Postcards from Middle Earth II

It's amazing: New Zealand has this reputation of being this adventure-seeking nation, or, at the very least, able to help you push your limits. But I think my 'pushing limits' is b/c of my sister; she's a bit of a sadomasochistic dictator :) . A -small- part of it lies with the fact that I over-estimated just how much I could really do, but I think most of it is b/c of Mussolini existing right in my own household.
I like the idea of walks. Really, I do. However, the idea of doing a 13 km walk, one way, with three mountains and several hills intervening in what would normally be a very nice walk, is verging on a little bit of a tortuous idea for someone who hasn't been walking in long long distances for a while, especially in new shoes (ie. myself). HOWEVER, for my sister, her feet could be cut up and bleeding, with a toe hanging off her foot, and gangrene setting in, and she would yell, "Onwards, Christian soldiers!". For some reason, it is still FUN at that point. Anyways, not having walked for a very long while, for a very long time, in new shoes, led to soreness, to say the least, on the first day after arriving in New Zealand. Auckland is a city made up of a lot of old volcanoes, so it is quite hilly and actually has a few small mountains interspersed in the city. This makes it hilly, like San Francisco (but worse), so a bit hard to walk around easily. At any rate, I was very very sore after the first day out. To compound matters, we decided to take a ferry out to another island the very next day and climb ANOTHER extinct volcano which was about, I think 300-400 m above sea level, and then come back down. I've never had arthritis in my knees before, but I think I've had a foretaste of the future... and I don't really like it...
On the other hand, I think I've been blessed, a bit... it's started raining today, and I was planning on tackling a mountainous 20k hike in a few days time (like, really mountainous.... this would be the mountain range amongst which Peter Jackson chose one to play Mount Doom), but it's looking like the weather won't co-operate in making the hike safe (ie muddy, very windy, poor visibility, ice formation and snow in the mountains)... it's a bit disappointing, but on the other hand, I think God is intervening and setting limits for me that perhaps I'm not quite ready for... (although I'm sure I could do it if I steeled myself for it... I know if I had my Urukhai-type sister along, I would definitely get it done... :) )
That being said, however, I have been (kind of) pushing my limits. I've already been rock climbing (!), rappeling down caves (!!), caving through small crevices in wetsuits (!!!!), and doing stuff I wouldn't normally think would be stuff I'd do. However, I refuse to pay these silly tourist sums to bungy jump, despite the fact that this is the birth place of bungy jumping and the like. Others have suggested Zorbing, which is basically putting yourself in a gerbil-like clear plastic ball, which they put cold water in, and you roll down the hill at 50-60 km/hr, while getting a good wash.... There's also this other sport where you put on this special suit and then they put you over this really strong fan/vent, and then you fly over this vent about a metre in the air... I don't really understand some of the offerings that I've hard about... maybe I'll go find somewhere to shear a sheep... now THAT's extreme sporting....
julia