Hi Guys,

As you can see I am now in Rotorua which is towards the northern end of the North Island.  I realize that it has only been a few days since my last entry from Wellington, but I have had an eventful weekend lets say...

Anyway, I arrived in Taupo around about 2.30pm on Friday and promptly checked into my chosen hostel and made my way out again.  I decided I had just enough time to squeeze in the 3 hour walk along the river which leads onto the beautiful Hukka Falls!  It was a very enjoyable stroll as the autumn sun was once again out in force.

The next day, Saturday, I decided to have a lie in!  My theory being the less time I was up and about in the morning the better.  As I had booked my 12,000ft skydive, I spent the morning trying not to get nervous by thinking about anything other than big heights and small planes and generally falling into the abyss.  My random thoughts included such things as who do I really want to win the FA Cup, Chelsea or Man Utd, too difficult to decide and what shall I have for dinner, you know the general day dream like thoughts!  

It certainly did the trick as I was picked up at 11.30am not feeling too bad.  We arrived at the centre and I made my way to the reception where the very smiley girl asked me what height do I want to jump from, so I say 12,000ft!  She says I strongly recommend the 15,000ft for only another 30 pounds (trying to put it in my currency, very clever) as you get a much better experience.  Somehow I found myself agreeing to this madness and then my nerves kicked in.  In a 10 minute period I had to go to the loo 3 times and my heart starts to thump like never before.  I was ushered rather reluctantly to another lady who passes me a jump suit and helps me into my harness, before quickly introducing me to my instructor.  During this time there was a video playing in the background with instructions which I did not really take in and before long we were been rushed into this tiny plane.  The plane could not have been wider than a regular sized wardrobe and about the length of a garage!  This of course made me even more nervous as we were all rammed in!  Miraculously the plane managed to get into the air and slowly rose up and up into the sky.  I got to a certain height and thought to myself, ok we are getting pretty high now!  My instructor thought this was a good time to tell me that we had reached 1,000ft only another 14,000ft to go!  Seriously, how is this in anyway helpful????  As we continued to rise my instructor started giving me my orders which with the noise of the garage-sized plane made it difficult to take in!  So there I am trying to remember... so I go forward sit on the ledge, smile at the camera as I am about to jump (as if I would smile), hold onto my harness, and as we are falling I arch my legs and then put my arms out!  Ok I am sure I can do that I think!  So we get to 15,000ft and the shutter comes out, one by one people start falling out of the plane and before I knew it I was being ushered over to the ledge!  I look back at what I thought was the camera which turned out not to be and then we are off... as we fall out of the plane, my hands gripping as tight as I could manage, the wind hitting my body at a ferocious speed (over 200kms/hr) and we are falling and falling, my hands still gripping on!  I had forgotten to let go!  The 65 second freefall went incredibly fast until my instructor released the chute and like an elastic band we were catapulted back up about 30 metres!  and then we relax and drift along down at 4,000ft... wow!  what a rush I thought, now completely contempt  
to go slowly down to the ground!  The moment of pure joy mixed with relief really kicked in as we landed with a soft bump on the grass.

Once everyone was back we were made to check out the exit photos, I will let you judge mine when I load my photos up for New Zealand.  We then watched the DVD, when it got to my turn I had the whole group in hysterics from start to finish as it showed me edging towards the edge of the plane with a look of pure horror, then the whitest face you will ever see as I am trying to pose for the photo and then of course the fact that I forgot to let go of my harness.  Even though both my instructor and my photographer trying to tell me to let go!  I will have to put it down as one of my dappy moments.

The next day was another day which I was really looking forward to as I was going to tackle the Tangariro Crossing trek, which has been voted the best 1 day trek in New Zealand and some say in the world.  The trek itself takes around 7-8 hours crossing over the most breathtaking scenery you are ever likely to see, stunning volcanoes, jaw dropping views and pristine blue and emerald lakes!  It was going to be a good day, or so I thought.....

My alarm goes off at 5.00am and I drag myself into the shower and allowed just enough time to have some breakfast before I boarded the bus.  Obviously at this time in the morning it is pitch black and you have no real idea what the weather is like!  Gradually as it get lighter and lighter and it starts to rain on the drive up there... uh oh, I thought, maybe, hopefully that will clear.  The bus pulls into the start of the trail and we got the green light to go!  So both myself and my walking buddy, who I got chatting to on the bus headed off on the trail, excited and eager!  We see a thick mist on the horizon which rather optimistically we say that maybe that will burn off later in the day.  So we start climbing and climbing, and that mist gets thicker and thicker, until we have about 5 metres visibility.  b***** I thought, looks like I wont get such good photos after all.  Still I can handle a bit of fog, we press on.  We get to this very narrow stretch, along a volcano crater and the fog turns into rain.  Now this was not the sort of rain, where Peter Kay jokes about spitting etc, oh no this was more the torrential, horizontal, sleety kind of rain, which combined with the strong winds made for terrible conditions!  At this point with our clothes rapidly getting wetter and wetter and our body heats descending at alarming rates we pressed on, well raced on!  We were keen to get to the end as fast as possible!  We arrive at the emerald lake, which is arguably the most photographed sights in New Zealand and on any normal day would have blown me away, but with the weather I could only just see a drop of turquoise through the fog!  Anyway, we managed to get to the end by about 1pm, fitting in the walk in just 6 hours!  We then had to wait 2 hours for the bus.  I was so relieved to arrive back at the hostel and have a nice hot shower and put on some dry clothes.  Now it was all over, I am still glad I did it as I can say I have done one of the nicest treks in the world!  

At this stag I was going to write a bit about today and Rotorua, but as usual I have rambled a little! So I will save this for my next update.

As regards future plans I am intending to stay on in Rotorua for a few days before making my way onto Auckland, which will be my last stop in New Zealand.  After that I am flying across the Pacific into Chile, to start my South American adventure.

I hope everyone reading this is well and I will catch up with you all sooner than you think.  A few people have asked me when I am coming home.  I can now confirm that I will be home as of the 25th July!  So only 2 more months!

Take Care,
Jon