Water Skiing in New Zealand and Jumping Off Unsuspecting Bridges

I wrote this on paper January 4th, 2012 on my flight from Christchurch to Auckland:

We're about 3/4 of our way through our trip. In retrospect it seems like we've done a lot, but at the same time we haven't and its been quick. This country is much larger than it seems and traversing it really takes a significant amount of time. Travel takes up entire days at times.

Very easy to understand intersection / round about signs leaves a GPS unnecessary:

Kiwi's have radio stations that end in even numbers!! 90.40

January 1, 2012:

Our 4.5 hour drive from Queenstown to Franz Josef on the west coast of the south island took us around 8 hours once it was all said and done.

Views en route:

A couple of look outs and a longer stop in Wanaka - we grabbed lunch

and sat on the standard international "beach" made of gravel. The view was fantastic, blue water surrounded by mountains and in the distance snow capped mountains! There was so much water activity going on - swimming, boating, water skiing, tubing...the works!

I told tim there was no way I would be able to not ask someone for a (water) ski set. When a dad, his friend, and son/daughter came into shore, I approached them and offered them money for a pull and he said he would, but they've just finished. I was understanding, and a little bummed. He asked where I was from and I told him Chicago and it would make my trip. He said, "I tell you what, I don't want your money, but I'll take you for a quick pull." I stripped off my shirt, socks, and shoes and walked into Lake Wanaka with the closest set of two skis, and they pushed the boat back out into the lake as my chap stick floated away from inside my pocket. I put on the skis, the rope grew taut, and "Hit It!!".....a split second later, I was on top of the water, water skiing on Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, on New Years Day no less, with snow capped mountains as the back drop. I was in heaven.

The beaming smile on my face was from ear to ear, the blue water and the incredible landscape. I did several jumps crossing the wake and messed around lifting each ski out of the water at differnt times.

I was so content behind their boat cruising around the lake for 5 minutes which seemed like an eternity. As we cruised back towards shore, I whipped out right

and did my standard "dive out of the skis" to get them off my feet easier, and failed to realize how shallow it was at the time and I had to last second tuck into a front flip out of the skis as not to dive right into the bottom of the lake. It all worked out, I walked the skins to shore, and I couldn't thank them enough. We talked about how great diving Poor Knights marine Reserve is going to be, as he had dove them in the past, which got me even more excited for our diving!

Lake Wanaka in the back drop post skiing:

Lake Wanaka:

We journeyed on further towards Franz Josef, without a map - there are very few roads to get lost on in New Zealand and stopped at the "Blue Pools," a 1K walk from the "car park" (as they call it)

to a crystal turquoise blue wading area, about 7m (25 ft) below. A stream was running down from the mountains and formed a crystal clear blue pool below. We saw a few people swim through the pool to a boulder 30m up stream. We walked across the narrow suspensison bridge and I told tim that there was no way that I could NOT jump off the bridge.

I walked below to the water level and scoped it out, I estimated it to be about 8' deep. If I hit the gravel bottom when I jump, no big deal....so I climb back up the rock face, strip down to my boxers and venture to the middle of the swaying bridge.

Most people at the pools had noted my unusual presence and had become my audience. I climbed over the cables supporting the bridge the the wooden 4x4 supports running beneath the bridge and step onto them.

"Here goes nothing...." I jump off, breathe once or twice during the fall, hit the water and i curve my body forward as soon as I land to prevent myself from going deeper. I managed to avoid the bottom...surfaced for air and released a shout of joy and exclaimed "I'm doing it again, that was awesome!"

I swam to the shore, climbed up the rock face, and over the side cables and jumped again. This time, without the fear and unknown of the depth of the water, I wook in the spectacular views looking up the canyon on the way down. I'm so glad I did it and I just want to do more cliff diving! We hiked back on the trail to our car parked on the side of the road, continued to Franz Josef Glacier, stopped at the grocery store, cooked a stir fry dinner, used the internet for a while, and got some shut eye before our full day glacier hike the next day!!