Holy Cow!

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After leaving Rotorua our trip took us to Taupo. On the way we stopped at Huka Falls...not really a waterfall more like a thunderous mass of white water....a 100m wide river compressed into a 15m gulley...so i've been told. A lot of water. Not something you'd like to fall into.

Anyway, we rushed on in hope of doing our skydive today...picked up in a white limo and driven to the air field to find that the weather was turning. Three people got to jump (including Ames and Asha) while Paul, Nat and I looked on. The winds picked up to 26+ knots (I hear that's windy!) so the rest of us were cancelled. Nevermind the night was young and Amy and Asha were adrenalin junkies so a night of drinking and dancing were a must!

The "family" and the now new "extended family" headed out for drinks at the Irish bar and then moved upstairs for some drunken dancing on the tables at Holy Cow....an example of the nights to come!

With attempts to do the Skydive over the next five days quoshed by windy weather we had to find some other form of entertainment. Even the IronMan Triathlon was cut short...couldn't really call it a Triathlon as the swim was cancelled and the cycling and running distances were halved!

So, the crazy notion of doing a Bungy jump was thrown around by a few of us. Nobody really had any inclination to do one...but alcohol, peer pressure and a need for adrenalin led us to a "lets do tandem jumps". Problem came when we had an odd number and then we suddenly jumped to a "well we might as well all do a solo jump". Crazy talk!

Picked up by our friendly bungy jumping dude... we all weighed in and signed our lives away. Well, thats when the terror kicked in. With Pauly jumping first (brave boy!) and then the others following- the guys running the place wanted to stop to go and watch their mate running in the IronMan competition! Well, half an hour of waiting and looking over the drop into the Waikato River our nerves reached a peak! Nat was shaking like crazy, Amy leap frogged over the edge and... well... I talked about the Goonies (where did that come from!) and swore to the guy that I "really was going to vomit"! Anyway, over I went, bounce, bounce, a few more bounces and then pulled into the boat below! It was such an adrenalin rush, but to be honest I really did think I was going to die as I stood on that edge. Pat on the back though, another first and another fear conquered!

With more adrenalin running it was another crazy night out at the Holy Cow!

Over the next few days we couldn't even do the Tongariro Crossing due to bad weather on the mountains so we entertained ourselves by going to the natural hot springs and a bush walk back upto Huka Falls. It's crazy, because Taupo is on a fault line there are aquafiers that feed into the Waikato river...so you walk along and there's steam rising out of the bush and streams that are of varying temperatures that you can paddle and sit in....very cool (I do like my geology).

Anyway with the fun and drunken shennanigans of Taupo, the unfortunate bad weather preventing us from doing a sky dive or even the Tongariro crossing we decide it's time to move on. I'll be back....better weather and i'll make the trek across Tonagariro National Park.

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Photos

Taupo
Huka Falls

Taupo
Bungy Jump (That's me upside down!)

Taupo
The Extended Family