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Published: October 4th 2005
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- FOOD: Kiwi wine, famous NZ sausage roll with ketchup, Manuka honey flavoured ice cream
- PEOPLE: Skydive instructors that tease you the whole way up. Goodbye to Mary
- AREA: Second near brake down due to shortage of petrol (and petrol stations). Waitomo Caves walk and boat trip to see the very pretty glow worms. Huka waterfalls, prawn farm and honey shop near Lake Taupo. SKYDIVE over Lake Taupo (absolute highlight). Craters of the Moon (more steam and mud)
- WEATHER: Heavy rain that cleared enough eventually for the skydive. Freezing in the National Park.
Sat 6th: The mad superloo woman had an even beadier eye on us this morning - the second morning we used her facilities for nearly more than the 15 minute time limit one is allowed for using the toilet.
We drove onto Waitomo Caves and only just made it as the 'out of petrol' light reared it's ugly head much sooner than we'd expected (are we leaking petrol this thing gets through it so fast!). Lots of petrol stations is not something NZ holds the record for and we stupidly thought Waitomo would have one. No such luck but JUST
made it back to the previous town to top up.
We really wanted to do black water rafting in the caves - a different way to check out the glow worms - dropping down a waterfall backwards whilst sitting on a rubber tyre in the pitch black. Sadly, our funds aren't stocked up enough for such frivolity so we had to opt for the walk and boat ride.
This limestone cave is full of stalactites (hang TIGHT to the roof) and stalagmites (MIGHT reach the roof one day) and the acoustics are good enough for opera singers to perform here (we were all too shy to show off our singing talents as much as the guide tried to persuade).
The glow worms are transparent and glow to attract other worms to them for grub that get caught up in the mucus strings that hang down from their bodies. They stay in this larvae form for 6-9 months, emerge into gnats which then lay more eggs and die within 2 days as they don't have a mouth - quite a pointless life really except to entertain visitors to the cave that looks so pretty lit up with them all!
The instructions we had on getting into the boat were disobeyed by us all as one can't help but touch the walls when the boat passes by right next to jutting out rocks and one can't help but touch the worms when the boat passes under the mucus strings! At least us 4 couldn't help it - no-one else in the boat had trouble obeying these simple rules.
Even though we'd done our family trick again to get cheaper tickets, it wasn't really worth the money we'd forked out so we drove onto Taupo for the thrill of a lifetime - a skydive...
Sun 7th: We were half relieved, half disappointed when we woke up to the sound of rain which meant the skydive was off. It rained all day but we managed to amuse ourselves by driving to Huka Falls (cool waterfalls), a volcanic activity centre (too much money to enter), a prawn farm (we did not partake in the 'Killer Prawn Golf' game of hitting golf balls out into the prawn lake to see how far you can hit the ball (and how many prawns you can kill in the process), nor did we have
a delicious looking prawn meal as it was too expensive - are you getting the drift that NZ is expensive here??).
We also went to the Honey place - lots of flavoured honey to try and fruit wines to have a taste or 2 of (kiwi wine very nice) and very good value for money lunches - had my first sausage roll with ketchup which are everywhere in NZ and tasty, tasty. Also Manuka honey ice cream - does the job alright.
Our evening avoiding the rain was spent cooking and planning the rest of our time in NZ.
Mon 8th: Cloud, sun, cloud, sun but no rain so the dive was ON. Our fear vanished even with Laura's crazy questioning of how many people die, how often does the parachute not open blah blah - questions to be left until AFTER the dive - and excitement set in.
The sexy gear was put on with I'm pleased to say a very strong looking harness, we met our tandem jumpers and after about 2 seconds of instruction, we were in the plane and flying high.
We had 15 minutes of plane journey with very beautiful views
of Lake Taupo (NZ's biggest lake at 600 square k), the snow topped mountains in the distance and the 12,000 feet of space between us and the ground. Plus instructors who tease and joke the whole way (good job I'm not of a nervous disposition) and then it was time.
Laura was first out - a position none of us wanted to be in - how weird to see your friend fling herself (or rather get pushed) out of a plane without trying to help.
Lou was before me and before I knew it my instructor had edged us to the open door, kind of sat me on his lap so my feet were dangling out and before my brain had time to register the insanity of what I was about to do, I was out.
For a split second that felt like 5 minutes, I was SO scared to be free falling out of a plane but the minute we flipped so I was looking down, it was the most fantastic feeling - words cannot describe. The freefall lasted 45 seconds but I remember it so clearly as it was such a huge thrill to be plummeting down
at a speed of 200 k per hour. It didn't feel that fast but when I tried to speak or scream with delight the words were just whipped out of my mouth.
Then the chute opened and we glided the next 5 minutes down at a leisurely 20k/hour, with me constantly saying "OH MY GOD, THAT WAS SOOO COOL". The scenery was stunning and I managed to land on my feet - the softest landing which I wasn't expecting - it felt liked I'd just jumped in the air and landed. The other 2 loved it as well and we were on a real adrenaline high after and wanted to go straight back up and do another.
Laura galloped off her adrenaline on a horse all afternoon while we made Mary jealous with our stories and then visited 'Craters of the Moon'- more steam vents and mud pools but these exist only because of a power station which lowered underground water levels causing the pressure of the heated water to be reduced and more energetic steam. Beautiful to look at and walk around but shame they're not entirely natural.
We said our goodbyes to Mary, chilled by the
lake and took off to Tongariro National Park. We arrived as sun was setting so could just make out the outline of the enormous mountains surrounding us. We parked up in Whakapapa Village (not a name to be forgotten - 'Wh' in Maori is pronounced as an 'F'), looked longingly at the posh hotel and chalets we would love stay in instead of the cold van and warmed ourselves up instead in the only pub.
Adding to the warmth of the night was Louise whose first night it was in the van... no more hostel luxury now Mary has gone. It made for a cosy night's sleep - 3 of us on a queen size bed with only 2 duvets.
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