New Zealand: Day 27

Gold rule

January 29, 2013

The Kiwis are complaining about the weather, but I'm loving it! I awoke to a morning of blue skies with high altitude cirrostratus or cirrocumulus clouds (those are two of the types I remember). Temperatures were in the low 80s for the third day in a row, making everyone call the recent spate of warm days a heat wave. Having become accustomed to weather being in the 70s during the day for almost a month, even I thought the day was uncomfortably warm. Will the weather gods look favorably upon me and please keep this up for just five more days, or at the very least, the next two days?

It was if I had awakened in Middle Earth this morning. After a very restful night of sleep in the enormous bed, I awoke to the sound of my host, Gary Tate, bringing first breakfast to my room. Then, after I showered and dressed, at second breakfast, Gary served up a delicious frittata along with his version of lembas bread, which was quite tasty and filling. It didn't look anything like the lembas bread in the movies, but it tasted very good nonetheless. I think the hobbits have the right idea: I love breakfast; I welcome eating breakfast any time of the day. But to start each day with two breakfasts ... superlative!

The morning and early afternoon was given over to a jet boat ride up the Matukituki River which feeds into Lake Wanaka. It was a very different experience from the Shotover jet boat ride (Day 17), because the Shotover jet boat ride was more about 20 minutes of thrills and chills, but today's jet boat ride was more about using the boat's ability to cruise in very shallow water (only four centimeters is needed) to go 76 kilometers into Mount Aspiring National Park, and taking a more leisurely four hours round-trip.

We did pass two places of note where scenes from Lord of the Rings were shot. One was the scene where the witch-king stabbed Frodo after he slipped the One Ring on his finger, and the second was used as part of Rivendell. The tour was not so much about LotR as it was about experiencing the beauty of Mount Aspiring National Park, part of the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage Area. I'm sorry I don't have any photos for you today even though I took plenty with my digital camera. The iPad did not get recharged last night (most New Zealand electrical outlets have on/off switches, and I mistakenly thought I had turned on the outlet), so viewing of all photos of this spectacular region will have to wait until I get home and post galleries on my web site.

The itinerary said "afternoon at leisure." Hah! I say again, hah! I had tried three times without success to go skydiving in Queenstown, and Wanaka also offered skydiving through Skydive Wanaka. So an hour after the jet boat trip was over, I was preparing to become The Man Who Fell to Earth. It was a perfect day for skydiving, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity while I had it. I'll be in Queenstown again in a few days, but I didn't want to take any chances on missing out on the activity I most wanted to do while in New Zealand. Wanaka was a better place for a skydive in any event because it is a considerably more beautiful locale than Queenstown.

It was a tandem dive of course, where you're "strapped to a beautiful stranger" (I teased my partner telling him he wasn't my idea of beautiful). We jumped at 15,000 feet, for 65 seconds in free fall, reaching maximum velocity of 200 kph (120 mph) after ten seconds. It. Was. Exhilarating. From the moment I arrived at the skydive office to the moment I landed, it was a "flow" experience of living completely in that moment, experiencing it to the fullest. I opted for the "ultimate package" which includes another skydiver filming the dive, while the fellow to whom I'm strapped also has a video camera. I've had a chance to see the videos, and I look totally blissed out, serene even. After we landed the videographer asked me what I thought, and I said, "I'd rather be back up there," as I pointed towards the sky. Prior to today, I've done three static line jumps already. It is very likely I will take up this extreme sport when I return home.

[ADDENDUM: A page with video, photos and additonal commentary about the sydiving adventure is located here.]

I had missed lunch, so I was ready for dinner soon after I returned to Wanaka following the dive. I went to a place called Relishes Cafe tonight, a restaurant recommended by my host. The 2011 Amisfield Sauvignon Blanc I had so enjoyed last night was available at this restaurant, too, so I didn't hesitate to order it again. I decided to go simple for the starters with grilled garlic and mozzarella bread. I expected a couple of slices, but I was surprised when they brought me a whole loaf. I wanted to leave room for dessert, so I saved some bread for lunch tomorrow. For mains, I had a vegetarian assiette that was essentially a tasting menu of three dishes: a courgette and blue cheese cake with mushroom and thyme mousse, cous cous stuffed roasted peppers with capers, lemon and horseradish gel, and a tomato and bean cassoulet with garlic confit and parmesan foam. All three were very good, and I have a hard time deciding whether I liked the blue cheese cake or the stuffed roasted peppers better. Dessert, too, was a tasting menu of three dishes: a lime tart, an orange, tequila and lychee salad, and a berry sorbet. The lime tart, very close to being a key lime tart, was the clear winner here, although none were disappointing. I had a cup of cappuccino with dessert. Has anyone noticed a pattern yet? I'm trying to show that one can dine quite finely while being strictly vegetarian.

After dinner I came back to my suite and watched The Return of the King (again), but in a comfy oversized chair this time. Yesterday's tour in Twizel had piqued my interest, so I wanted to watch the movie again with the things I had learned during the tour fresh in my mind. One of the things my guide had stressed was how much of the movie's "magic" actually was done in the camera rather than added later with CGI. Of course, CGI plays a very large role, but I became even more impressed with Peter Jackson's work on that film knowing that it wasn't all digital special effects. He certainly earned his Oscars.

Gold rule

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