Well today I arrived at Taupo and it's lovely. The weather is a bit rubbish, so not looking good for the sky dive! Maybe secretly hoping that we wont be able to do it! lol. I checked into my hostel - The Berkenhoff Lodge, and I think it's one of the best hostels I've stayed in. It was family run and the lady who checked me in was so sweet. Katie was staying at another hostel (as there was no room for me, so had to go to this one), and when she got there she didn't like it. When she rang me to find out if there was space at my hostel, the lady offered to go and pick her up! Now that's quality customer service! lol.

We checked into our rooms and went for a wander to find somewhere to eat. I wasn't feeling well, so we decided to treat ourselves rather than cook something. Trying to find something to eat, was a bit harder than we anticapated as we got a bit lost! Taupo is quite a small town, so how we got lost I don't know, but it took us about an hour to get to a restaurant. We were so hungry and getting a bit irritable, so our good intentions of eating something healthy went out of the window, and we ended up eating in Pizza Hut! Was so yummy though.

After a lot of pizza and very full tummys, we started the walk back to our hostel, and this proved to be even more of a challenge! We thought we were going the short cut home, when infact we were walking in circles. Again getting annoyed with ourselves, whilst trying to not get annoyed with eachother, and carrying a heavy box of Goon. Was not a happy time! We were ok though and found our way back, by luck I think, even though we said to eachother that we knew we were going in the right direction the whole time. Looking back on it now it was quite funny, but at the time I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

That evening we just chilled in the tv room with a couple of films and some wine - so it ended up a good night in the end.

The next day we done some touristy stuff and went and saw the sights of Taupo. My favourite was the bubbling mud at the Crater Moon - always wanted to see bubbling mud! lol. The views were amazing too.

That night we went out for dinner again and ended up having a few drinks in each bar! Needless to say it ended up being a very messy, but brilliant night, and when I woke up the next morning, it was not good! We had planned to go and try and get on the jet boats on the Tuesday and see the water being released from the dam, whilst Katie and Steve (our new friend, who had been talked into doing a sky dive with Katie) were waiting to hear if their sky dive was going to go ahead. I had booked mine in for the Wednesday, as the weather was forecasted to be a bit better. However, on our way back from the dam Katie got a phonecall from Freefall (the skydive company) to say that it was going ahead. The look on her face was totally priceless. It was then suggested that I ring Freefall to see if I could get in to do it with Katie and Steve. So there I was on the phone to Freefall being told of course they could fit me in!! AHHHH! I've never felt so scared in my whole life, and with a hangover aswell, it was not good.

So, we rushed back to the hostel and got picked up by the Freefall minibus. The only thing that calmed me down was Kings Of Leon on the radio playing my favourite song 'Sex on Fire'! But then we were there, and getting ready to go! As there was such a back log, due to the bad weather, we ended up having to wait around for four hours. This was like torture, as we got to see the parachutes being folded up and put in the bags and people coming down, which added to the anticapation of it all. It felt like we were waiting forever, but then finally it was our turn to get our very attractive suits on. By this time I was feeling extremely sick and my heart was pounding. Everything felt like it was happening so fast and going by like a blur. I got introduced to my jump master - Amos, and was very relieved to see that I had a big, muscly man! I had told everyone that my only wish is to be strapped to a big man, as it would make me feel a lot safer! lol. My wish had been granted. Due to the extreme nerves, I then ended up telling him this - very embarrassing!

I had decided to do the highest jump you could do - 15,000 feet, as I thought if I'm going to be crazy enough to jump out of a plane, I might as well do it right!! I soon regretted this when we were going up in the plane and I could see how high we were getting. Deep breaths I kept telling myself. When we got halfway up Amos started strapping me to him, really thought I was going to be sick at this point and started to get a bit teary eyed. All I could do was keep my eyes locked onto Katie, who kept telling me I was going to be alright. Don't know what I would have done without her, thank you so much hunny.

When we had almost got to 15,000 feet, to add even more to the scariness of it all, we had to use our oxygen masks! What was I doing???!! It was then time to jump! Katie went out first and I'll never forget seeing her go out of the plane. I've never seen someone go so quickly! Now I was really scared, and it was when my feet were dangling over the edge that I thought this is it, this is how I'm going to die!! BUT, as soon as I jumped out of plane I absolutely loved every single minute of it. It has got to be, without a doubt, the best thing I've ever done in my whole life, and I can't wait to do another one when I go back to Australia. Totally an amazing experience.

When we got down the adrenalin was pumping so hard I could hardly walk straight, but managed to get to Katie and Steve, and was hugging eachother, jumping around and having some girlie moments - crying! lol. Will never forget those few minutes of freefalling for the rest of my life, and it was perfect that I got to do it with Katie and Steve.

Afterwards we watched our dvds on the big screen and then went our for dinner to celebrate. With the adrenalin still pumping until later that evening, it totally took it out of us, so we had an early night.

The next day Katie and I had a very relaxing day of sunbathing and swimming in the Spa Pools of Taupo, whilst Steve went Kayaking for the day.

It was very sad to leave Taupo and our lovely homely hostel the next day, hopefully one day I'll get back there. We had to say bye to Steve too, which was very sad, and am hoping to bump into him further up the island.