skywalkers

i am returning after a haitus from writing. stephanie was here until yesterday and we did a lot of traveling around the country. these next several posts will bring everyone up to date about what we did in the order in which we did them.

stephanie arrived on dec 31 at 5:30am. i picked her up, we hung out for a bit, then went on up to auckland for a traditional kiwi breakfast at....denny's. i hadn't been to any one of my favorite breakfast places in half a year and i had a hankerin'. why denny's? well, there sure aren't any waffle houses around these parts and IHOP apparently isn't as "international" as they'd have you believe ("yes, monsieur, would zat be zee sausage link or patty?" -DM). after breakfast, we headed across the street for the first extreme activity of the trip: the auckland sky tower sky walk. for those of you too lazy to follow the link, the sky tower is distinctly space needle shaped and dominates the auckland skyline. at the top there is a 1 yard-wide walkway that goes around the perimeter of the tower. outside. strangely, mom and carrie passed on this experience when they had the chance.

after you check in, they hand you a convict-chic orange jumpsuit, which stephanie claims was specially designed to emphasize all your bad features. you are instructed to empty your pockets and remove all jewelry. i figured that keys and such would be okay in your pocket, because you pull the jumpsuit on over your clothes, right? wrong. these people aren't fucking around. they run a metal detector over you before you can go onto the elevator to make sure that there isn't anything you'll intentionally/accidentally throw/drop from the top of the tower. anyway, we pulled on our jumpsuits and harnesses and went on up.

at the top, the guy leads you out onto the platform and hooks your harness onto an overhead beam. you're attached twice, so it's safe and nothing can really happen to you, unless you deliberately unhook yourself. but still, you are 192 meters up in the air and outdoors. it's a new experience. the walkway itself has no handrail, so you just have to walk around, single file. our guide was great and he pointed out all the interesting buildings and features of auckland in what amounted to about a 20 minute circuit of the tower. neither of us had any trouble with the walk and it was really cool to be out there. the hard parts, though, were the leans.

at one point, the guide stops you and has you back out to the edge of the platform away from the building, then lean back on your heels so that your ass is hanging out over the edge. you rest all your weight on the harness and then....let go. maybe wave your hands around. letting go is the hard part, because even though i know rationally that there is no way i could actually hang on to a piece of climbing rope with my bare hands without slipping, it still seems more sane than intentionally NOT hanging on to it. however, i was able to do this. the even harder part is leaning FORWARD out over the emptiness of auckland, because when you do that, you're staring right down at the concrete, wondering if 192 meters is sufficient distance to achieve terminal velocity (with the emphasis on "terminal").

but i have to say, it was really fucking cool. i've never been anywhere that i could do something like that before and despite the fact that it is overpriced in the standard kiwi way, i'm glad we did it. i also have a new respect for bungy jumpers, because having a few inches of bungy cord strapped to my ankles as i hung my toes over the edge would not have made it much easier to jump off.

after shedding the jumpsuits and reacquiring our metallic belongings, we hopped in the car and headed up to the northland. the entire region is a lot less densely populated than the center of the island and feels more remote (because, well, it is). but the scenery is fantastic, the weather was beautiful and there is a lot to see. at one point i nosed the car down a slope to get a better look at something and we had to have a nice kiwi guy pull us out (good to know the locals carry chains for such emergencies). otherwise, though, the trip passed without incident and we made it to tutukaka.

even though it was new year's eve, we were both wiped, so stephanie went and crashed while i watched the "elton john's rockin' new year's eve" (guess they don't carry dick clark here) lead up to new years. no hats and horns, just blissful sleep starting at a few seconds after midnight. not even sure i managed to turn the tv off.