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Published: January 24th 2013
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Hazel's nervous face! On Tuesday morning, we saw our last steaming, bubbling mud pool and left Rotorua (and the rotten egg smell) behind us, apart from the smell which had permeated our clothes, and headed towards Taupo. We had a brief stop at Huka falls, where light blue water runs between two rock faces making incredible 10m rapids on the way down (I'm not sure what grade this would be on the rafting scale, but apparently no-one's ever managed it!)
Hazel had signed up to do a skydive that afternoon - Christine had recomended Taupo, as you can see great views across the lake as you come down. Despite my vertigo, I decided to sign up too, as it was on my list of "things to do before you die"...or while you die! The build up is much worse than the jump however, as when you arrive you immediatley fill in a disclaimer form setting out your next of Kin's contact details. Once you meet your tandem master, they do a good job of putting you at ease and explaining everything.
On the way up you are squashed into a plane (and I mean really squashed), given an oxygen mask around 12000ft
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Mark falls out of the plane and then strapped to your tandem master who performs numerous checks as you nervously look out of the window. Hazel and I were the last two people to jump out and, on reflection, the worse bit was watching everyone else disapear out of the plane first. Even Hazel looked nervous at this point.
We opted for the 15000ft jump, as Hazel decided we should "go big or go home" and we also had a cheesy dvd made. Fortunatly there is no actual sound on the dvd, so you can only lip read my expletives as I freefall for about a minute. The good thing about this option is that the camera man is falling with you, so you can see him smiling reassuringly at you as you fall. In my case, I could see mine below me, looking up, spinning around, or maybe I was spinning around?!
When it is your go, your tandem master pushes you towards the open plane door and you sit on the edge with your legs dangling over the side (don't look down now!). Before you know it, he pushes you both out and ahhhhhhh... After about 20 seconds you actually get more
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Huka Falls use to the freefall and it becomes enjoyable; your brain can't really comprehend the height, as the ground looks like a map, and it doesn't come towards you particularly fast. It feels more like floating on air and was actually quite fun, until the parachute deploys and you get the wedgy of the century. Once the parachute is up, you have time to look around and see the view, which is absolutely amazing. You could see huge swathes of farmland, and the enormous Lake Taupo set out in front of you. We were so lucky as it was a beautiful sunny day, so you could see really far (although not quite across both sides of the North Island, which is what was claimed before we went up). Hazel's tandem master was much kinder than mine, and would ask her if she wanted to do spirals and different manoeuvres before she did them, whereas mine just went for it without warning! Dizzy Head!
Note to Adrian: You would love this. Not only do you get to skydive, but you also get the excitment of being firmly stapped between another man's legs for a good few minutes 😉
Anyway, thats
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Lake Taupo enough of my skydiving monologs, back to Taupo -> The
lake is absolutely massive, and amazingly clear. We went for a walk on Wednesday along the Waikato River, back up towards Huka falls. The river is really wide, with massive swirling currents in it, but halfway along the walk there is a point where a thermal spring meets the river and makes a warm bathing area. We stopped off here for a picnic and a swim, before carrying on to the falls. In the evening we decided to try our hostel's $5 chilli-con-carne, which wasn't actually that bad. We know how to live on a budget!
Today we took a picnic down the side of the lake and watched other people skydiving from the safety of solid ground. We also managed to fit in a mini-golf session (we missed you beating us Christine, as it ended level on a rather pathetic 14 over par).
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Adrian
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Question is guys, will the Rotura smell stay in your clothes like the Oswald smell?? I can think of nothing better than being strapped between a guys legs trying different manoeuvres before getting a wedgie... Seriously, sounds awesome and I can imagine the views were spectacular - just like Google Maps?? ;-)