Bonjour, mes amis! Constance, Laura, and I are in the French town of Akaroa right now, in a hostel called Chez La Mer on Rue Lavaud, about an hour outside of Christchurch. In the past few days, we’ve been getting our adrenaline on with skydives from 12,000 feet and 400 foot bungee jumps. The bungee jump was by far the scarier of the two, including a harrowing drive in a rickety bus up a steep and narrow dirt road, as well as a gondola ride out to the pod from where you jump (which swings when the wind hits it—of course). All the fear was totally worth it, though—the rush of swan diving off a metal platform straight towards the river 400 feet below you is indescribable. The skydive was awesome, too, but involved less moxie—you basically get pushed out of the plane with your instructor and don’t have to do anything but scream. My skydive partner took us down head first, though, and we freefell for 45 seconds before the chute was pulled, and we did a ton of spins on the way down, so it was definitely not boring.






Other things I’ve been up to: a really cool kayak trip out in Milford Sound, in Fiordland National Park in the southwest. It was misty and cold in the morning, but by afternoon the clouds had burned off and the views were amazing.
We even saw dolphins up quite close—they would swim under our kayaks and surface a ways out. Of course the best part of the trip was our sea kayak couture—very fashionable.

Also, we took a hike up to the top of a hill over Queenstown for some nice scenery and, in a lovely twist, some amazing apple strudel. I have become obsessed! I am eating it every chance I get. =)

I just have a few more days in NZ—I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. The things we have done have been totally fun and exciting, but the best times have been getting to know new people and making friends from all over. I’m so happy I don’t have to go home yet! and that there’s more to come. Miss you all! Take care of yourselves.

xoxo,
Sheri