NEW ZEALAND!!!!! I have arrived. Actual I arrived on the 25th, but this is the firs time I have internet access. I arrived really late at night in Christchurch on the 25th on a plane that was full of people going on the trip. I knew most of them already because they live in Coogee and go to UNSW also. 6 of us all live in Kurrawa together. We found a super shuttle that took us right to out hostel and it only cost us 7 NZ dollars. We all went to bed. The next morning the bus took picked us up and we met our guide Pat and the rest of the people on the tour. I already know half of them. The bus is like a party bus driving through NZ. If you look out the window all you see is mountians with snow capped tops and green grass and trees, and sheep, lots of sheep. There are 4 mil people who live in NZ and 40 mil sheep to put it in perspective.

The scenery is beautiful, I could argue that this is the most beautiful country I have ever been to. All the colors stand out. The lakes are blue, the grass is green, and the mountains are massive. We arrived in Fox Glacier where we would sleep for the night. We drank that night and went out to the only bar in town.

The next day we went glacier hiking. It was pouring rain and freezing weather, but an amazing experiance. Wer were given full hiking outfits and boots and spikes for our shoes. We hiked through a rain forest and up a mountain of trees to get to the glacier. Walking through the glacier was an experiance like none other. I felt like I was shrunk down and walking through a giant ice cube. We walked through ravines of ice with ice walls over 15 feet tall. The entire glacier goes down for about 200 meters.

The next day we drove to Queenstown, stoping for photos of lakes and moutnains. There is no such thing as abad view in NZ. We arrived in Queenstown which is the adventure capitol of the world. Started it off with a pub crawl.

That brings us to today. Today was our first adrenaline day. We began with a high speed boat ride through mountian ravines. The boat hit 60mph and missed the walls by only a couple feet. When in open waters open waters our driver did 360s.

Immediatly following the boat we went and got into wet suits and jackets and boarded a helicopter. We got a helicopter ride over the mountain tops and over the river. We were dropped off on a bank with white water rafts waiting for us.

We broke up into groups and white water rafted down the river. We hit class 4 and 5 rapids (6 is the highest) throwing lots of people off the raft. Everyone survived.

So that is the first part of my Extreme NZ Spring Break. Tonight is Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and my friend Doug is going to lead some prayers tonight for the Jews on the trip, there are many of them.