I am sitting in SFO right now, waiting my final flight of this journey as I reflect back in my time in Auckland. I apologize in advance for poor grammer and spelling, it feels like I haven't slept in days - but it has been September 27th all along. Crossing the international dateline really messes with your mind - at 0930 on Sept 27th I was eating breakfast at a swankyAuckland breakfast joint but wait - also at 0930 on Sept 27th I was complaining about the humidity in Los Angeles. Bizarre. (Caitlin I promised I would tell you if the future held anything interesting...nope, same old same old.) That's okay though, I had about as much excitement in Auckland as my old bones could take. It started with a culinary adventure on Friday night where we dined on chicken livers and kangaroo. You know what tastes like kangaroo...nothing. I think this is truly a unique taste. I could never bring myself to eat it previously, mostly because I once bonded with Niaa Red Kangaroo in the Tarongo Zoo in Sydney; I always felt that eating kangaroo would be a betrayal to her. Well I got over it and I am sorry to say Nia but your cousin was delicous.
Saturday morning was glum and overcast but that did not deter the spirits of Barry, Matt and myself as we prepared ourselvesto take a leap off one of the tallest structures in the Southern Hemisphere (Ma
tt is the American who is currently stationed in Afganistan that we met while rafting in Waitomo - he was travelling alone so he met up with us for his last few days as well). After the humiliating weigh in and superhero suit donning we made our way up to floor 53, for a last minute safetybriefing before the scariest walk I have ever taken. The guys as mission control did a great job at calming my nerves; chatting, playing music, I was almost breathing at a regular rate when I stepped out onto the platform. The last few secondswere a blur before I jumped 192m or 630 feet straight down...I remember wind, rain and the music in the background - Knockin'
on Heaven's Door by Guns'n'Roses. I hummed it the whole way down. SkyJump is described as base jumping with a wire, so unlike by crazy friend Gabe who replies on a parachute, I was relying on a wire to catch me and lower me gently to the ground. It's not quite like that - it takes 11 seconds to get down and the wire seems to merely stop you from splatting witha quick jerk, it does not gently glide you to the ground as I had envisioned. It was still an exhilirating 11 seconds of which I still have not regained my voice fully from the bloodcurdling scream I let out.
tt is the American who is currently stationed in Afganistan that we met while rafting in Waitomo - he was travelling alone so he met up with us for his last few days as well). After the humiliating weigh in and superhero suit donning we made our way up to floor 53, for a last minute safetybriefing before the scariest walk I have ever taken. The guys as mission control did a great job at calming my nerves; chatting, playing music, I was almost breathing at a regular rate when I stepped out onto the platform. The last few secondswere a blur before I jumped 192m or 630 feet straight down...I remember wind, rain and the music in the background - Knockin'
on Heaven's Door by Guns'n'Roses. I hummed it the whole way down. SkyJump is described as base jumping with a wire, so unlike by crazy friend Gabe who replies on a parachute, I was relying on a wire to catch me and lower me gently to the ground. It's not quite like that - it takes 11 seconds to get down and the wire seems to merely stop you from splatting witha quick jerk, it does not gently glide you to the ground as I had envisioned. It was still an exhilirating 11 seconds of which I still have not regained my voice fully from the bloodcurdling scream I let out. Feeling exh
ilirated after our "base jump", we decided to take on a force of nature - shorttail stingrays. I have learnt that if you give people money they will let you do just about anything - for the low price of $60 we became VIP's at the Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World. This meant behind the scenes tours of the entire operation culminating in another wetsuit wearing expereince (I have never worn so many humiliating suits i
n my life as on this vacation). This time though we got to get in the tank and feed the stingrays. Doesn't sound so excinting...it didn't at first to me either. I mean, I have fed rays in the wild in Tahiti - heck I even used to own one as a pet. The BIG difference...these are shorttail stingrays - they each weighed between 240 and 250 kg (that is 550 lbs!) Full wetsuits, booties and gloves are mandatory - I learnt why when my left index finger got caught in the mouth of Moley - thought it was gone there for a minute. Or when Phoebe surprised me by coming up on right side and accidentally knocked me over. They are 550 lbs of pure muscle. All ten fingers and toes intact we made our way out of the pool and onto the next activity. Have you ever seen the movie - Night at the Museum? Well Auckland Museum had a night intended for kids aged 6 - 10 (or adults who've had a few beers) to searc
h the museum for a hidden treasure. The catch - the lights were all out and some ofthe exhibits, like the dinosaur, came to life. It was awesome. There was some sort of Alice in Wonderland theme running throughout that I wasn't following but this means that the White Rabbit kept popping up all over, trying to hide from streamsof children chasing him. (It also gave me my WTF photo from this trip). Basil the T-Rex would arbitraily attack whoever wasnear him and men dressed as Indiana Jones ran around searching for the "Spitfire Orchid". Curiously we stumbled upon an extra "Alice" character - only this Alice was a little to provocatively dressed for a children's event - turned out she was doing some sort of private photo shoot in the museum, my guess is for a webpage or escort ad. All in all it was a very surreal expereince. (Piggy the supertorch proved to be invaluable again!) So it's done. Car returned, awkward conversation had, 2 flights down and the end is in sight. Thanks to Barry and Jeanette who were two fantastic travel partners. Also thanks to Matt whose late presence helped make Auckland awesome. And last but not least, special thanks to Cathy, Craig, Nevin, Mike, Shannon, Juh, Beks, Brett, Phoebe, Moley, Barbie, Rebecca, Zoe, the All Blacks and the countless people who gave advice before the vacation. Finally - to all the fantastic New Zealanders thatwe met while there - your hospitality was overwhelming.
OMFG this is great!
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