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Technically I'm in Chile now but bear with me, I need to catch up on my last few days in New Zealand first.
So...where was I? Ah, Taupo. So from Taupo I returned to the city which is literally just a place you go to get to someplace else; good old Auckland. I switched hostels because the last was too cold, and I was pleased to be nice and toasty at Nomads. I was less pleased when I was woken up at 6am by some drunk Swedish girls and I had the surreal experience of packing and getting ready in the morning whilst having to dodge drunken vomiting girls and inane conversation. After hearing 23 year old boys being described by said Swedish girls as " cradle snatchers", I felt very old. Still, I had my Stray trip to the Bay of Islands to distract me, so off I went. Luckily, my previous fears were unfounded and I spent my time with a lovely bunch of people doing really fun stuff. I must admit that up until now I wasn´t that impressed with New Zealand. It is very very lovely and the landscape is beautiful and pristine, but I think that was exactly why I found it a bit boring. I like things that are beautiful in spite of hardships; places and people are always a lot more interesting if they´ve been through some disaster or there´s poverty and chaos in amidst all the perfection. However, by the time I´d left Bay of Islands I´d changed my mind and fallen in love with the place a bit. Having said that, I won´t be rushing back any time soon.
So, I also thought that I couldn´t reasonably complain that somewhere was boring if I had the opportunity to chuck myself out of a plane and passed it up in favour of walking on the beach, so as soon as I arrived I signed myself up for sky-diving before I could chicken out. I had very mixed feelings about this and I think in the end I went because I´d gone on about it to so many people I´d just look like a big pansy if said no after all that. I didn´t like throwing myself off 100 feet platforms so it logically followed I should throw myself out of a plane 15,000 feet in the air. Logic, yes. I was so scared the night before, but after more logically realising it was far more dangerous to cross the road every day in Asia for five months, I convinced myself that I wasn´t going to die. I´d gone for the skydive only, without the video and photo package, as I thought it would be stressful enough to do the skydive without having to perform for the camera at the same time. As soon as I got in the plane though, I think I kind of resigned myself to the fact that I was going to do it so I felt strangely calm and a little bit excited. I did feel a few qualms when the plane shot up in the air and looking down at the tiny patchwork quilt of the fields below, assumed we were almost at the right height. No, we were only 3000 feet up, another 12,000 to go. Gulp! To be honest, though, I was just enjoying looking at the view, which was amazing, as I could see all the mountains and forests, as well as the sea and the Bay of Islands (all 144 of them, counted by Captain Cook himself) which gives the area its name. Also, I love flying, which is one of the reasons I went for it. The guy was really reassuring, mainly because he brushed my worries aside impatiently when I quizzed him as to whether I could wear contact lenses, and was worrying I didn´t know exactly what I weighed for the form. I realised that these guys do this as their job every day, and it is completely routine and not a cause for concern at all for them, so that helped me relax. Anyway, by the time we had reached 15,000 feet I could only see clouds below us, so it didn´t actually feel like I was that high up. It´s definitely a lot less scary when you can´t see the bottom! By the time the door opened and the other person and his camera man (I even performed for his video) jumped out I just wanted it to be my turn. It was even easier because I didn´t actually have to jump, my tandem guy toppled us out and before I knew it I was tumbling at 220km an hour through the clouds towards the earth. The freefall lasted over a minute, but it really didn´t feel that long. I was just thinking "oh my god this is amazing" when Gavin pulled the parachute and it was all over. Well, I was still hovering 4000 feet in the air, but the freefall is definitely the best part. I was convinced we were just floating and not dropping any further, but Gavin showed me his altitude gadget which informed me we were falling at 22feet per second. Being in the parachute was such a weird feeling, I literally felt I was being dangled by a thread and had great fun flapping my arms and legs about. As soon as we landed I wanted to go straight back up and do it all over again, but I couldn´t really afford that. I don´t know how to describe freefall really, like I say it was over so fast it feels like a dream and immediately afterwards I couldn´t quite believe it had really happened. All I can say is you´re literally tumbling through the sky, above the clouds, and you can see the curve of the earth in all directions, the air is probably the cleanest, purest air you will ever breathe (I can´t even remember if I was breathing), there´s not another living thing around for miles and miles, and it´s the most amazing feeling in the world. My new career goal is a skydiver camera person! All I kept saying for the rest of the day was, "I can´t believe I almost didn´t do that!" And I didn´t break my leg.
So I guess the rest of my account of Paihia will pale in comparison, but I had a very nice time, especially when I´d stopped stressing about the skydive. I went on a boat cruise with the Stray trip, which turned out to be the dolphin explorer, so we saw some dolphins. They were kind of cute I guess, they swam along with the boat for quite a bit, but I´ve never been one of those "wow! dolphins!" kind of people. I was more interested in the seagulls that were flying over the boat and eating biscuit out of people´s hands. Being on the boat was cool though, and like I say the scenery is amazing out there.
Other than that I spent the time going for hikes, strolls along the beach (I found a swing on the beach so that kept me occupied for sometime), going to the pub, continuing with my bike riding lessons from Thailand and hitch-hiking. My love of pub quizs has finally paid off, as our team actually won. Our reaction was to look confused and non-plussed, which convinced people we were cheating. The victory was in spite of my inability to down a pint of beer in 10 seconds. I was probably the worst person to pick for that particular task. I drank about a quarter and my teeth hurt for the next twenty minutes.
Ok, I'm very jetlagged, and my brain isn't working too well, so I'll be off and will update on Chile when I've had more time to settle in...
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