Taupo... at 15,000ft!

---

I arrived from Tongariro in Taupo after a really miserable bout of bad weather. Unfortunately, the bad weather seemed to follow us from Tongariro.

We decide to put up in Rainbow Lodge instead of the much recommended (and top BBH rated), Blackcurrant Backpackers because it was a tad bit more pricey ($21 versus $24) and we thought it would not make too much a difference. Unfortunately, I felt Rainbow Lodge to be too large and a bit too busy for my liking. There are always people everywhere, lounge, TV room, kitchen, garden, etc. I did not think I ever had a quiet moment there. I think I prefer much smaller and more homey backpackers like Juno Hall and Colville Farm. With so many people, you have to jostle to use sinks, stoves, kitchen utensils and even bathrooms.

We spent the first part of our trip staying in the hostel and watching TV. We wanted to do a skydive (Lie Yee wanted to do the skydive and bungy) very badly in Taupo because after our survey, we found it to be the cheapest place in NZ to do a skydive. The view of the lake should make it a beautiful place to skydive.

On our second day, I did a run along the Ironman Lake Taupo but forgot to charge my Garmin so no recorded run. I only recorded my time on my Timex. There were already people swimming in the lake at 6am! The wetsuits they wore were a dead giveaway that they were triathletes. As I did the run, I noticed that the clouds were slowly clearing away. I prayed that they would clear away as much as possible so that we could all do our skydive.

We bummed around the city and tried to do some free stuff like the Huka Falls Walk which starts from Taupo town and goes to the beautiful Huka Falls. The walk was about 50 minutes on way. The park in which we started our walk also had a lot of cool obstacle courses (including a mock flying fox) for you to play with.

By around 3-ish pm, the clouds seem to have blown away and the skies were a nice shade of blue. After talking to the hostel owner, Ross (of Rainbow Lodge) we decide to go with Taupo Tandem Skydiving company. There are three skydiving companies in Taupo; Skydive Taupo, Freefall and Taupo Tandem Skydiving. There is pretty much no difference between all the three in terms of cost of dives but from what I observe, the difference in all three seem to be the photo quality you get. I saw the samples for Freefall and Taupo Tandem in our hostel office and I liked the ones from Taupo Tandem better. We did not choose Skydive Taupo because even though their photo package was cheaper but it was a handycam photo on the dive master's wrist and not from a separate cameraman.

With that, we made the booking and sealed our fate. I was a bit anxious as we waited for our transport to come pick us up. It came pretty quick and we were on our way. Upon arrival, we were presented with the packages available and we made our decision. Lie Yee went with then skydive and bungy package with cost $449, but if you wish to add photos of the freefall, it would cost $609. Lie Wei and I decide to go with the $499 package which came with a 15,000ft dive, freefall DVD, freefall photos and T-shirt. I did not care much for DVD but since the package was much cheaper than buying the photos individually, I took that option. You get a 10% discount on the photo/video package with a BBH card so it amounts to $483.

With that, I got suited up into my dive jumpsuit, met my dive master, Leski (who is French) and got myself into my tandem harness and it is off to the plane we go. The flight up to 15,000ft is probably the longest part of the the entire dive experience. We were in a rickety, Fokker plane with rattled it's way up to 15,000ft. It's really scary, as the plane has a roller door that can be easily rolled open. If not closed properly, you most likely can fall off the plane. As we hit around 9,000ft, I had a breathe through an oxygen mask provided by my dive master. The air at that altitude is really thin and super cold. I can feel my toes getting real cold in my very breathable Newtons.

As we hit 11,000ft, my dive master helped me put on my hat and soon my goggles. A tip to anyone doing the skydive, make sure your hair is properly tucked into the hat and that your goggles are not on crooked. Not too long after that, my personal cameraman, gave my hand a squeeze and rolled open the door. As I was the last one to board the plane, I was the first to jump. You can feel the gush of wind blow in real hard. It hits you right in the face, then my dive master moved me to the edge. Legs over the edge, turn to smile at the camera and head back and we are off!!!

I felt my heart lurch off the edge of the plane but I did not scream. My cameraman came right after me. My cameraman was great as he tried his best to stick with me so he could get as many pics of me in freefall. From time to time, he held on to my hand or my dive masters hand. Although my face looked terrible at some point because the wind coming at your face hits you so hard that you almost look like you have an instant facelift!

After I got over the initial "Aaah!", I actually had time to look around and enjoy the scenery. The lake truly looks amazing from way up there! We freefall-ed for about 60 seconds at 200km/h before the parachute had to be engaged. Once my parachute engaged, my cameraman had to fall away to engage his own parachute so from then on I would have no more photos.

While in the parachute, my dive master did some really cool 360 degree turns that got my heart lurching again. However, the thrill was so amazing that I made him do it again and again! When in the parachute, you had even more time to glance around and enjoy the scenery as you float down. Unfortunately for me, the landing came up a bit too soon and my dive master forgot to ask me to stretch out my legs so I landed a tad bit awkwardly on my knees.

It was such an adrenaline rush to skydive that I want to do it again! If only I had another $483 sitting around somewhere.

The next day I went for another shorter run, but this time with my Garmin fully charged along the Ironman route again. It was a nice ending to my trip in Taupo as I head back up to Rotorua to catch a bus to Auckland to fly into Queenstown. For now, it is good bye North and hello South!

Pics to follow real soon, got some real cool pics of the skydive!

---