Aoterea "Land of the Long White Cloud"

Kia Ora - 'Welcome' in Maori
Welcome to the wonderful world of SKYDIVING!!! Oh my gosh... speaking of exhilarating... I'm still not off the adrenalin rush!
Well let's just say it didn't go as planned - go figure! This morning it was too misty (foggy) on the runway so they canceled our dive - originally telling us that there were no other opening today! BOO! Not acceptable since I leave in the morning for Mt. Cook and Christchurch! Then they told us to come back at 1:30 this afternoon, so we were happy and spent the morning drinking hot chocolate, wandering the market, and enjoying the sights and sounds of snowboarder filled Queenstown. I've never cheered on the sun, or blew away the clouds more in my life! We met up with the group and we were off... but then we were told they weren't doing the 15000 ft jump today cause the clouds were too low... then they were cause the clouds were lifting... after waiting over an hour and a half and being SUPER anxious (I had absolutely ZERO patience left) we were in the back room with all the joksters getting geared up. By the way, they all LOVED my five finger shoes and wanted to know where they could get a pair! :)
Jumping out of a plane at 15,000 ft. above the Remarkables (that's the official name of the mountains here... cute, huh?) with a crazy tandem instructor and freezing cold clouds staring you in the face was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention it was absolutely AMAZING?!!!!!!!!! WOW! Words can't possibly describe that feeling and it's no wonder people get addicted! :)
I'll write more soon, but I'm on my way to go pick up the photo packet...
You HAVE to go skydiving... EVERYONE!
Kate :)