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Published: April 14th 2010
After a night back in Christchurch we had a other stop off in Kaikoura on our way north. We travelled up to Wellington the capital of NZ- although everything was all closed for Easter so we didn't actually see much of it. Most of the day was spent on the coach and a long ferry crossing where Mark listened to harry potter Audio books being very antisocial. We arrived at about 5 at Base hostel, not looking forward to its lively reputation and immediately had our beer confiscated. tuts. This was a boring day and we went to bed early.
The next day however (Good Friday) we got up early and headed straight out to the National Museum of New Zealand 'Te Papa' where we looked at Dinosaurs and the country's natural history of volcanoes and earthquakes. We were kids again- best museum ever built. We walked around the city a bit more to find all the shops shut for Easter but made the most of what we could see by the quayside and decided to go up to the city gardens on a gondola. There were spectacular views over the city from up here and mark thought he was
being all arty with the camera. After wandering around looking at massive hydrangeas and old guns we sped back down to earth.
A last minute decision to try and catch the rugby game meant that we went in search of a bus and got to the Westpac stadium to see the Wellington Hurricanes play the Christchurch Crusaders. It was a very thrilling game full of 'big strong men' including Richie McCaw and Dan Carter. Christchurch were out in front, leading at half time 15-0. The Hurricanes hit back and were soon ahead 26-21, after some free flowing, try scoring rugby. Everyone was going mad. 5 minutes in to overtime and Christchurch were awarded a heavily disputed try to draw level, but Carter missed the conversion to end the game 26-26. It was a tie- awesome. Despite the stadium only being around half full - 15,000 or so, it was still a good atmosphere, and a good walk home with the torrents of people.
An early start took us up to Taupo which was full of people over the Easter weekend as its a popular holiday destination for kiwis. We struggled to get accommodation for the two nights we
had planned to stay but managed to find two free beds with our names on them. We were getting excited about doing a skydive as we had been waiting to do one in Taupo since we arrived in NZ. In the afternoon we walked to a hot spring for a dip- and it was hot enough to boil an egg. Neither of us expected it to be quite so warm and we couldn't stay in too long, we were covered in red blotches. A long days traveling ended with a look around town and watching the sunset from a lookout point.
We awoke the next morning hopeful that the weather would be clear enough for skydiving. It didn't look good. We waited anxiously outside our hostel to be picked up, sure the lift would never turn up. But it did and we were assured we would be jumping! A ten minute drive took us out to the diving center where we met our tandem partner and watched some adrenaline fuelled videos in preparation. After getting all our gear on, a jumpsuit, harness, cap, goggles and a life jacket in case we happened to fall in to Lake Taupo... we
boarded the plane. Mark was first in and so would be one of the last out. Suzanna unluckily was last in and therefore first out. It was a small plane, with just enough room to fit the 5 jumpers, their heroes attached to their backs, and the DVD cameramen. We all opted to have a man filming us on the short way down and were given oxygen on the way up as the plane wasn't pressurised.
Suz wasn't scared which was strange, it all seemed very surreal up in the plane and the view below just looked like a picture. When her tandem partner Dan said 'are you ready?' she said yes but suddenly thought why is this madman opening the door of the plane and pushing me towards it? Thats when the fear hit and then we were falling. Scott the cameraman who leaped from the plane just before us kept trying to get a good photo but the smile wouldn't come, my face was a big wavy wobbly mess and i had no control over my expressions. If you are unfortunate enough to watch the dvd you will see what i mean.
Anyway IT WAS AMAZING.
At first you get the falling sensation that makes your stomach feel weak and then you just feel like your being blasted in the face with a very strong wind machine. the views were spectacular and when you reach 5000ft, out goes the parachute and all is calm. When you look up you can see the parachute against the blue sky above you and the lake looked amazing in the morning sunshine. All in all an great experience.
The skydive was our highlight of Taupo, the hot springs were also pretty cool though. We spend one more day there, shopping and exploring the edge of the lake. Mark attempted a golf 'all in one' out to a small green floating on the lake and fails miserably. This made him sad.
Next we head north west towards Waitomo, Raglan and Rotorua.
Thanks for all your messages, great to hear from everyone! Hope all is well back home.
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Mark and Suz
Mark Saunders
Suzanna
Sorry we haven't added any photos of Suzanna's skydive- The photos on the dvd which the company gave her turned out to be of another man's jump, who was on the same plane. Very disappointing! Hopefully we will get hold of them soon.xx