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Published: February 14th 2006
Blowing out me Candles
Me looking like a div blowing out the candles on my birthday cake!! Also notice Jo staring at my arse, ok maybe shes not :-PBeen a while since a major update so me and Kim are both writing entries at the same time. After traveling to the Bay of Islands we set off in our 'dented' back to Auckland briefly to drop Jo off who was going to meet us in Rotorua the next day. Driving in New Zealand is very different from driving back home, endless countryside and hardly any people and lots and lots of sheep!!
Took about 3 hours driving to get to Rotorua all the time we could hear part of our damaged car scraping along the road everytime we hit a bump (women drivers!). As soon as we entered the city (which is by British standards would be a small town) you could smell the sulpher comming from the many volcanic pools and geysers that are common throughout the area, personaly I dont know why anyone would want to live in a city that smells like rotten eggs!!!
Pretty tired I just wanted to have a chilled out night so the guys all went for a meal and I stayed in being a hermit reading my new book 'Long Way Round' *yawn*. The next day we all went
Zorbing baby!!
Mike our crazy guitar playing Canadian friends being zorbed!! to watch Mike go Zorbing which involved him being put into a giant sphere full of water and being pushed down a hill, looked like fun but only lasts about 10 seconds but it was tempting to have a go. We then decided to check out one of the thermal springs so took a trip to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which looked spectalucar though stank of rank eggs which at times was pretty unbearable!!! The walk took 75 mintues past all manners of hot springs and sulpher pools by which time we were pretty hot and stinking. It was worth it and very interesting though I wont be going back anytime soon as the town smells slightly of arse!!!
That day we all decided that we would go on a sky dive for my birthday which I was really excited about, so we booked one for the next day. We were to be litteraly hurled from a plane at 15,000 feet from which we would then free fall in tanden (strapped to a professional thank god) for 65 seconds before releasing the chute (which would hopefully work). I dont think at the time anyone really realised what we were undertaking!!!
Trevor and Kim in Wonderland
Mike, Dite (pronounced Deetee), Kim and I in Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. Kim and the guys played a game of poo sticks over the bridge....how immature!!! :-P The next morning we woke up to the familar smell of eggs for our last time and departed Rotorua for the town of Taupo. I had totaly forgotten it was my birthday until somone mentioned it to me, though I was more worried that id survive to see my 24th birthday! Due to a mix up we ended up arriving at the airport for the skydive 3 hours early, so we went to the hostel and hung around there for a bit, we actualy saw people skydiving at the time and were suprised at how quickly they fell even when the parachute had been deployed, even so we still remained confident!!!!
After waiting round for a couple and hours we headed back to the skydive centre and picked out what dive we wanted to do, Kim and I thought we may aswell go the whole hog and get the T-shirt and the DVD, its not everyday you get to jump out of a plane!! It was not until we got into the hanger that everyone started to show how nervous they were, it was strange as everyone dealt with it in a different way, some people being loud
Volcanic River
Contains all sorts of minerals, sulpher, silica etc etc, you wouldn't want to drink from it, smell it or bath in it!!!! and excited others being very quiet and subdued. I then heard over that speaker somone saying it was my birthday today and crazy Andrian would by my Tanden Master ( guy you get strapped onto), I thought it was just a joke but when he came over and he introduced himself he told me it was only his 12th time diving which got me a bit worried. After well all got suited and booted we had to watch a video telling us what to do, Kim missed the whole thing as she was looking to see if she could borrow some trainers to wear, this didnt fill her with much confidence!!! Ive also never heard so many jokes about how they hadn't lost anyone yet that day, or how common it is that your tandem master forgets to strap you in!!!
After a breif wait the plane landed from taking up the last group and we all walked out onto the runway and loaded in, the plane was rather small and we were tightly packed together which is when the jokes about them liking being strapped to guys started, if the jump doesnt kill you the jokes will!!! The
Steamy session
Us trying to enjoy the skanky arse smelling steam from this pool where it reaches 75C and is 65m deep!!! plane took off and would fly to a height to 12,000 feet to drop of 2 people before going to 15,000 and dropping us out ( we took the highest dive becuase thats how hardcore we are!!!!). The view was pretty amazing and the weather was quite clear apart from a bit of broken cloud, you see the nearbye mountain peak over the top of the cloud which looked pretty amazing. By this time everyone on the plane sat in silence contemplating what they were about to do apart from Kim who was having a full on chat to her Tandem Master aka strap on guy (poor guy). infact at 15,000 feet everyone else apart from Kim had to put their oxygen masks on, I think this is probably becuase she had used up all the oxygen in the plane talking!!!
