Wimping Out, Pushing On and Meeting Up...

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Taupo........ok, recommended as one of the best and cheapest places to skydive......we were all geared up for it......til Jen started recounting some of her dreams and dropping comments like well, one of us is BOUND to make it! Hello! Not a good plan! In reality I don't think anyone normal considers these things quite as much as Jen - I certainly wasn't - well, until she dropped those bombshells! Suddenly throwing myself out of a plane door didn't seem such a good idea. I was also haunted by my mum (thanks mum) virtually forbidding me from skydiving - so this too began to play on my conscience. On arrival and at first enquiry it was too windy and too cloudy - ah well that made the decision for us - what a shame! Then 1 hour later (and after a brave statement from me that if a hole opened up in the cloud - we'd do it! Rather gung-ho hey?!) guess what, the clouds parted the winds dropped and skydives were on......well they would have been, except for the excuses that we were reeling out - both of us convincing each other that we didn't need to do it really - aching legs wouldn't be the safest for the landing, if i didn't make it Jen would have to tell my mum after I'd told her I'd been banned, it was a bit expensive (not really-but typical for us really!) All in all we well and truly wimped out!

Enough of that....onwards.....Now having quite alot of time to kill we were fairly free to meander along. Opting to stop on the outskirts of Taupo for a paddle, we visited the Huka falls (we had done this the first time we went through but everything looked so much better in the sunshine!), went to the Craters of the Moon and blagged our way in with comments that we had come in the rain and been a bit disappointed! Tee hee! After that it was Due West to Waitomo Caves, home of some of the most spectacular glow worms in the world, with an overnight stopover in a sweet little Mauri Town.

We arrived in Waitomo at around midday - ooooooopps! BIG mistake. As we drove into the car park a steady stream of Japanses Tourists brandishing cameras trouped its way into the entrance.......hhmmm not quite what we had hoped for and to top it all off it started raining! It didn't take long before we had convinced each other we didn't really need to see them that badly and that we could escape the hoi polloi in the counrtyside! So from there it was to the Coast.......

The drive was truly scenic with stops at a stunning green gladey natural bridge (one of my most favourite scenes - particularly if there are ferns involved!), some seriously deep caves and the BEST waterfall of the trip so far! However, it was a little windy and I think before long the queasiness got the better of Jen who turned a sort of greyie-green colour! Ooooooppppss! Time for a stop to admire the views and catch her breath and then onto Hamilton - for a look around the city and Hell's Pizza (the BEST pizza I have ever had!) before meeting up with Mike (a kiwi friend who stayed in Milford for a while!) the next day.

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