Wednesday 2nd March

We woke up after days of rain to a bright clear blue sky with the sun shining. I knew what this meant, this meant that today I had to jump out of a plane. We had sausage sandwiches for breakfast, called my sister quickly and again somehow managed to be running late by the time we'd got the washing from the dryer and still hadn't put water in the van or taken the rubbish out so it was a bit hectic getting out of the campsite. I then called the skydive people at Tandem Taupo skydive to find the lady I'd previously spoke to hadn't booked us in the 10.30am slot, but that they did have spaces so told us to head over.

I was really nervous and scared as I'm not great with heights, but after remembering the way I threw myself zip lining out over the tree canopies when doing the Gibbon experience in Laos and how much I enjoyed it I knew this was something I wouldn't regret. Lisa and Joe had already gone through facts of death and injury with it when we were back in Cairns as Joe was about to do one, and the fact he said he wouldn't do it again was also a bit worrying but Nick was there reassuring me with his, 'it's all psychological' saying.

We were teamed up with 4 Asian guys and an Asian girl who was celebrating her birthday by doing this on her own - how brave I thought. I left Nick to choose the package we wanted and shoved a load of Kalm tablets down my throat (he wasn't happy about this) before locking my belongings away and got into our suits. We were about to take a 20 minute aeroplane flight to 15,000 ft. The guy who put my suit on was coincidentally from just down the road from my hometown - Warwick. He was going to be my camera man and was winding me up jokingly saying how dangerous it was - or at least I thought he was joking? The guy who I was going to be strapped to was also from the U.K. His name was Sam and he was really great with chilling me out. We didn't have a choice about where we sat in this tin plane, I was stuck in the middle of about 16 of us which didn't help with my uncomfortableness of being in tight spaces! Nick was right at the front and cool as a cucumber being the first one that would jump out.

Going up was a gradual process where they would then start clipping you into them and putting your hat on and tightening straps whilst trying to distract you to look at the view (which was stunning). Once we reached a certain height we had to put oxygen masks on as the air was thinner - this didn't help with my calm breathing technique but Sam was patting my hands and talking to me about when we would jump out we could pretend we are Carebears and think about bouncing off the clouds.
I liked this idea and it's what sold me. Before I knew it the door is being opened, my mask has been removed, goggles on and I looked away as those in front of me each got thrown out of the plane. My turn came, I shuffled down the plane hearing nothing but noise from the aircraft and Sam got me to sit with my legs hanging over the edge, my camera man hung outside the door waving at me, we were to take one look to the left and wave before I was then dropped out. My heart was beating so fast and I found emotions of amusement rather than fear coming over me as I was hung there almost wanting to laugh at the situation I'd allowed myself to be put in.

When we dropped out I expected to feel a huge drop in my stomach but in fact I didn't feel any drop at all and it was just a feeling of floating. Sam tapped on my arms to signal I could now throw them out and before I knew it I was free falling. It felt like there was just one huge fan blowing up at me, the view was beautiful and my fear of heights was completely irrelevant because it just looked like a picture. The camera man was also floating opposite us and we were pulling faces at each other and doing symbols with our hands, he came and put his fist to mine a couple of times and I just remember feeling like I absolutely loved it. I was surprised to find I could breath ok as well but just had very dry lips from the wind!

The camera man dropped his parachute and went down to the ground before ours was pulled. Sam pulled ours and again I didn't feel my stomach go at all it was smooth and relaxing. We both dangled floating in the air for a moment while he removed my goggles and asked how I was doing, I'd made sure I hadn't said any swear words the whole time in not wanting video footage of this and expressed how amazing I thought it was. He pointed to the ground at a small rainbow loop that was the reflection of the sun through the parachute and span us in circles. I was squealing with excitement so he let me have a go controlling the parachute. I tugged it hard down right to spin us and then the same to the left as we gradually came down with my legs tucked up he safely landed us.

I ran over to Nick all excited and full of adrenaline to find he felt sick from the guy spinning him when he was in the air...I don't think he enjoyed it as much as I did because of this but I said I'd do it again. We picked up our video and pictures and after Nick felt a bit better we got back in the campervan and drove into a place called Five mile bay next to Lake Taupo where we stopped off to make lunch, chill out and walked along the lake. We then went onto head to a place called River Valley and on the way stopped off for an ice cream for me to turn around to see Nick randomly buying a fishing rod...

The drive to River Valley was beautiful with hills of green and gold. We descended around a small tight road down to the lodge with me screaming at Nick to break and about there being two lives in the car, he just thought this was funny and starting mocking me singing, 'it's my life'. We arrived and checked into a cosy lodge room and went for a walk along the river before getting ready to go to our dinner reservation at 7pm. The three course dinner was delicious, neither of us knew in advance what it would be as the chef decides on the day depending on what he has in the garden growing and is left to be spontaneous.

Afterwards, we wrapped up and got a bottle of red wine from the bar to take out onto a wooden table in amongst some trees in front of the river where our lodge looked out onto. Nick collected some candles and we got tucked up under a blanket and opened the bottle of wine. We were talking about how much we'd missed one another in the time I'd been away, how happy we were to now be back together and how amazing the trip had already been before I'd said, "things couldn't get any better." I had no idea what was about to come as Nick looks at me and tells me he's led me astray a bit on this trip. What he said in between is a bit of a blur because during this time I'm watching him stand up and get down on one knee but he did say, "I don't want to take a girlfriend home, I want to take a fiancé", then presented the ring followed by - "Will you marry me?" Well it took me a few minutes to reply because for a moment I wasn't sure if Nick being the joker he is and was messing around before he asked me what my answer was and I shaking excitably said yes. He pushed the ring on, I then burst into tears when he said he'd asked my dad and we sat talking and looking at the stars. That night I could barely sleep, it was a huge surprise and I found myself wondering what have I done in my life to be blessed with such love and had tears of happiness coming to my eyes as I cuddled Nick. I think we are very lucky to have found one another and I very much look forward to a fun bright future together.

xxx