More pics, less words

I visited the kiwi park Tuesday. Kiwis are awesome. They're scrappy little creatures that will remind you with their talons that they don't take kindly to being handled. They weigh a little under five pounds and can kill one another with a kick. But, they're also nocturnal. So, they're kept in these little houses with the day/night cycle flipped. Unfortunately, you can't use a flash cause that kind of freaks them out. So, I've taken a few pictures of what is not a kiwi.

Not a Kiwi 1

Not a Kiwi 2

Not a Kiwi 3

I took a ride in a stunt plane. At one point we pulled 6 g's. To respond to Andrew's earlier comment, I had no controls up front to even try and fly it. I have a video of it but it would take 5 hours to upload to youtube with my current internet connection. Some other time.

My pilot was this ever-smiling, enthusiastic guy named Adam. When he came by to drop the DVD off of my flight, I senses some mutual interest between him and the receptionist. So, I made a point to talk him up pointing out what an awesome pilot he was and how he had trained in Chinese military planes with a Royal Air Force pilot.










You could do a street luge on this course. It was pretty fun so I did it three times. It's about an 800 m drop.

I went a little camera-happy with the ducks and the lake and the mountains.








I went for a walk around the lake to get some different angles.



These next two pictures are in competition for "my favorite picture I've ever taken".

Unfortunately, my camera battery died after this picture or I would've tried for some more.

Hanggliding was cancelled on Tues and Wed. Thursday weather wasn't looking good so I scheduled a trip to Milford Sound. It's about a 4 hour bus ride each way but we stopped along the way a few times. Looks like I'll be able to go hanggliding today and heli-boarding has been rescheduled for Saturday where the weather looks good.


I dunno. I liked this tree.



There's a non-temperate (cold?) rainforest here.





This is Milford Sound. It's actually not a sound but a fiord, glacial inlet created over 20 ice ages. The problem with taking pictures of mountains is that you can't get a sense of scale. I'm here to help. See that waterfall? That's 150 meters. Or, better put, it's the size of a 50 story building. Or, three times the height of Niagara Falls.


Fur seals!




See the penguins? These are extremely rare. Only about 5000 left, they say. They stand knee-tall and have been tracked to swim to South America and back.










Bottle-nosed dolphins