Black Water Rafting, Taupo, White Water Rafting (again) and Skydiving!

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Once we left the Gilcrists we headed back to Rotorua where we got back onto the Kiwi Experience. This time our driver was called Tody and he was a great relaxed guy, good to talk to and good on information. Before we left Rotorua he dropped us off at the Geothermal park where we got a tour around all the natural hot pools, boiling mud pools and geizas. These geizas arnt crazy Londoners they happen when the water gets so hot under the ground that it reaches a point where it just bursts up into the air. They were great to watch, and we got to sit on rocks that were naturaly warmed by the volcanos - pretty fun.
We finished there and spent the rest of the day travelling towards the small town of Waitomo where we would be staying the night. When we arrived in Waitomo we realised just how small the "town" was. There was the hostel, a pub, general store and and information kiosk - fun fun fun! We had a good afternoon playing volleyball and enjoying the sun and in the evening we watched a super 14 match down at the pub - Kiwis evening.
The next day was the real reason why we were in Waitomo. Waitomo is famous for its 'Black water rafting' - again I hear you say "Black water rafting...that sounds stupid and dangerous", and my reply to you is - Yes it is! Black water rafting is simply climbing underground into lots of dark caves so you cant see, and floating on a big rubber ring through the water - jumping waterfalls and crevaces when they turn up. It really is something that only the Kiwis could create and would never be allowed back at home, but it was something we had to do.
They kitted us up in lots of wet suits and cold weather gear and helmets with small lights on top and drove us down to the caves. It was extreamly cold and very wet also, but thats what we expected. Our guides lead us through the caves and it was fantastic as you really couldn't see much. For people with claustrophobia it probably isn't the best idea if you get what i'm talking about. We reached a massive waterfall, and of course you cant see the bottom or the sides at all, so your literally just jump with your bum landing in the water, hoping you don't catch the sides or anything.
After this you all link up like a big snake, turn the head torches off and float along in darkness. The reason for this was the glowworms. There were thousands of them on the roof of the caves and it was such a beautiful sight. I have never seen any before and to see thousands of them all around you was really amazing. It really was such a great experience - sadly we dont have any photos of it, but you can imagine how the would turn out in the dark.

After having a very warm shower we got back onto the Kiwi Bus and Tody drove for the rest of the morning towards Taupo. Taupo is a very famous place in New Zealand because the lake there - Lake Taupo- is the biggest in the North Island....actually it's the biggest in New Zealand....actually it's the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere - nifty ei! Just before we got to Taupo we stopped at the Hukka falls which for some reason are very famous but I found them to be disinctly average, impressive amount of water passing through it though.
We found the hostel we would be staying at for the next 4 nights and found out that it had its own swimming pool and hot tub, good hostel. We then met up with Tony and Stu who we hadn't seen in a few days. It was great seeing them and you realise just how close you get to certain people on the bus even though you have only known them for a few days. That evening we spent with them as it was going to be the last time we saw them in New Zealand, suprisingly sad to see them leave.

Our first full day in Taupo was spent dong our new love - White Water Rafting! You would have thought that we had learnt our lesson by now, but no we hadn't, we had become the adrenaline junkies. We would be rafting the Wairoa river today and this river was special because it is controlled by a dam so you can get the perfect amount for some very good rapids. The river is actually only open around 26 days of the year or something along those lines. We got given all our rafting equipment, and what was funny was that our guide was called Lance....and it was exactly the same Lance that we had in Rotorua. They were completely different companies just lucky that we got the same guy.
I was in the front of the raft this trip so it would be even more extreme. The rapids were going to be grade5 for most of it with a few grade4's....this meant it was going to be crazy. The rapids though were truely amazing and so much faster and harder hitting than the week before. They had all the names for the rapids and my favourites were 'Devils Corner' (you had to bump of the wall tp make sure you didnt get stuck), 'The Toaster' (you had to go down perfectly or the raft would become the bread between two big rocks, and we would become the jam). But the best named had to be 'Mothers Knightmare', I found this funny as it really was Mums worst knightmare!
We got absaloutely soaked to the bone and the raft was rocking like crazy. The river was much more dangerous than we thought as we saw another companies raft flip over one of the rapids and two guys got stuck in a big wirlpool holding onto a line. The line was called 'Last Chance' because if you let go if it you would get sucked under and that would be the end of your rafting - to say the least. Luckily there were lots of kayakers there to help them out. This was just before we had to do a big rock dive into the rapids, gave us lots of hope. It was a really amazing day, and the rapids were fantastic. Sadly I think me and Andy might have an addiction to it - its rather an expensive addiction.


The day after the rafting was probably our best day in the North Island. This was due to me and Andy falling out of a plane at 15,000 feet! Yes - we went skydiving. I don't think we were nervous before we got picked up, just not sure what to expect from it all. Everyone had said it was amazing and you can't miss out on it, but still - falling out of a plane seems scary. We got picked up in a limo which was quite funny and it drove us to the airport. They showed us a DVD of we would be doing and said that we could have our own DVD of our jump, this sounded great so even though it was expensive me and Andy both had to get it.
We then met our instructors, my guy was called Peter and he was a lovely guy from Hungary. I asked him how long he had been skydiving for and he told me 11 years - that reasured me a tiny bit. He sorted out all my gear, and then got the video camera and filmed me before we got on the plane. It all went so fast and before you know it you are pilling into a small plane with 7 other people 10 minutes away from falling out. The plane ride was great and we got to see so much of Taupo. The lake really is huge and it was a nice day so we could see for miles. After a few minutes it seemed like we were really high up - i asked Peter how high we were and he told me we were 4000 feet up....yikes....only 11,000 feet to go.
Peter was filming all of this and its all in the video. We let 4 people go at 12,000 feet, and that seemed high enough to me, but nooooo we had to go another 3000 feet higher. Peter checked everything was done up properly and we were attached safely and we got to 15,000 feet. The guy ahead of me fell out, and that was the point when i was like "I cant believe im actually doing this!". We crawled to the door and Peter sat on the edge, which meant I was pretty much out of the plane by now....we then fell! I cannot explain to you the feeling of skydiving. It really is such an amazing feeling, falling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour. You fall for over a minute which seems like a long time but trust me it felt like 10 seconds when you are falling. Peter then opened the canopy at 3000 feet.
I couldn't believe I had actually done it and I was going wild. It was such a great feeling and we were cruising through the air, the wind on the face and the views were stunning. I could see Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings) from where I was and to get a 360 view of the world from that height is like no other feeling. The canopy ride was about 4 minutes long, but again it went by in a flash. We landed and I was so happy and excited that I just wanted to do it all again. My DVD of it all is so amazing and I can't wait to show you all back at home. It really was the best thing I have done on this trip!

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