Taupo

Taupo was literally the place I had been dreading, just because I knew I had to conquer my fear and jump out of a plane! I had been worrying about this for so long even during my time in Oz as originally I was suppose to do it at Mission Beach. I can honestly say I don't know why I was so worried. My sky dive is and will always be one of the one most exciting, memorable things I have ever done! I am just so glad I jumped from 15,000 feet, 12,000 would have been too short!

The first day we arrived in Taupo the weather was crap aso we just went to see the Huka falls which were amazing waterfalls on the way. The water was ridiculously blue and the sound it made gushing down was surprising, it was so noisey! I was secretly glad that he sky dive was cancelled, and felt much calmer the whole way there! We also got taken to see some bubbling mud pools, which were pretty cool, ands are pretty self explanatory, being pools of mud that are bubbling!

That night we met up with some of the guys who were on our original bus which was really cool. They had to stay behind waiting for the skydive beause of bad weather; they had been waiting for 3 days and had been up in the plane on two ocassions, all kitted up, to be told at the top it was not going to happen! This notion made me petrified! My nerves were terrible, especially since that night we booked in for the next day. It was official I was jumping out of a plane! Why, I couldnt' tell you!

The next morning we all got up early ready for the 9.00am jump to be told i was cancelled. The weather was really bad and so we got it into our heads it wouldnt not happen! Half an hour later they tell us its on, and I am telling you, you have never seen such terror on all of our faces! We literally had ten minutes to get ready and get in the van. On the way we had to read this disclaimer form, making sue we knew that what we were doing could result in death! This did not help the nerves at all, but stupidly we all signed on the dotted line!

Once we got there we had to watch this video of other people skydiving which scared the crap out of me! But after that we all got into our jump suits and I was really calm and more excited than anyting, which really surprised me as I have never done anything like this in my life! I used to be scared of the bloody log flume and watch roller coasters with my dad from the safety of the ground below!

Anyway, we got kitted up and within ten minutes I was in the plane, where there was no turning back! Lucky me had the joker guy strapped to my back! He was called Justin, and he was literally trying to make me back out I think it was so funny! He had loosened up my harness and said... 'how come your is loose and everyone else has a tight harness?'' ...'who fitted it on you because they need to be sacked', as he pulled the straps off my shoulders so I could fall through. He then went onto say that if I see him panicking then something is not right, and also told me how we were about to fall 10,000 feet in 60 seconds, telling me 'don't look down'! Then he said hold on for dear life if I can unattached to him and gestured towards two flimsy button holes on his jmp suit!

Luckily I was excited more than nervous at this point and all his scary remarks just made the 25 minutes plane ride all the more exciting! Once we got high up we were all given oxygen masks and had to breathe through them for a while. Then before we knew it the moment came...the door opened and Lois flew out! I was third! He shifted me forward towards the door, I dangled my legs over the edge, tucked them under the plane and held on for dear life to my harness! We fell out so fast it was unbelievable! It felt like floating on wind! I did not feel like I was falling, despite passing through clouds! It was so liberating, I can't even put ino words how cool it was! The 60secs flew by and before I knew it I was gliding through the air with the parachute up. The views over Lake Taupo were incredible, the whole experience was unforgettable! It was just so surreal, it was over so quicly, and for the rest of the day we all had smiles on our faces, and had to remind oursleves what we had done! We were all so proud of ourselves!

The rest of the time in Taupo was pretty chilled out, it was an awesome place, and was really pretty, but nothing could top the sky dive! We spent two more nights there, in a really cool hostel not far from the lake.