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Published: February 4th 2007
Kia Ora (hello in Maori)
Well the weather has finally improved thankfully and it is now nice and sunny reaching the mid-twenties. It is amazing how a little bit of sunshine can really improve a place. But I guess that´s a bit hard to imagine when you are sat back home in old Blighty freezing to death.
On Monday we decided to drive back to Rotorua, which is where we first started out and the place we liked the best, well apart from the faint whiff of sulphur every now and again. Plus the weather forecast was the best for here and they have the best campsites.
We went to Kiwi World as we felt that you couldn´t come all the way to New Zealand without seeing one and the chances of seeing one in the wild are very slim as they nocturnal and endangered. The centre was a kind of Kiwi Sancturary where they are hatched and released once they reach a certain size. They are very weird birds and a lot bigger than I thought, but glad I got to see one.
Afterwards we headed to the information centre where we had been debating
the week before about doing a skydive. Well this time we finally plucked up the courage to go ahead and booked it for the following day in the morning with the most expensive company, we figured now was not a good time to skimp! (We also checked with the nice lady who we had booked it with that we could change our minds without paying if we wanted to, just in case).
That night we went to the spa pools and tried to relax, we both agreed to not discuss the jump at all in order to try to forget about it. As you can imagine it was pretty hard to think about anything else and sleep did not come easily that night.
Well Tuesday came with perfect weather conditions (damn) and we were picked up and taken to the airport. By this time my stomach was doing somersaults and I was finding it hard to speak and so resorted to laughing nervously. Upon arrival we were handed a form to complete, the first line of which read "Even if your parachutte does open, there is still the chance of serious injury or death" I was starting to
have serious doubts over this, when at the foot of the page I noticed there was a weight limit! This was my final chance of getting out of the jump without it being my fault (well except for being a touch overweight) So with glee I instantly jumped on the scales, but was dissapointed to find myself within the maximum weight requirement (With a couple of pounds to spare) My final chance of pulling out gone I signed the form.
Fortunately we were the first two up, I couldn´t handle hanging around waiting and we choose the shortest fall which was 10,000ft, with 30 seconds of this being freefall. This doesn´t sound like a long time until you sit there and count it out aloud and imagine yourself falling towards the earth at 220km/ph, then it seems an eternity!!
Anyway they kitted us up with me double checking everything they were doing (I had no idea what to check but it made me feel better) and we were introduced to the person we would be attached to. I quickly decided to become friends with this person who I had never met and was now trusting my
life with and bombarded him with questions. It was then that I discovered that Eric my new best bud didn´t speak very good english and could not help me with my questions. Meanwhile Becks was getting instructions on what to do and when, whilst Eric just stood there in his sandles smiling!
We were then loaded into the plane, Becks and her buddy, me and my buddy and 2 camera men (1 for each of us). The plane was tiny and just big enough for the six of us. In order to fit in we had to sit on our buddys lap, which was slighty weird but did not stop Eric from smiling. It took about 15 years for the plane to reach the height and I had become completely incapable of speach. Then the red light turned green, then I turned green and the door opened. Becks was the first to go and as she went the plane jolted up in the air due to the sudden weight loss. Then as it levelled off again we slid to the door. As We got to the door Eric was sitting in the plane whilst I hung from four clips
outside it with my feet dangling in mid air. Fortunately at this point you have absolutely no control over anything or else I don´t think I could have done it. The next thing I knew we were tumbling through the sky and I cannot explain how I felt. Very quickly we levelled off and I started to relax and enjoy the scenery and the feeling of freefalling. Before I knew it was being jerked up as the parachutte opened and flaoting slowly downward towards the ground. This was the worst part as it seemed to take for ever to get down and to make me more comfotable Eric loosened me from himself, something I was not overly happy about as when I slipped I wondered what the hell was going on. Finally we touched down and I instantly started to shake everyones hand and thank them for geting me down safely. Anyway we have photos, DVD etc to bore you all with on our return and am very pleased with myself for doing it although I may not repeat the experience.
That afternoon we were both on a high from sky diving but Becks was feeling ill still so we headed straight to Whakatane (pronounced rhymes with duck-a-tarn-ee) where we stayed the night.
The next day we had booked to go to White Island which is the only active marine volcano in New Zealand. On the island you have to wear hard hats and use a gas mask because of the acdy air. Apparently there are aproximately 6 mini quakes a day although the majority of these are so tiny only the seismograph can pick them up.
The boat arrived after a very rough 2 hour crossing which didn´t help with Becks feeling ill anyway. Although the Journey was broken up as we were escorted by Pilot whales and Bottlenose dolphins for part of teh ay, we also saw a huge Albatross. Once there we transferred to dingys which took us onto the crater. Basically the island is the volcano with just the crater being above the water. We had a 2 hour tour round the crater which was brilliant as we saw the bubbling water, all the steam and the formation of the crater. The gas masks were needed as the smell and the gasses got right into your throat and it and made you cough and splutter a lot. The last eruption there was in 2000 and they showed us what had happened and how it had changed the shape of the crater etc.
On Thursday we headed to the famous Waitomo Caves. We were going to go black water rafting and abseiling and rock climbing here however Becks was not feeling up for that so we did the easy option and went on a guided cave tour where you stayed dry and no energy was required. The caves are home to thousands of Gloworms and they are the main attraction. We went into the cave and then got into a raft and floated through the caves looking up at the Gloworms which made the cave roof seem like a night sky with thousands of tiny stars everywhere. It was here that David Attenborough filmed a documentary on them a couple of years ago for the series Planet Earth. Whilst on this tour we heard from someone that a parachutist had landed in a tree when his parachute failed to open fully in Taupo on Wednesday just down the road from where we jumped. He was in hospital and not good, if we hadn´t already done our jump the we would nt have!
That evening we drove to Matamata which is where all the Hobbits live! Friday we went to Hobbiton which is one of the movie sets from Lord of the Rings. We walked round the farmland and saw the Shire and the Hobbit holes and managed to spot a couple of Hobbits but unfortunately no photos of them as they are camera shy! It was an okay tour but a lot of it was just looking at fields with small posts in whilst they explained to you what happened there and I think you would have to be obsessed with the film to really appreciate it.
The next dy we headed to a campsite just outside of Auckland as the following day we were off to Mexico and our luxurious hotel for two weeks!! Although it was going to be the longest day ever as we were up at 7.00am on December the 17th flew to LA at 4.00pm on December the 17th and arrived there at 9.00am on December the 17th! This was because we flew over the International dateline and had gained a day back!!
Anyway will update the next blog soon from Mexico in 5 star luxury soon.
Adios Amigos
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Nic
non-member comment
This blog is rubbish
Why oh why oh why are these blogs so late? You have not been in New Zealand for OVER 7 WEEKS you lazy pig. However - joy unrestrained to see mutiple pictures of the new sensation in NZ chocolate speedway diving as you were coupled to your new Maori boyfriend (no concidence that you two are up to the hilt as he speakee no eeenglisssh Mr Jucksarn) - beautiful experience for two lovers to share