Gravity is kinda cool.

Sooooooo I went skydiving. Have to say, pretty freakin cool experience, I highly reccomend that everyone does it at least once in their life. Surprisingly, I never at any point felt any fear. I kept waiting for the nerves to hit me, but the entire drive there, training, suiting up, taking off, opening of the door, climbing onto the ledge, and falling off...no fear, just excitement. I was just like 'yeeeah lets get going!'. we did a somersault out of the plane and a bunch of twists and spins and other acrobatics during the free fall and it was so sick. THen we just fell for like 45 sec (we opted for the 12000 foot fall instead of the 9000) before the parachute came out and we just talked away for the rest of the flight down. We chatted about base jumping and how he really wants to go to Norway to do it cause after 4 years of skydiving its lost its thrill (which i can see, it was awesome, but the adrenaline would die down after 2000 odd jumps which is roughly how many he has done). We talked about ground training and how for just a bit more money I could do a solo jump (which is in my goals to accomplish, would be so sick). Basically...I want to skydive a lot more.
But starting at the beginning, i skipped ahead too much: Basically we pulled into this tiny "airfield" (more field than anything) with a couple small sheds and Nalumon looked at me with a very concerned face and asked where I had found this place and was it safe? I assured her it had high marks from Lonely Planet so we proceeded and were shown the way to the "training" room (ie shack with a bathroom and small room with some photos of skydiving and a bit of equipment). An older guy with a thick accent briefly explained the drill (i mean briefly, who knew skydiving took roughly a 10 min intro) of how we should position our bodies on the fall down (banana formation basically, back arched), tapping the shoulder means uncross your arms and bring them out, land with your feet up so you don't break an ankle/leg. that was it. On with the suits, meet our tandem masters, they double checked our harnesses, and as soon as the plane landed from the previous trip (about 15 min between landings, it was a very efficient system!) we climbed on it. My tandem master was Sutor and Nalumon's was Greg. The plane was tiny and barely fit the four of us plus the pilot, i was on my tandem master's lap and nalumon was between greg's legs (Dad- it was a cesnar 182 or something like that...high winged plane, i took a pic of the cockpit for you with all the meters and dials and stuff, so i get to be your favorite daughter for at least a week). We did a scenic flight over the glacier and around mount cook which was absolutely beautiful because it was a fairly clear day (and we were above the clouds anyway). We then gained altitude and the pilot turned the plane straight up and then killed the engine so we were weightless for a few seconds, engine went back on, door opened and before I could finishe saying 'see you on the ground' to Nalumon we were on our way down. It was so cool, and although my face got a wee bit cold, it was unbelievable! The ground was so far away that it really wasn't scary cause it was all so surreal. You didn't really have a fear of hitting anything cause it was getting closer so slowly. It was pretty indescribable so you all need to do it if you haven't, and if you have, well then you know what i'm talking about!! We landed in a field that was adjecent to a sheep paddock (the sheep were less than pleased and rather scurred) where a girl with a car met us to drive us back. Nalumon landed a couple seconds after us and we were all full of smiles!
After skydiving we headed out on a glacier climb, which was super boring and slow after the morning adventure. Plus our group was not exactly outdoorsy/athletic/capable of even the most basic human movements (stairs and crossing creeks were apparently big efforts for a lot of them). Our guide was Argentinian and really nice and a big rock climber (so him and nalumon had some bonding convos) and would make funny snide side comments to me about the slow members of the groups and the dumb questions the ywould ask (like did anyone ever fall into the "river"...ie a puddle with a sandy edge...um no, nobody had ever 'fallen' into it). so he made it a bit more amusing. The glacier was ok, but since we only had time to do the half day hike, we didn't get up ver high so we couldn't see any of the ice caves or arches, so it was basically jus tlike walking on a realy really big lump of ice. a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle boring after say 10 minutes. We then hopped in the car and down to Haast, a town the size of, well, a convienence store and some hostels. the convenience store was the only 'grocery' store in town and it was the size of a gas station. Not much selection, so we bought the bare minimum (peanut butter and some soup makings) and ate dinner before passing out. We have driven down to Wanaka today which is beautiful but its overcast and rainy so we are taking a relaxing day before going canyoning tomorrow (which I am super excited about, but i really need to stop doing spendy activities!). Canyoning is basically rappelling down cliff walls, jumping off small cliffs into pools below, sliding down creeks, and doing various ziplines and stuff all through the canyons around Wanaka. It starts at 9 am and we won't be back til about 5 30 pm. I am so so so excited, it looks phenom.
Other than that not much of an update, still no pictures so quit the whining. bought some postcards so if you want one just leave your address as a comment and i'll ship 'em off!!
miss everyone, but not enough to leave NZ mwhahahaha. Don't want to start school, am really trying to slow time (so far unsuccessful), and worried because as of now one of the econ courses that it looks like i have to take for scheduling/credit purposes (ie only econ course that really fits my schedule and i neeeeed econ credits) is financial econometrics, boo.
off to eat and explore more of wanaka!!