So, what country am I from?

So, I find it quite hilarious that no one knows that I am American. We have had only maybe a handful of people guess we were American. Today, I got South African, Irish, and Canadian. I guess I don't sound like a New Yorker, which is what I think most foreigners are used to. :) It makes me laugh and I guess it's a good thing.

We have been having a great time here in New Zealand. If I could convince any of you to come here, you all would LOVE it! The people here are so nice and the scenery is out of this world!

We did bungee and boy was I scared! Paula was really excited, but I was a pretty nervous! Luckily, we were strapped in completely in a harness around our entire body, so I felt a little more secure. I chose the "Chair" jump, which strapped me into a chair and I was pushed off a platform backwards. Now, for those of you who know me, I'm not one for "extreme adventures", but this was quite exhilarating! We free-fell for about three seconds, and then swung in an arc over a beautiful gorge for a minute or so. I don't think I will ever do it again, but it was fun once. Paula and I both bought the DVD's of our jump because they were quite hilarious, if anyone wants to watch them when we return home. I was so scared, I talked to the people helping me with the jump for oh, about 10 minutes before I actually went off. All of this is recorded in the DVD, which is another reason it is so funny. You also hear my scream and see my flips as I went down!

Wednesday was much more calm. We met the bus around 6:45am and made our way to Milford Sound. There are no words to describe the beauty there. It was pouring the whole time, but along the way, random waterfalls and rainbows would form that were breathtaking! I will attach some pictures for you to see. We took a river cruise through the sound all the way out to the Tasman Sea, which meets the Pacific Ocean and goes to Australia, and then turned around to go back. We saw some seals on the rocks playing as we were returning! I felt sorry for them in the rain, but they looked like they were having an absolute ball!

After the bus trip, I felt like I could speak either Japanese, Korean, or Chinese because EVERYONE ELSE on the bus was speaking an Asian language other than English! Plus, the tour was an English-language tour, so we were the only people who could understand the driver! He was hilarious and was cracking all these jokes and we were the only ones laughing. (He, by the way, thought we were Irish!)

Today, we left Queenstown and headed up to the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. It is absolutely amazing...if you can imagine, the rainforests next to the ocean are met by the glaciers, coming down off the mountain. Besides parts of South America, it is the only place in the world like this! Unfortunately, because of all the rain, we couldn't get too close to the glaciers because of the risk of mud slides and avalanches. However, the rain really filled out the waterfalls and there were rainbows everywhere! We got some spectacular pictures!

For those of you Lord of the Rings fans (or if you have seen it), do you remember the part where Gollum first gets the ring, by a little lake/pond? Our tour driver took a little detour today and showed us where it was. He also said that the director was very environmentally-friendly. When the entire cast came to NZ, they laid down carpet along the lichen and forest so as to not damage the ground! The New Zealanders really liked the cast and said you almost couldn't tell where they had been! I have seen the movies, but am not an avid fan...some people took special Lord of the Rings tours to see all of the filming locations!

Tomorrow, we head up to Greymouth and take an Alpine train back to Christchurch. We return to Melbourne on Saturday morning and have a farewell dinner with the French girls on Saturday evening. We fly to Hawaii on Sunday and fly back to TN on Wednesday night!

Hope everyone is well!