Fox Glacier

On Sunday 13th July I left Wanaka to head for Fox Glacier. Fox Glacier is about a 3 to 4 hour drive from Wanaka and is on the west coast. I had not realised that Fox Glacier is so close to the West Coast. I actually drove along the coast of the Tasman Sea. The vegetation is really quite tropical. Its a land of rivers, creeks, bridges and tree covered mountains . Those of you who know me know I don't like the cold so this change of climate is a very welcome surprise for me.

I got to the town of Fox Glacier about 5 pm. Its quite small and I found where I was staying easily. I am staying in the best accommodation of my trip so far. Its called Reflections Lodge, its a family home Rae (Rayleen) the owner of the house has been spoiling me. Rae's family is very much into aviation, her husband and daughter both fly helicopters and their son is a pilot in Canada. The view from the house is right onto the mountains, it is truly beautiful.

I have managed to get 1 jump in so far at Skydive Fox Glacier. They have a Cessna 185 so I manged to get in between two tandems. I followed the first tandem out and was able to close in on them and got some reasonable video shots. The view is breathtaking, I got a good view of the Glacier and the mountains.

The weather got a bit cloudy so I have not been able to get any more jumps in yet. I have been doing some walking and went around a small lake which is just down the road from the lodge. The lake is called Lake Matheson. Its incredible its like what I imagine a rain forest is like, the vegetation is so lush.

I have attached some photographs which I hope you will enjoy. Up to know I have taken over 500 phtographs on the trip, I can only put a small selection on the blog.

Finally I will be leaving New Zealand on the 17th July to head for Sau Paulo.

John 15/7

New Zealand South Island

I ended up breaking my journey at at place called Oamaru which is on the east coast, it took me about 3 hours to get there. I simply stopped at the first roadside motel in the town, had something to eat ready for an early start. In this blog I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Its the morning of the 11th July when I write this blog. I don't know if I will have time to bring you completely up to date, but I must say the past few days have been some of the most memorable days of my life - in a good way. I have seen some amazing sights and shown some tremendous kindness.

Before I go on, I do sincerely hope you are enjoying the blog, but one of the main reasons for this trip is to raise awareness of Colitis and Crohns disease and to raise what I can for NACC. So please pass on the justgiving web address www.justgiving.com/johnhillam and this blog address to your friends, if you can do that for me I would be very grateful.

On the morning of the 8th I travelled from Oamaru to Omarama to Queenstown. The journey took me across the country to the west side of the country through the mountains. The scenery got more dramatic the closer I got to the mountains, every turn brought a new fantastic scene, just when I thought it could get no better it did and just continues to do so.

I checked in at Aspen Lodge backpackers in Queenstown and this is where it all gets really incredible from a people point of view. My 2 nights stay there was entirely free and I even had free use of the Internet, they had decided upon this as a gesture for NACC long before I arrived.

I owe my thanks to Sally and Mandy the owners of the lodge for this kind gesture.

The parachute centre in Queenstown is a very professional operation and employs over 5o people. The centre is called NZone (the also have the DZ in Rotorua on the North Island where I jumped). My main contact at NZone is Derek Melnick, NZone were just fantastic, everything they did for me was free, they even arranged for the local press to be there. Derek had arranged a cameraman to be with me on my first jump and they took some incredible stills as well as a DVD. Some of the pictures are attached. At the end of all this Derek Presented me with a cheque for NACC for $200. I have been jumping now for over 15 years and I have never seen scenery as dramatic and beautiful as that I have seen over the past few days both at Queenstown and Lake Wanaka. Finally before I finish on Qheenstown I did a further live interview with Rhod Sharp on BBC 5 Live from NZone just after I jumped.

On the 10th July I moved onto Skydive Lake Wanaka which is owned and operated by a wonderful family wonderful family. Dave and Jools. They have two smashing children Max and Maye (please see a picture attached of us to-gether). Something very moving happened for me here, Max who is 7 presented me with $10 , he had raised this from selling chocolate at his school - they had been looking forward to my visit and Jools had brought the children down just to see me, Jools was an absolute inspiration for me and has given me even more determination to see this thing through. I have done two jumps here and have been given a ride in the co-pilots seat up to 15,000 feet. The weather was perfect and the view unforgettable. Dave and Jools will not accept anything from me, they have given me the jumps for free as well as the use of their Internet to send complete this post.

