A day of extremes: from ultra relaxation to an adrenalin pumping skydive!

Starting in Rotorua, I spent the morning relaxing in the Polynesian spa, a complex of 7 different pools. They are fed from the natural springs in this volcanically active area, which make Rotorua the smelliest town in the world! After a few hours of soaking in the sulphurous waters, I barely noticed the rotting egg smell. The bus took us to one of the local mud pools where we gazed at the farting mud bubbling away, much to everyone's amusement. We then went to a waterfall called Huka Falls, near Taupo.

We also visited Kerosene Creek for a dip in the water which was extremely hot. It gets its name from a natural oil forms on the surface which has been used as a replacement for kerosene in times of shortage. We only managed about 10 minutes in the water before feeling light-headed and overheated! Unfortunately, while I was walking by the creek in flip-flops, I stubbed one of my toes really badly. It bled a fair bit and within a couple of hours had started turning black. Yuk! The injury was to come back to haunt me, but that day I had much more exciting things to think about....

...SKYDIVING! Yep, upon arrival in Taupo, a group of us headed straight to the airport for a tandem skydive. It has to be one of the most beautiful places to do it as it gives views over New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo, with the string of volcanoes in Tongariro National Park in the distance. We had perfect weather for it and jumping in the late afternoon meant the sun gave fantastic light.

We were kitted up and introduced to our tandem partners who would be attached to us on the way down; my partner was called Dale. They ran through the procedure then filmed our first interview for our dvd of the jump. So exciting! There were 3 of us from the bus jumping from 15,000ft and we all squeezed into the luminous pink plane. As we began taking off, the excitement really set in. I was going to jump out of a plane! Wooo! Once the plane climbed over 12,000ft we were given little oxygen masks to help us breathe. Suddenly, it was time to go. Eeek! We shuffled down to the door, hung our legs out and I put my head back on Dale's shoulder. He pushed us out and the first few seconds are a complete blank! I can't remember a thing except the sensation of falling.. and then suddenly we were falling through the air at an incredible speed, the noise and the force of the wind dominating my senses. I could just about get a sense of the beautiful views as Dale spun as round and round. It was amazing! We freefalled for 60 seconds but it felt like 10 it went so fast. All of a sudden he had pulled the parachute and we were floating gently and silently and time seemed to stand still. Wow! Now I could fully appreciate the views as we floated towards the lake and over the fields. I could have stayed up there all day, it was breathtakingly beautiful. All too soon we were coming in to land back at the airfield. A lovely soft landing and we'd made it! Safe and sound. I immediately wanted to get straight back in the plane and do it again. I'll have to start saving....

I was ultra-excited and bouncing off the walls for the whole of the rest of the day. The adrenalin rush was contagious and we had a lot of fun celebrating that night. What a day!