Our day began at Wanaka airport where Lowell, for some odd reason, had a strong desire to leap out of a perfectly good airplane.
His jump master helped him into his clown suit...
And boy was he ever excited...
Uncontainably so...
Like, really ridiculously eager...
So get to the airplane already!
Lowell has a few sky dives under his belt, but none as high as 15,000 feet.This is a shot of Lowell (using 18X zoom) just after he hurled himself out of the plane ...
Phewf... the parachute opened successfully after free falling for 10,000 feet (i.e., 65 seconds)!
Look, Lowell's waving at me! Well, he was intending to wave to me, but he kind of missed the mark (good thing HE wasn't the one steering)...
And he landed safe and sound...
Much to the relief of his ecstatic wife...
Next event for the day was a tad bit creepy on our behalves, but definitely a highlight.For those of you who didn't know, fellow Canadian Shania Twain owns property in NZ. She actually owns a whole chunk of property that a popular multi-day walking track goes through.
We did what any loyal fan would do, and found out the GPS coordinates for her house. When Jill (our GPS) said we had arrived, we were on her property to be sure, but no house was in sight. I swallowed my pride and started calling her name to the vast universe hoping for a response.
None came.
We walked a tad bit further and felt our (my) dreams come crashing down. The suspected location of Shania's home was beyond the locked gate...
No worries, though. We really are loyal (and slightly rebellious).
We nervously walked down the track just hoping to get a teeny tiny glimpse of her home.
We found one home...
Then we found another one...
(Note the tense/awkward stance...I was anxious. Anxious that a herd of security guards armed with pit bulls would come lunging out of the house and attack my poor defenseless little self).There was yet another home just beyond our grasp, and we have no clue which one is hers. We were content, however, knowing that this was her view...
We couldn't resist the urge to feel just a LITTLE more connected to Shania, so we walked part of the track that runs through her property.
In order to purchase this property, Shania was required to develop this public multi-day walking track complete with huts along the way.
Did we meet our dear Shania? No.... but at least we can claim that we tramped on her property and potentially (and somewhat illegally) caught a glimpse of her home.Thus concludes our excitement-filled, anxiety-packed day o' fun!
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4 comments :
Wicked. What a great half-birthday adventure.
go lowell go! about the sky dive i mean (the shania part is utterly reprehensible... why oh why do you let julie talk you in to these thing?) :-) we were praying hard that you would have a clear day. sweet as brother!
too bad you didn't meet Shania! Great stalking job, though. HA!
Happy half birthday :)
Hey hey Marc, if it weren't for Lowell, I wouldn't have jumped the fence at all. I was being rather a scaredy cat. He pushed me to do it. (Granted, he pushed me to do it b/c he knew I'd regret it later if I didn't, but still.... HE MADE ME DO IT!)
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