The set up at Skydive Lake Wanaka is very modern, great turbine plane and friendly staff. I have even got a fellow Sunderland supporter to talk to Andrea who runs the operational side of the DZ comes from Hewith and is a big Sunderland, she has been out here for 7 years now and loves it. John 11th July

Rotorua

I moved from Lake Taupo Rotorua on the 3rd July. Its about one and a half hours drive north east of Taupo. Rotorua is a city and is much larger than Taupo. Like Taupo it is on the edge of a very large lake - Lake Rotorua. The parachute centre here is called NZone and is on the edge of town and is based at the airport. The airport is quite busy so there is a fair amount of air traffic. At first sight the landing area is quite a challenge with quite a few obstacles. However it not as bad as it first seems and have done 2 jumps here and had plenty of room. The guys at the DZ give me a good briefing so I was well prepared. The view is stunning, with lakes all around and very green and undulating countryside. Yet another type of plane to jump out of, this time a Fletcher, its a turbine with a great paint job (for you parachute people out there, it was the predecessor of the PAC).

Rotortua is famous for its hot springs and thermal baths, the smell of I presume sulphur is never far away, you get used to it and after a while don't really notice it. There are all kinds of activities here and many nice places to walk. I have taken a few pictures to give you and idea of the place and more of me around aeroplanes. The pictures all show a large building which is the local museum, it used to be be the bath house. Inside you can find out about the history of Rotorua and its people as well as a detailed explanation of the geology in this part of the world. Picture of the fountain is from the park which is in front of the museum.

As I write this, the sun is out but its a bit on the windy side for me to jump. I will be heading up to-wards Auckland this afternoon (Sunday 6th July) as I fly out to Christchurch in the morning. I have been following the weather on the south island and they have had lots of snow. I have a long drive to Queenstown when I get to Christchurch, its about six and a half hours, so I am going to do it in two parts and stay over somewhere on Monday night. It could be an interesting 24 hours . john 6/7

Pictures From Taupo

I have attached a few more pictures of Taupo, hope you like them. john 6/7

Christmas Party at Taupo

No, I've not gone mad, the weather here is a lot like December in the UK. Ross who owns Rainbow Lodge held a Christmas Party, the full works, Father Christmas, crackers and presents as well as free food and drink. This all happened on Wed 2nd July. There was even music from Cliff Richard and all the usual Christmas songs.
On Thursday the 3rd I left Lake Taupo to go to Rotorua where there is another skydive centre. But before I close on Taupo there were two very pleasant things to note, one, Ross from Rainbow Lodge refunded me 100 dollars to be given as a donation to NACC - this was totally unexpected, I was also given 25 dollars for NACC by Charlotte a guest at the lodge. Charlotte is traveling with a friend - I know 25 dollars was a lot for her - there is not much spare cash when you are travelling. I will tell something of Rotorua on my next post, I have managed to get 2 jumps in here but the weather has been very unsettled, so I think that will be about it. john 6/7

Lake Taupo New Zealand

As promised here are some of the pictures I have taken from my time at Lake Taupo. I have also added some pictures I took earlier to-day (Wed 2nd July) from a place called Craters of the Moon which is just outside of lake Taupo. The ground in the area releases hot steam as a result of a geological fault lying below the ground. The weather to-day has gone back to rain and more rain. However I did have two nice days and some some wonderful views. I said I would give a roll call of thanks to Skydive Taupo, thanks guys for all of your help:Roy Clements,Lottie, Krista, Mariette (thanks for the pics), Mac, Mat, Antonio and all everyone else who made me feel so welcome.

Finally thanks to Ronan Doherty from Co Donegal who gave me 20 Dollars for NACC. Ronan was doing a skydive at the centre.

As I have moved some of the pictures of Lake Taupo onto this blog an error message has come up, so I will put those ones on when I have sorted the problem out. In the meantime I hope you like what I have posted john 2/7