We arrived in Taupo a few hours after leaving National Park (aka Tongariro). Smelly, weary, and hungry, we wanted to settle in fast. Turns out our camper van park had a heated pool, so we quickly jumped in for a soak. It was a nice way to end a long, long day. Bev concocted a great dinner out of leftovers, we cooked meals for the next few days, and we promptly passed out.

The next day, it was raining pretty hard, so we decided to do something really exciting...absolutely nothing! We have been on-the-go non stop, so we decided to just hang out. Bev killed me at cards (shocker), we caught up on writing in our journals, read a bit, and just hung out. We saw no sites, performed no physical activity, and it was fantastic.

The next day, after several days of rain and grey skies, we woke up to a beautiful day with blue skies, perfect temperatures, and warm sunshine. We looked at each other and asked the question no one dared ask before, "Is this the day we sky dive?" The answer was, "yes."

Yep, we're gonna jump out of a plane. We decided to do it from 12,000 feet, which will give us 45 seconds of freefall, followed by 6 minutes or so of floating down to the ground. With the lakes and volcanoes in the area, Taupo is one of the top places to sky dive in New Zealand.

Within a few hours, we were at the dive site. We suited up in a blue, oversized jumper, put on our harness, and prepared to get into the plane with our instructor. We flew up to 12,000 feet , zigzagging through the sky to get to the proper height. The scenery was gorgeous. Lake Taupo's deep blue water shimmered with the sunlight, and the volcanoes loomed in the distance. When it was time, the plexiglass door began to automatically open, and with the wind swirling around, my partner and I scooted towards the door. I was hanging out of the plane, connected to my partner/instructor, who was still seated in the plane. I crossed my arms over my chest, and in short order, we were out of the plane. I was the first one out of the plane and Bev went third.

It was the biggest adrenaline rush of our lives. After 45 seconds of freefall, we floated over the Taupo caldera, and my partner sent us into a few serious spins before we landed safely just behind the Skydive Taupo building. We were both completely charged up afterwards, smiling ear-to-ear and pumped out of our minds.

Once we settled in from diving, we took off for Huka Falls, the largest falls on the Waikato river, where 250,000 cubic meters rush through every second. We debated spending one more day in Taupo, to possibly kayak on the lake, but in the end, we decided just to move on to our next destination, Rotorua - the hotbed of volcanic activity and Maori culture in New Zealand.