New Zealand, Part II

New Zealand is often billed as the "adventure capital of the world". This being the case, we decided that we should take the opportunity to try out some more thrilling activities. Although I couldn't convince Heather to try Bungee jumping (which has origins in NZ) I did manage to get her excited to go sky diving.

We drove up to the a small airfield to inquire about making arrangements and within an hour we were on a plane headed up to 15,000 ft.

New Zealand - Sky Diving from Aaron Wimmer on Vimeo.

We loved it. After we landed I jokingly asked heather is she was ready to go up again, she seriously responded, "ok, let's do it". We didn't go up again that day, but after we got back to the states I started researching sky diving more in depth. I was amazed by what I found. I guess I shouldn't be suprized that there is always someone who is taking things one step further. The next step in sky diving is "wing suits"


These are pretty much flying squirrel suits that allow you to glide at very high speeds (while still plummeting towards earth). These suits also allow base jumpers to maneuver away from cliff faces or to hug the tree line as they glide over mountaintops.

I found a quote that went something like "Normal people think Sky divers are crazy, Sky divers think Base jumpers are crazy, Base jumpers think these guys are crazy." My mind has been blown.... (see below)

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

New Zealand, Part I

Aaron and I have been dreaming/talking about going to New Zealand since we were in college. To be honest, the things that first attracted us to the country were that it was somewhere on the other side of the world and they mainly speak English. But then we started learning more about it, and it sounded pretty amazing. Ocean? check. Moutains? check. Tropical forests? check. Adventure capital of the world? yes, please. And so it was decided: someday we were going to go to New Zealand.

Fast forward 6 years. We got off the plane in Auckland, and picked up our rental car. Driving on the left side of the road - that was fun. And confusing. And stressful! Eventually we got (somewhat) used to it, and we successfully made our way into the downtown area for some city exploring. We spent a couple days in Auckland, "the city of sails", and while we were there, we went to a farmer's market, took a tour of a Kiwi (fruit) farm, and relaxed at a beach. We also took a ferry across the bay from the city to a village, Devonport, where we climbed a dormant volcano and got some neat pictures of the city.

We then headed on our way to Rotorua (or "RotoVegas", as it is affectionately called by the locals). Here we saw a Kiwi (bird) farm, learned more about the native Maori culture, and tried the "Mordor Special" from a great pizza place, "Hell". Far and away my favorite thing we did in RotoVegas was Zorbing.

We weren't sure exactly what this would be like since we had really only read about it, but it turned out to be crazy fun! So basically what they do is inflate a giant ball (or Zorb), take it to the top of a huge hill, throw a few gallons of water into the Zorb, toss a few people into the Zorb through a beach-ball-sized hole, zip up the hole, and push the Zorb down the hill. The inside inside the Zorb involves sliping, sliding, trying to stand but failing, and a whole lot of laughing.

Australia, Part I

Aaron and I just got back from our trip last night, and we are tired! A full day of flying along with a 19-hour time change is a lot to get through.

But, our trip was amazing. I had the absolute best time of my life. I am so glad we did this.

I'm slowly uploading pictures and writing blog posts (as well as getting back into the swing of things at work and home), so this is just the first part of our trip recap.

We were only in Australia for 3 days, but it feels like we packed a lot in. We spent 2 of those 3 days on a boat in the Pacific, floating right on the Great Barrier Reef. We did a 2-day "liveaboard" diving trip, where you actually spend a night on the boat so you can save time by not having to head back to shore. We did 6 dives in total, including one dive AT NIGHT!

It was like an underwater playground. So much to see and explore, I loved it. Each dive was no longer than 45 minutes, and they all ended far too quickly. We saw countless beautiful fish, fantastic coral formations, bright-colored giant clams, plants that danced and moved, bioluminescent algae, etc etc! The best part, by far, were the sea turtles. I've ooh'd and ahh'd about this on facebook already, but I thought I would share the actual story here.

By the last dive of our trip, many of the other folks on our boat had seen various super cool animals: turtles, sharks, sting rays. But Aaron and I had not seen any of these! (not completely true - we had seen 2 turtles on our night dive, but they were sleeping and we couldn't really get close to them) We were definitely on a mission to see something really cool before we headed back to shore. We were at the end of said last dive and I had just signaled to Aaron that I was almost out of air and we should head toward the surface. We slowly made our ascent, just checking out what was going on at the very top of the reef we were on.

We were only at a depth of about 3 meters, just about to surface, when I saw the large sea turtle swimming a circle around the top of the reef. He had just gone behind a rock, and I was trying to point him out to Aaron (the camera man), who was still ascending. Now, trying to get someone's attention when you're diving (and they're not within arm's reach) can be pretty difficult because you're not usually looking at each other and your peripherals are limited by your mask. I basically just flailed my arms, screamed into my regulator, and started knocking on my tank. It worked and I just started pointing at the rock he was behind and frantically gave Aaron the underwater sign for "turtle". Eventually, he came back out from his hiding place, and we actually got to swim with him for a bit & snap a few pictures.

It was amazing. I just felt so lucky to have that experience with nature, however brief.

Alaska

We just got home from our week-long adventure in Alaska, and it was nothing short of amazing. Here are some of the highlights:

- Wilderness camping in Denali National Park. We climbed a mountain, hiked 15 mi or so, saw tons of wildlife, and slept under the stars (that we couldn't really see because it was light out 22/7), all the while surrounded by magnificent formations. We got to see Grizzly Bears, Wolves, Eagles, Caribou, and a Moose!

- Our flight-seeing tour of the Alaskan Mountain Range and Denali (Mt McKinley). We got to land on a glacier in the mountains 5,000 ft up!

- A day-cruise of the Kenai Fjords. We saw whales! Two families! Of Orcas and Humpbacks! And we saw Seals, Otters, Dolphins, Sea Lions, and Puffins! It was amazing.

- Getting to see huge glaciers up close. We got to get close to 2 glaciers on our trip, one on a hike (Exit Glacier) and one on our Fjords Cruise. The face of the glacier below is 300 ft tall!

- All the fresh seafood! We got to try Alaskan King Crab, Salmon, Calamari, and Rock Fish... yum!

It was definitely a trip of a lifetime, and I am so glad we did it. I just kept thinking, "I can wait to do this with our kids someday!"