But we got there and then the fun started, first in Christchurch, later in Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Lake Pukaki, Hanmer Springs, Kaikura -the city of the whales and dolphins- and finally before we headed back north; an evening in Auckland and a super 14 Rugby game.The landscape in New Zealand was fantastic. Majestic and clean. It reminded me a lot of the Scottish highlands and if you look at a globe, it could seem obvious as Scotland and New Zealand seems to be in each others place, just direct opposite on the globe.
When I traveled there, my wife Catriona went to Scotland to visit her family, and we were exactly 12 hours apart.
The thing I remember the most was on the 12th of April 2009 where I was -kind of- forced to do a Bungy Jump to entertain the 35 students.
I was terrified and couldn't sleep the evening before, and when I finally fell asleep, I woke up hours before and started to find every possible excuse not to do it. That we arrived 1 hour early at the bridge for the event, didn't help a bit. I could go out on that thing a look the 43 meters down to the rushing river and again my legs started shaking and I couldn't really give in for the optimistic comments from the students. And worst of all; because of the 35 of them, there was NO CHANCE that I could escape and get away without doing it.So soon I found myself standing on that bridge with that elastic cord tied around my ankles, and a smiling young lady telling me to look up and give a smile to one of the cameras. She could easy do that, she was safe and sound up there and didn't have to throw herself out from there and 43 meters down towards a frenzy river.
But then I just did it, and after not even another minute I got pulled up in a boat by two men who untied the cord and brought me to the shore. Suddenly I smelled the fresh air and realized the sun was shining from a clear blue sky, and now it was me who was up on the beat and could respond to all the silly jokes. Do I have to mention that the rest of the trip was just like a walk in the park?
As I can remember was his name "Che" and he took me on his back through some of the locations where Peter Jackson filmed some of the scenes for his famous film trilogy about a certain ring.
