Oct 23 - Rotorua and Skydiving in taupo!

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On October 23rd, after leaving Uncle Boy’s Marae, we were headed to Rotorua. The city is known for smelling like rotten eggs since it is basically surrounded by sulfuric geothermal activity. And you bet, as soon as we entered the city limits we could smell it. Now, this is the one city in NZ where you can go Zorbing. Basically you are in the giant plastic ball and your roll down a massive hill. You can either be tied to the edge of the ball and stay dry or you can choose to lay loose and have warm water swoosh all around you. The whole thing lasts about 15 seconds and cost $45, so even though before arriving to NZ I anticipated engaging in such an activity I decided against it. So I and a couple of others decided to wander around the city instead. We visited an actual marae were Maori still live. Within the Marae there is a church and on the window there’s a picture of Jesus dressed in tradition Maori clothing. Along our walk we saw quite a bit of steam and boiling bubbles - both indications of geothermic activity.
Once we met back up with the rest of the bus, we drove down to an area with a lot of geothermal mud and we painted our faces with it. It’s supposed to be good for the skin. After everyone’s face was a grayish-green we hopped back on the bus and drove to a park with hot springs. A few people went into the hot springs and started swimming and wading. But, there was a sign warning not to go underwater since it could lead to fatal meningitis. So I carefully just cleaned the mud off my face and quickly left the hot springs.
Our next stop was to Huka falls, and there the excitement of the day begins. Claire, Ashley, Tom and I awaited our fate as we were picked up by a limo and were brought to the Taupo airport. We got into our gear, got attached to a professional, were interviewed and photos were taken. We then entered a tiny plane. The entire time on the plane I felt like I was going into labor - breathing heavily and quietly mouthing “oh My God” - at one point I even grabbed on to Claire’s Hand. After 10 minutes of flying and 15,000 feet in the air, the door opened, and I was the first to fall out. Yup, literally fell; no need for me to jump. My tandem professional “Scary Steve” and I had a 60 seconds freefall drop before the parachute opened. All I could remember from the freefall was the pressure on my knees and legs and the air rapidly flowing into my mouth though I felt like I couldn’t breathe. It felt like hanging out of a car window while driving for 90mph on the highway - but 100 Xs worse! But still, it was so refreshing. Once the parachute opened, it was nice and calm with a beautiful view of Lake Taupo and the city of Taupo. It was going smoothly accept for the few times where “Scary Steve” decided to spin us around quite rapidly and I got dizzy from it. It was an easy landing - though Tom almost crashed into me as he landed. After all of us landed, we got to watched our DVDs of us skydiving - and my, did I look nervous the entire time! Though, I enjoyed it the first time I think I may enjoy it even more a second time since I’d know exactly what to expect. So maybe, if my budget and the weather permit, I’ll skydive over the glaciers once I reach South Island. After the skydive we got back in to our limo and drove to the hostel where we met up with the rest of the bus. I later found out that our driver BP requested that I get “Scary Steve” since it was my birthday the day before - and since BP knew just how nervous I was about jumping.

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