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Published: December 7th 2009
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Day 9
So we had arrived at Lake Taupo the night before and had awoken to a beautiful red hot day, and were wondering what to with ourselves when Tom suggested that perhaps we should spontaneously do a skydive. We had originally planned to wait to Franz Josef the glacier in the South Island to do one as we had been told that the scenery was stunning but more recently a couple of people had told us that we should go with the weather. So this is what we decided to do (the right decision ultimately as we have just been to Franz Josef and the weather was pretty bad.) So 10 minutes later and $500 lighter (each) we were all set to jump out of a plane.
When we arrived they weighed us and got us all geared up before making us sign a disclosure informing us they would take no responsibility for our deaths - great! We then met our instructors: Tom had the tiniest little man that had only been doing it for a couple of weeks - it was hilarious watching him sitting on his lap in this tiny little plane. I had a German
guy and began to worry over whether he could have any reason to hurt me or whether German people disliked English people. I attempted to get him on my side by telling him that i was born in Munster, Germany, but it turns out he was from exactly the same place. This really wasn't a great thing; as i started raving about how beautiful it was (even though i left before i was 6) and he told me it was a dump - brilliant start to the conversation. I then tried to impress him with my knowledge of the German language which was equally abysmal considering i know hello and thank you and thats about it - so it wasn't the greatest of budding friendships (Although, it turns out he didn't kill me all the same.)
Anyway we jumped into the tiny little plane and started flying really quite high - we jumped from 15,000 ft which i believe is the highest you can jump from. As the world was getting smaller i couldn't stop thinking about why anyone would want to do this? Unfortunately i didn't have a choice as they flung open the door and said you
go first - at which point my instrutor slid me over to the door of the plane, dangled my legs out, turned my head round for a photo and pushed me out. I have to say that the freefall wasn't my favourite experience - all i remember was 60 seconds of Oh my God, Oh my God, whilst the guy in front of me that was filming for the DVD was struggling to grab my hands whilst i was giving him the thumbs up - awkward! There was a constant struggle with my goggles, which were being pushed off my eyes by my fat little cheeks, so i was half blind by the time the parachute opened. When we did finally start floating (my favourite part) Lake Taupo looked absolutely stunning and we drifted about aimlessly for a while looking over the massive lake with Mt Doom (from Lord of the Rings) in the background, until the man made the mistake of giving me the things you steer with at which point we just went round and round in cirlces until we both felt suitably sick. When we finally landed (Tom on his bum, me on my feet - woo-hoo)
we went to check out the DVD - i look like a terrified 10 year old, whereas Tom is going mental, very pumped on the adrenaline. He and his cameraman were going crazy at each other - vey funny. Afterwards we went for a very deserved beer and a soak in the heated pool. All in all, definately a once in a lifetime experience and worth the absurd amount of money it cost us.
Days 10,11 & 12
The next day we drove over to Tongarriro National Park and had a drive up the mountain to the bottom of the ski slopes where we had fantastic views over to Mt Doom (not entirely sure what it's real name is) before all of the clouds came in. The next day we awoke early hoping to do the Tongarriro Alpine Crossing but they had shut it for the day as the weather had come in really badly and there were gale force winds up on the mountains. So instead we decided to make our way over to Hamilton where we were meeting our friends Paul and Megan for the night. On the way we stopped at Waitomo glow worm caves
which were amazing! They took us through the caves themselves which were beautiful with all the different rock formations. We then boarded a boat and carried on through a river that ran through the caves where the ceiling was covered in tiny little white glowing worms, it was beautiful like an incredible view of the stars. They are apparently Larvae that have string webs hanging down that glow at the end to attract insects which they then reel in for dinner. (Fact of the day)
After the caves we carried on to Hamilton and decided to make a small detour (well it looked small on the map... 2 hours later) to Te Aroha where Tom's Mum's family had lived for a couple of years. It was a really pretty little town, we took lots of pictures to see whether it had changed much, although i don't think it will have done as it had a real colonial feel about it. We tried in vain to find their old house, but it proved rather difficult as there were about 3 number 18's on Koromiko st, but no 19??
Afterwards, we eventually found Paul and Megan in 'surprisingly boozy' (ref:
The 'not so' Lonely Planet Guide) Hamilton. Turns out it really was 'surprisingly boozy'. As it was Toms birthday the next day, Paul insisted on buying us too many drinks in a fair few bars, even though we both knew that we had to have Betty back before midday in Auckland as the office shut at 12.30. At about midnight through a drunken haze i was promising Tom 'no, i'll be more than sober enough to drive tomorrow.' Suffice to say it wasn't going to happen, at 9.30 the next morning we were hurridly trying to clean Betty whilst i was telling Tom that i was far too ill to drive. Half an hour later, with Tom at the wheel, we set off on the 2 hour journey to Auckland. We made it with five minutes to spare and then were charged for a dent in the bumper. The topping on our very hungover day would have to be the next 8 hour wait in the airport for our flight - but we eventually made it to Christchurch and collapsed in bed with the bed bugs! Happy Birthday Tom!
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Gill Carr
non-member comment
Sky diving
Really enjoyed this blog entry - sounds like the sky diving was awesome, you're much braver than me . wouldn't get me jumping out of a plane, have enough trouble getting into one on a normal flight. Thanks for checking out Te Aroha, look forward to seeing photos. Also very interesting to hear what Tom got up to on his birthday!! Looking forward to hearing about the South island. Love Mum x