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Published: October 30th 2010
So after leaving Uncle Boy's on the Friday morning we drove to Rotorura, a very geothermically active region full of hot pools, boiling mud & the smell of rotten eggs (aka sulphur)! First stop was to go white water rafting with Kaitaki Adventures along the Kaituna river. We went through lots of rapids & over a few waterfalls, the highlight of the trip being the Grade 5 rapid or 7m waterfall! We were amazed that we came over & remained upright! It was great fun!!! I will have to try this again sometime soon 😊
That afternoone we headed over to Taupo were for some strange reason I'd decided to sign up to go skydiving... Myself & Debby were in the second batch to go so we had an extra half an hour of build up watching the first group jump & failing to remain calm, at least on my part! Then it was into the pink plane & up into the air. Brilliant views over Lake Taupo (largest in New zealand - a dormant volcano crater... God help the country when it next erupts!) & over to the mountains in the Tongariro National Park where we are heading early
7m waterfall
or Grade 5 rapid!the next day. And then we had climbed to 15000 & it was time to jump. Debby was first & I think sitting on the floor besides the clear door had helped build the tension even more for her! The most terrifying parts are when you swing your legs over and are scarcely perched in the plane & the next moments whilst accelerating. After that it is just lots of wind in your face, which nearly pulled my flying (or should that be falling?) hat off! After a minute of frefall the canopy opens & then it is stunning. You drift slowly down admiring the view & I even got a turn at steering us in sweeping circles. It really feels like you're flying, a movement of the arms & you change direction, not quite as gracefully as a bird but as near as we'll ever get I suspect. This bit I could happily do again & I am tempted to try paragliding at Queenstown to have a go. Photos & a DVD of my skydive are on another CD/DVD set which as before I am unable to put online until I have access to a computer with an appropriate
Base of the waterfall
We all got rather soaked in this one! drive.
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