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Published: April 24th 2010
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Gearing up!!!
Doesn't she look cute? Ok, just 2 weeks in New Zealand, but just doing this in a single blog entry would have ended in a blog entry too long.... And you wouldn't have finished reading them before your boss would startto complain. So we've splitted them up, just for you. Aren't we great?
Sorry Mum...
After our tranquil time in the forests and art deco Napier, we figured that Taupo would be our next stop. Taupo is next to a big lake (lost the name and sold our NZ guidebook, so no quick reference guide to look it up quickly, Lake Taupo?). But the best stuff is actually not on the lake, but next to the lake. River are trashing through gorges through lush forests towards the Tasman Sea and excellent Maori carvings on rock faces. The latter one we didn't see, as the weather got to grim, so venturing out on the lake on kayaks to watch these carvings would have been too cold. But we did some cool stuff there.
Ok, we didn't crash through the canyons, we also didn't see the jet boat 'blasting' over the rapids of Huka Falls (but we saw the falls at least). but we
The pink plane...
I heard about a yellow submarine, but a pink plane? Anyhow, this is the one where we jumped from. made a fair effort to see them, with a bottle of wine in our hands (fair trade off). Huka falls and the surrounding gorges were indeed briliant and the nearby Moon Craters too. It's not that the falls are that high (approx 7meters), but the amount of water and the surroundings are more impressive.
Watching these waters and enjoying our portable BBQ resulted though in one more thing: being totally optimistic and having the feeling that nothing can go wrong. So where does that end up in Taupo: Skydiving. Apparently Taupo is
the skydiving capital of the world. We didn't know, but there they jump 362 days a year, weather permitting. This ends up with approx 30-40 thousands jumps per year. So we jumped, too. 15000 feet, no training beforehand, just a small instruction video which was actually more of a commercial for the jumping company.
The cool stuff is that we did the "deluxe" version, so including personal DVDs of the whole experience. Interviews beforehand on the ground, interviews while you are in the plane gaining altitude and a final one when you've just landed.
WOW mind-blowing. The day we jumped the sky was crystal blue and
Blue sky and Lake Taupo itself
The views are good, above and on the ground. not a single cloud in the sky. You could see the surrounding mountains while you crashed your way towards earth.... The free fall is something like 1 minute, but it's definitely too short. The first two seconds you're thinking "what the hell is going on???!!!!", but afterwards you'll just enjoy the ride. Agi actually got pretty lucky, as one of the jumpmasters was a Hungarian guy (former Hungarian champion, but I do not know how many skydivers are there in Hungary, so I do not know how fast you can become a Hungarian champion....). But he did a great job, especially in the video. Whereas I was treated as one more tourist jumping from a plane, Agi got the explanations while she fell down to earth (ok, the talking part was only possible during the canope ride of several minutes. But she claimed she could see Napier.... I didn't have a clue.....). All went fine, the only issue is my bum.... My landing was totally smooth, but apparently my bum thinks otherwise....
OK, we have to run now to get through passport checks in Auckland airport as we are heading to our next destination. You will get a backfill
Kiwi flag
Just a tourist picture at the jump site. on the rest of NZ later on, we PROMISE!!!
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