Nadezhda: Stewart visits

February 2008

Fliss....

We had a wonderful time with Stew and he managed to do every extreme sport available in New Zealand.

A few days after arriving he saw a advert for a tandem sky dive over the Bay Of Islands, The company was called “Ballistic Blondes” so we called them up to see when he could do it, the answer was “Well, you can jump this afternoon” Stew wasn’t expecting to do it so soon so we booked for him to jump at 9am the following morning.

In the evening I said to Stew “they are going to look at you and then at us and say, let’s hope it’s the skinny guy or girl" Stewart is tall and very broad and could be easily mistaken for All Blacks Rugby player.

In the morning we made our way to shore to be picked up. The courtesy bus turns up on time playing loud rock music, Stewart was buzzing!.

The problem then came up about his size as they were concerned that he would be to heavy, after a lot of deliberation they decided to let him jump and the lightest instructor was selected to jump with him. The look on Stew’s face when it looked like he might not have been able to jump I think pulled on their heart strings and they felt obliged to take him

Little & Large - Stew with the camera man

Once he was on the plane one of the team turned around to Pete & I and said, had they have known how big he was before he turned up, they would have turned him down. They also said that when we turned up they looked at each other and prayed that it was either Pete or I….

He could not have asked for more perfect conditions as it was a windless, beautiful hot and sunny day.

We watched him from the binoculars as he jumped from the plane.

Is it a bird of a plane? no it's Super Stew!

In Stew’s words it was “The” most amazing thing he had ever done! The views of the Whangerai estuary were stunning.

He also bungy jumped off the Auckland Bridge, White river rafted over the worlds deepest commercial drop, went caving & scuba dived of the Poor Knights Island.

View from the Sky Tower - Auckland

Stew in his "Village People" outfit

Diving at Poor Knights Island

One highlight that we could all do (budget didn’t permit Pete & I joining in on all the sports) was the 3 day kayak down the Wanganui River. The scenery was amazing as you paddled down a deep gorge with waterfalls cascading down and no one else apart from the three of us. It really was value for money for the $200 each it included drop off and pick up, hut passes and the hire of the kayaks.

Pete in the double kayak

Brrrrrr................

We had the huts all to ourselves which was surprising as the day before we were told that 35+ people had been put in the water, we must have been just a day behind them.

The best part were the rapids. In our 2 minute training we were told to head for the V in the rapids and paddle like mad. This proved impossible for me being in the front as unlike Stew who bobbed over them Pete & I just ploughed through them! I was greeted by a wall of water each time and got totally soaked, Pete got slightly damp as I was his buffer.

Fantastic experience and we would seriously recommend anyone coming to New Zealand to do it.

Another highlight was the Tongario tramp a hard slog up the mountain carrying rucksacks. The "likely lads" were planning on climbing up Ngauruhoe Volcano which meant that we wouldn't be able to make the bus back to the campsite in time so we would have to stay in a hut for the night. I had decided that there was no way I was doing it as after they came back down we still had three hours of hard walking before we made the hut.

I warned Stew that I had climbed a volcano before and it was seriously hard work. So they set off and I sat, watched the rucksacks and waited for the to come down.

Pete came down 1st with wobbly legs and a stubbed toenail and Stew came down 15 minutes later.

He sat down and promptly said it was the hardest thing he had ever done and proceeded to throw up, he was running on negative energy as he hadn't had anything to eat all day.