Kim was up first to go out and followed the instructions she was told, to make like a 'banana' when you exit the plane!!! I was left to watch her through the window plumet to the ground at over 200kph........great...... Before long it would be my turn. You dont actualy have much of a choice as you get
Iron Oxide deposits
Pretty bright coloured mineral......smelled like eggs......... hung out of the plane while you pose for possibly your last ever photograph before beng forced. You dont really have time to think, after making like a 'banana' I was out! It's hard to describe the feeling you get but its pretty overwhelming, you can feel the sudden acceleration and you can hardly take in the view its pretty astounding. I remember screaming many swear words ( hopefully not like a girl) but it didnt matter ans no sound came out and instead you just got a gob full of air!!! As Kim and I both were buying the DVD and going the whole hog both of us also had a person to freefall with us on the way down recording everything we did, which was good but after a 20 seconds of sticking your thumbs up, waving and pretending to do breaststroke you just wanted to have time to take in the scenery and the feel of falling so fast, it was pretty intense!! Kim on the other hand was frozen like a statue and didnt unclench her fists during the whole freefall she assures me she wasnt scared at all ( yer right!!).
The 65 seconds
Volcanic lake
Another one, can you guess what it smells like......? of freefall went so quick, before you knew it the paracute was thankfully deployed successfully and your heart suddenly fell like it had sank to your feet as you slowed down so quickly. During the decent we were both given control of our chutes and could stear and pull spiral turns which was pretty ace, I was suprised at how quickly you fall even when the chute is open. The landing however was fine though I didnt managed to land standing but Kim did, it was hard to believe it was all over so quickly!!! After paying which nearly didnt happen as id misplaced by debit card we all went home, and couldnt stop talking about it, probably still high on the adrenaline rush!!! However everyone soon collapsed on their beds when we arrived back and within minutes we were all asleep!!!! Everyone should give skydiving a go, as mad Adrian told me once you skydive rollercoasters will never feel the same.
That evening I got the obligatory suprise birthday cake and party masks aswell as some small presents. We all decided to go and have a birthday meal and hit the drinks (a common occurance so it seems
Devils Bath
The bright green pool suprisingly also smelt bad, it seemed that every pool had some hellish name, devils crater, Inferno crater, Hells bumhole etc (maybe made that last one up) looking back on our blog, but it was my birthday so we had an excuse!!). We went out to a few bars and managed to milk a few free drinks, it was a great night and we all got suitably sloshed and by the end of the night everyone was trying and usualy failing to dance on the tables (in NZ and Australia lots of dance floors seem to include tables to dance on, seems dangerous to me!). However I did miss the lads back home, hope you all had a few drinks and happy birthday Lewgash!!! Also of course I missed my family back home, special thanks to my little brothers and the card they made for me!!, hey guys hungover again!!!! All in all it was an amazing birthday and one ill never forget!
Today we just chilled out, having bangers and mash for dinnertonight! Tmorrow however the girls and going horse riding while Mike and I are going to go on an 8 hour trek along the Torongariro crossing, some people will remember it as Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings, It should be pretty amazing/tiring. Will add pics of that in the next Blog!!
Lake Taupo
The only interesting thing about the lake was the black swans............... ooOoOo Trev
P.S. We will be adding the sky diving pictures in a seperate entry so watch this space!!!
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Jemma
non-member comment
Sky Diving!! Wow!
Trev, Happy belated Birthday mate! I cannot believe that you went sky diving! I cannot wait to see the pictures!! Dan and I are fine I hear Dan has been emailing you and keeping you updated on all the gossip, so I will keep this short and sweet. You both look really well and can't believe that your trip is going so quickly! You both take care and we look forward to the next installment!! Jem