Nov 11 - Taupo and Skydive

Today was the bus from Rotorua (leaving behind the rotten egg smell, hooray!) to Taupo. There were several stops along the route between cities, and the first was at the spa in Rotorua, then at bubbling/boiling mud pools just outside the city. The pools were exactly as unimpressive as they sound...mud, that due to steam and geothermal water was boiling and steaming in a pool. Snapped the obligatory photo and we continued on a little ways to the Lady Knox Geyser part of what I think was a National Park. We walked off the bus and down to a little ampitheatre that had been built around the geyser with wooden benches to sit on to watch the eruption. A guide came out and told us all (there were a couple hundred people from different bus groups watching) the history of the geyser and then added some soap to break the underwater surface tension and force an eruption. Otherwise eruptions happen rather randomly every couple of days, but that isn't ideal for tourism. So a few minutes passed and he finished his story and then kapow! The geyser shot up about 50 feet into the air, then subsided down to maybe 20 or 30 feet tall and apparently it stays shooting up that height for an hour or so. Got some great photos and we all went back to the bus and continued to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland park area. They wanted to charge us $26 to walk a trail and see some bright green thermal pools, but we thought that was robbery, so we just had a bite to eat instead. Some people from the bus did the hike, and once they returned we all boarded the bus once again. The next stop was at Huka Falls, which were incredibly turquoise and powerful. We had a few minutes to snap photos and admire the surging waterfall that forced 100,000 litres of water per second down it. Onward we went and finally reached the surprisingly large city of Taupo and stopped at the top of a hill to lookout over Lake Taupo. The lake is the largest freshwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere and at over 600 feet deep and about the same size as Singapore, it's no wonder it can supply the huge amount of water that surge through Huka Falls everyday. Only a few minutes from here we finally reached our YHA hostel which looked like a dump compared to the one in Rotorua. Regardless, we checked in and walked over to an ANZ to put some money in our NZ accounts. Then we hustled back and got onto the TTS shuttle.

TTS stands for Taupo Tandem Skydiving. We were driven to their office at the Taupo airport and then had to fill out forms and get a briefing on the different photo/video packages. Since this was our first and possibly only time ever skydiving, we opted for the expensive video and photo package combination each. Then we had to wait for the group ahead of us to suit up and board the plane and do their dive and then for the plane to return. Waiting is the worst part. Finally we got to suit up in our dive suits that looked like something Evel Knievel would wear and our harnesses that were tight in several key areas. Met our tandem dive partners that we would be harnessed to and our photographer/videographers and then walked across the tarmac to the bright yellow plane. The plane was tiny and 15 of us squeezed into the open area behind the pilot. There were 4 of us, 4 tandem partners, 3 videographers (one guy didn't opt for the photos/video) and then 2 sets of instructor and student skydivers that were learning to dive solo. The door of the plane slid shut like a garage door and barely had enough room to close. The plane took off and slowly looped upwards over the spectacular forests and mountains and lake. Up and up and up. At 12,000 feet, one instructor/solo dive student hopped out. You see them on the edge and as they drop they're out of sight in milliseconds. Up and up and up some more, all the way to 15,000 feet. The other solo student/instructor exited the plane and then it was my turn. I wasn't a tiny bit nervous until I was sitting on the edge of the plane with my feet dangling out into the air. Luckily there wasn't too much time to worry, as they took an "exit photo" and then heave-ho, out we went. I had asked my tandem partner (who was strapped in the very awkward but necessary position on my back) to do some flips out of the plane, so when we exited we did a twisting flip before he threw up the tiny material balloon that acts as a stabilizer. The first few seconds (as we flipped) I was yelling whooaaaaaa! and it felt like a roller coaster around a hard drop on my body and stomach. But when the stabilizer went up I felt fine and there was no more butterfly feeling in my stomach. What there was, however, was a hell of a lot of wind pressure on the body and face. We all wore leather helmets and cheap plastic goggles, which helped, but when you're falling at terminal velocity (or close to it) there is a whole lot of wind pushing back at you. The videographer flew down and shook my hand and got some footage before flying back up above us. It was tough to do anything except a scrunched up face and the spread eagle. I managed to get off a couple finger gun and rock hand poses and even cracked a smile until it completely dried my mouth and throat out. Then as soon as it begun, the free fall was over. My tandem partner pulled the cord and whoosh, up went the chute and opened nicely (thankfully). Then it was a couple minutes of relaxation and taking in the amazing scenery. It was literally a perfect day for this and across the clear blue skies I could see for a long ways...nearly coast to coast of the whole country. My partner then handed me the reigns to the parachute and let me cut hard left and right by pulling down with either hand. It could cut so hard that it gave me butterflies in my stomach, even more than the jump did. Pretty cool feeling and so much control of the chute. After several turns back and forth, he took the reigns back and piloted us down to the landing strip of grass next to the office. We had to lift our legs up and let our partners land on their feet (or we could break ankles) and just as we landed he said "now stand up quick!" but it was too late and I landed on my butt then had an awkward shuffle back up to my feet once we had stopped moving. As he unclipped us I watched the other 3 people and their partners land in the field. We all walked back to the office and changed out of our jumpsuits then watched the video footage and paid, then took the shuttle back to the hostel. What a rush and for about an hour after the jump, we were all still buzzing.

The rest of the night we spent uploading photos onto the netbook then onto Facebook, then supper. we had planned to eat at a pub with a few pints, but on the way to it we came across a Pizza Hut buffet. Minds made up we went in and paid like $16 (ouch) and began chowing down. The pizza was old though, so the guy tossed in some new stuff and 16 pizza slices, 6 brownies, and 2 jello cubes later (speaking for myself only) we exited and continued to the pub. The place was pretty quiet, but we grabbed beers and sat with a girl who had jumped with us and her friend and between the 5 of us (Dan from the USA was also with us) we had some good convo. There was even some half decent live music after awhile. Then we walked back to the hostel, noticing a super loud, busy club on the way that probably would have been better, but we were dead tired now so it was too late for tonight. Ever since I had landed from the jump, my right ear was plugged up...I think it popped during the drop since I probably didn't remember to swallow and equalize my ears. Anyways, it was just starting to feel normal at like midnight. We planned to leave tomorrow for the National Park, but due to bus scheduling issues and wanting to watch the Riders playoff game, we're going to spend 2 more nights in Taupo and then 2 nights in the National Park, which will mean we aren't on the road on Monday during the game (Monday for us, Sunday for you). So now we can explore Taupo a litle more, which is fine, because there is lots to do here.