Catching Up 3

Part 3 of the Catching Up series......

I thought that my wife was very open minded when we started going to New Zealand.  She would allow me to do pretty much anything I wanted.  I thought that was pretty awesome until she started commenting to her family that "the life insurance is paid up."  I'm beginning to think she has a death wish.....FOR ME!!!!

On our honeymoon, I did my first bungy.  This was at Gravity Canyon and is a 280 foot bungy.

At this point, I had the "adrenaline bug."

We went to Taupo where her dad and step-mother live and we rode on the Huka Falls Jet Boat.  This video isn't us, but it gives you an idea of what it's like.

We went back several years later and I did the bungy there in Taupo.  This one was only about 150 feet.  You can hear the guys talking to me at the beginning of the video.  They asked me if it's OK if I "touch" the water.  I tell them that's fine and then they reassure me by saying that it's a new rope and it might "stretch a bit."

As you might have noticed, I went in to the water up to my nipples.

Annita, Roberto (her brother) and I made a trip to Rotorua and raced down the three luge tracks.  We didn't video tape our exploits, but I did find some people that did, so you can see what it was like.  This is the Advanced track, the hardest of the three, but you can see where you actually "get air" on the way down.  It's a blast!!!

Here's the *big* bungy that I want to do.  It's called the "Nevi Bungy" and it's a 450 foot bungy.  That's 8.5 seconds of screaming your lungs out free-fall.  What sucks about that is that Amy will get to do this before me!!!!  LOL

Here's what it looks like.

Catching Up 2

This is another "catch up" post from our trip to New Zealand in April of 2004.  I did a quick post back then with some pictures and I thought I'd re-work for the blog.

On our way to Denver we ran into a blizzard.

When we arrived in LA we took the subway to Universal Studios! 

While there we did the studio tour, which I videotaped. 

We also went to the Waterworld Stunt Show.

Oddly enough, I videotaped that also......

We did the Back to the Future ride and also did the Jurassic Park ride. The Jurassic park ride had a bunch of mechanical dinosaurs that was just awesome! There were brontosauruses (brontosauri?) and even a couple of baby raptors fighting over a popcorn box.

We flew out to New Zealand for the wedding that night. We arrived in Auckland at 6 or so in the morning and hit the town. We went down by the sparkplug which you can now jump from. It costs $50 to go to the top (630 feet) and for $195 you can jump off the top. You're hooked to a cable so it's a controlled drop and there are two guide cables that keep you from bouncing off the side of the building but I thought $195 for 16 seconds was a bit much.

The wedding was the following day. The groom and some buddies and I went out on the harbor and went fishing again.

The next day Annita and I went to Rotorua, the geothermal area of the north island. On the way we stopped in Matamata which is where The Shire was filmed for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The contracts for the film sites stated that six months after filming was complete the sets were to be destroyed. When the time came it was pouring down rain and they couldn't get into the sheep paddock to get them destroyed. The owners of the fields asked New Line Cinema if they could keep them and give guided tours. New Line agreed but there were many stipulations. They couldn't be restored, the guides and workers could not dress like hobbits (visitors could), and lots of other things. They're working on seeing if they can restore the hobbit holes and actually expand them. You'll notice in the films that they show hobbits opening the doors and starting to step in but then the scene cuts to somewhere else. That's because the holes were only 2 or 3 feet deep on the inside. They built the houses out of the cheapest materials and expected them to last 6 months. It's now 7 year later and they're still standing. The roof caved in on Bilbo's house and they were given the OK to fix it and actually expand it. You can step inside of it (I have a picture of that later). It's pretty interesting history. The site is a 30 minute drive from town where you buy the tickets and have a chance to buy merchandise.

 I had to make a purchase there.

The guide took us up on a hill overlooking the site. The lake is visible from there. 

One of the first things you do walking up to the Shire is to walk under a branch. When Gandalf rides into town and Frodo jumps on with him, fireworks are mentioned and they shoot out of the wagon at that point. That branch is visible in the shot. 

The guide took us around and showed us various places where things were located in the movie. He stood under the party tree and announced that this was the spot that Bilbo was standing on when he put on the ring and disappeared.

On the climb up the hill you can see Sam's house.

We then made our way up to Bilbo's house.

I'm sitting in the window that Gandalf drug Sam through.

We walked back down the hill and I took a couple more pictures of the Shire.

 In all we spent about 2-1/2 hours out in this pasture. I loved it, but Nita wasn't all that impressed with it.

The site has been completely rebuilt for the Hobbit trilogy.  It has an Inn and a bar!!!

We made our way onto Rotorua and went to the geothermal area. We stopped here (good luck pronouncing that!!!).

There was a lot of steaming ponds there, as well as some geysers and hot pools.

The sulfur smell was in the air and left it's mark on the landscape.

We then drove back to Auckland and flew to Fiji.

Our room was right on the beach.

We played golf at a REALLY nice course.

The sunsets there are unbelievable.

The hot little chick on the beach wasn't bad either!!!!

We went snorkeling on the reef and took some pictures with an underwater camera.

After snorkeling, we went for a walk and I was able to get a picture of a crab (notice the size of the footprints beside the crab).

On the way back into town we drove by an Indian temple that is garishly painted.

Catching Up 1

This is called Catching Up 1 because I have several posts that I need to "catch up" on....LOL

Back in December of 2012, Annita and I made a short trip to Mexico to watch my oldest sister get married (again).  It was tough, but Annita and I struggled through it.

While western Kansas was going through a snowstorm, Annita and I had to sweat our asses off on the beach.

We rented a car and they even upgraded us!!!  They originally gave us a Silver Dodge Hyundai, but they upgraded us to the RED Dodge Hyundai!!!!  Pretty snazzy, huh?

There was a golf course that was attached to the condo where we stayed.  Annita did the booking so the chances of that were pretty good.

They have different hazards in Mexico than they do in western Kansas.  The lizards took a bit of getting used to.....

Seriously?  A sand trap in the dead center of the green?  Someone needs kicked in the ass!!!

This was the high point of the trip for me.....Chichen Itza

Granted, going to Xplor was fun, as was scuba diving for the first time in my life, but this is Chichen Itza!!!!

Unfortunately, the pyramid and 99% of the buildings were roped off so you couldn't get close to them, but there was an area where some of the pillars had fallen over and pieces of them had rolled out to where we walked through.  The history is just incredible.