Birthday Bungy Jump! + VIDEO

I went to the hospital 2 weeks ago for a check-up on my arm and I received good news - it was healing as it should and I was able to have the cast off! 

As a treat for my recovery, I booked 2 bungy jumps and a ledge swing. I booked one of my bungy jumps, the Kawarau Bridge Bungy, for my Birthday on Thursday. It was a special bungy jump because it is the site of the first ever commercial bungy jump centre in the world, which was set up by the bungy jumping pioneer, A. J. Hackett, back in 1988!

The Kawarau Gorge Suspension bridge was a 20 minute drive from Queenstown and the weather was perfect!

I wasn't nervous about the jump because I had down one before a couple of years ago in London, by the O2 Arena. However, as soon as I stepped up to the edge and looked over, my heart began to race! 

As soon as the man began to count down, I reassured myself and then before I knew it, I had jumped! It was an incredible feeling and I even plunged head-first into the river below!

As you can hear in the video, I let out a high-pitched squeal!

https://vimeo.com/115087649

The jump was awesome and I cannot wait to do my next bungy, which is called 'the Nevis' and is the highest bungy jump in Australasia. The Kawarau bridge bungy that I did was 43 metres high but the Nevis bungy is 134 metres up, which is a big difference (just over 3 times as high!!!!) - I can't wait to do it!

I BROKE MY ARM :(

Last week I rented a mountain bike to ride through some of the mountain bike trails in a place called Rotorua on the North Island of New Zealand. 

There were different trails we could ride on and some were more tricky than others. I had a great time but unfortunately, I went a bit too fast down one of the slopes and lost control of my bike as it took off over a mound (see below). I was thrown off my bike as it landed which was very, very painful - I had not experienced that much pain in a long time! Luckily, I was wearing my helmet because it actually cracked down the side from the impact of my fall but it stopped me from hurting my head.

top: the moment just as I was thrown off my bike

bottom: the moment after

I went to the hospital and had an ultrasound because I had a lot of pain in my stomach and the doctors were worried that I had damaged one of my internal organs. Ultrasounds show an image of your insides and are usually used to show babies inside their mother's stomach. I also had some X-rays on my left knee and left arm as they hurt so much I could barely move them!

The doctors found out that I had fractured my radius, which is one of the bones in your forearm and luckily, I only suffered from severe bruising on my knee and stomach. The fracture occurred when I put my arm down to try and break my fall when I fell off my bike.

My arm is now in a cast to allow the bone to heal, which should take about 6 weeks. It has been a painful experience but I am lucky because it could have been a lot worse! It seems injuries are quite common - I bumped into another guy who was staying at my hostel who had exactly the same injury from mountain biking as me:

It is very inconvenient having only one arm that I can use but at least it was my left arm- typing this blog post has taken ages with one hand! I am also annoyed because I am now on the South Island in a place called Queenstown and everywhere you go there are adverts for amazing activities like rafting, bungy jumping, sky diving, canyon swings etc. but I won't be able to do them until I have recovered :( Hopefully, as soon as I am better, I can book some cool things to do and show you some of videos!

Pics from Waiheke Island, New Zealand

The owner of the house I stayed in was Maori. Hemi taught me about some Maori culture and showed me a taiaha, which is a fighting stick:

Hemi's family:

I was invited to visit Tiana and Keanu's school. They go to a different kind of school to Strand (it is called a Steiner school). There are a lot of outdoors activities and there aren't many children in each class:

At the house, I was responsible for feeding the chickens and collecting eggs every day. We got to eat a lot of omelettes!

Waiheke island is known for its vineyards, where wine is made:

The skeleton mask I made for Halloween:

It was very sad leaving Waiheke island but we have promised to come back to visit Hemi and his family before we leave New Zealand in January. We are now driving South to visit other parts of the North island of New Zealand!

I am now in New Zealand!

On Thursday, I left Tokyo and flew to Auckland note North island of New Zealand! Surprisingly, the trip took a total of 18 hours. I stayed in Auckland for one night, which is very similar to most cities in the world. However, this morning my friend and I got a ferry from the harbour to an island called Waiheke Island. 

We plan to stay with a family of 5 (3 children called Keanu, 6, Mickio, 3, and Tiana, 9) for two weeks, doing work for them in exchange for a place to stay and food. The family have an awesome, outdoorsy lifestyle by the beach and look after lots of animals! They have a dog, a cat, a rabbit, two guinea pigs and their own chickens, which have just given birth to some baby chicks! 

Feeding the chickens:

View from the balcony:

Trips outside of Tokyo

My friend (Ashley) and I, decided to travel outside of Tokyo to see how it is different outside of the big city where it isn't as crowded - there are 35 million people in Tokyo alone!

Kamakura is just south of Tokyo (an hour's train ride away for 800¥) and is known for it's many temples and shrines. 

We stayed in a traditional style hostel and had to sleep on the floor on futons. The walls were paper thin so you could hear everything from the communal room next door!

There was a huge statue of a Buddha down the road from our hostel:

I also went for a hike around an old Japanese temple:

After Kamakura, we visited Hakone, which is up in the mountains and known for its hot springs and onsen (baths with natural spring water).

We hiked up to Mount Komagatake where we had a fantastic view of Mount Fuji and Lake Ashii.

We are now back in Tokyo and await our flight to Auckland, New Zealand on Thursday! We are just bracing ourselves for the second typhoon this Monday - the last one brought an onslaught of torrential rain which ruined our early morning trip to a tuna auction in a fish market (we stayed up all night to visit at 3am!).

Getting around in Tokyo

Tokyo is a huge city! The most common way of getting from A to B seems to be by using the metro system. Most of the time, we have used the metro (1000¥/~£6 for a day pass) and hired bicycles (300¥/~£2 for a day). 

The metro is very quick and efficient but can be slightly confusing! However, most signs are in both English and Japanese so getting around isn't that daunting. A day ticket costs 1000 yen (~£6) and single journeys vary from 170 to 200 yen (~£2).

There are rickshaws available from major tourists spots (like Asakusa) but these are a novelty for tourists (3900¥ / ~£30 for a 10minute ride per person).

It is good to know that a lot of locals travel by bike (the pavement is divided into sections for pedestrians and cyclists). I have enjoyed using a bike as it is a great way to see the city (if you use the metro you are underground and don't get to see anyhing) and is very cheap (600 yen for 3 days = ~£4). Rental bikes come with immobilisers that allow you to lock them up easily wherever you travel.

The bus seems to be used by locals mainly.

Tourists avoid using taxis as they are very expensive.