now know is a massive expanse of water leading to/from the sea that was created by a river - they're often confused with fjords, which are the same thing creates by glaciers. New Zealand, however, had to be different, and thus it's coast has fourteen fjords, all of which are called sounds. In their defence, they tried to make up for this by naming the whole area Fiordland, but managed to bugger that up as well - fjord is a Norwegian word and should be spelt with a 'j', not an 'i'. But geographical and grammatical errors aside, it was (in my Mum's words) "truly spectacular", and well worth the day trip.

The next couple of days, however, were defined by rather less 'beautiful' and rather more exciting activities. We moved on to Queenstown, our last stop and kind of the New Zealand equivalent of Blackpool (with more class). Here we had another couple of goes on a luge (we could actually see the track ahead of us this time, which was comforting) and also a go on the Shotover Jet. This is essentially a very fast, quite scary and somewhat wet speedboat ride, wherein the driver does 360 spins on the water, pumps 800 litres of water a second out of the engine and goes disturbingly close to the canyon walls. Despite screaming like a girl throughout, I absolutely loved it and felt the winery we toured that afternoon kind of paled by comparison...

However, my littler brother completely out adrenalined-junkied me that afternoon by throwing himself off a bridge. Bungy jumping is something I have always had every intention of doing, but I wanted to save it as something special for my gap year, which I have every intention of returning to New Zealand for. My brother had no such qualms. The AJ Hackett bungy was actually the first in the world, and they have the measurements down to such finesse that they ask you how much of your body you want dunking in the river below. My brother came back drenched from head to waist, and I - being the kind, supportive sister I am -videod the lot for YouTube. :)

But unfortunately that put an end to our New Zealand adventures, and now remains only two days in LA before the holiday of a lifetime is over. Sorry as I was to leave NZ, I am glad to be on my way home, and have absolutely no doubt that I will one day return to this incredible country.