Wed Paihia and then Thursday Queenstown and paragliding

Wed day.
Off to the Waitangi house again.
This is where the treaty was signed between Britain and the Maoris so teh British leaders could take more land from the Maoris.



The setting is wonderful and the landscape is so undamaged, its easy to imagine what it looked liked then. There is a museum on site too that has old photos. There is also a cute little cafe which helped me to wake up.
Then back to to the hotel, I headed to the ferry to Russell across the bay and then waited for a half hour for a cheeseburger at this place. Then walked over to a "local" mentioned spot, the beach on the other side. No one told me however I'd have to walk up a mtn first. OK, I exaggerating..... Beautiful waters.


I just relaxed all afternoon, met some nice ladies from Britain. Just enjoyed teh water and then headed back to Paihia and had dinner with some friends at the hostel.

Thursday



6 AM taxi to Kerikeri airport $25 US.
7 am off to Auckland airport and then to Queenstown. The flight to Queenstown was nothing short of spectacular. We flew over these snow runoff lakes high in the mtn. The color of liquid sky. No relation to the film of the same name. Spectacular! And we flew over a ski resort, that later in 2 hours unbeknowst to me, I would be paragliding off of.
Shuttle to the Black Sheep backpackers hostel and then set up the next two days. I decided to do the paragliding since the weather the next two days looked a bit spotty for rain. I got picked up an hour later by Keith and his company and they told me I'd get a video and some photos if I wanted. Cool, pictures of me screaming.
On the mountain, Keith explains to me the process of running off a mountain. I actually will not jump but will just continue running and then the lift of the shoot will pick me up. Sweet. After we get hooked in and we discuss the process, we are ready to go,. He has a camera at the end of a stick and I can bring my camera (of course!). And we're running and soon there is lift off. I'm floating.
Amazing not scary.


Queenstown and the bay opens up below me. After about 4 minutes, Keith asked if I want to go a spiral. Of course I say yes and then he asked me to hold the camera. GForce begins and I'm moving aournd in a circle screaming thinking my face is going to slide off, but in a good way. I have video taped this whole thing. It seemed like forever, but actually was onlyl about 15 seconds.
We land and I'm ready to go again!