Dean and Jodie left at 7am this morning to catch their bus to Tongariro, and we slept through until about 9.30am.
We got sorted, then had a bowl of cereal for breakfast outside in the sun. Clear blue skies this morning - perfect skydiving weather. I finished my bowl of cereal and asked reception to call the skydiving company to find out the next available time. She said "they can pick you up in 5 minutes". I told her we'd only just had our breakfast! We had a choice of in 5 minutes or in 3 hours, but then she said they'll pick you up in 15 minutes, so we went with that! Not even been up long!

About 30 minutes later we were picked up by a flashy new limo and whisked away to the airport! We went with a company called SkyDive Taupo. $500 (£250) each for a 15,000 ft jump meaning a 65 second freefall, with a personal DVD of our jump, a CD with photos and a t-shirt. Plus, for the DVD you can choose the music for 3 sections - intro, freefall and canopy. Not cheap, but it's cheaper than any other of the big popular places to skydive in NZ.

We spent about 45 minutes signing our lives away on forms etc and choosing music for our DVD. Then it was time to get geared up. Jumpsuit, big harness, goggles, a fetching hat and that was about it. They didn't go through masses of safety, just told us that we have to arch our back like a banana on the freefall. Then we just had to wait a short while for the last group to get back. Lisa and a few others had gone up before us so we watched all them landing. All the group just had massive grins on their faces and were really buzzing. I couldn't wait, and even Therese was getting less nervous.

While we were waiting for the plane to be sorted, we all had to do a really cheesy interview type piece for the DVD with our skydive instructor. I had a scouse guy called Mick and Therese had an american called Steve. Very cheesy - you'll see it on the DVD.

Then it was time to get going!! We were in a bright pink small propellor plane that had two long benches down the middle. We had to get in and sit on the bench facing the back end of the plane with our instructor behind each of us. There were 8 of us jumping. And that was it, no turning back. The plane set off up the runway, and we made a gradual climb up to 15,000 ft. It took a good 20 minutes (or it felt like that anyway!) to get up there. The views were fantastic from the plane. Adrenaline and excitement were really kicking in. The instructors are constantly making jokes as well about not being strapped in properly or saying stuff like it's only the second time they've skydived etc. They were funny guys actually. Therese's instructor has skydived 15,000 times!!

The only thing we had to do was put a hat on and goggles, then the instructors attached us to them. We couldn't even see that we were attached really. Scary.
Then the plane levelled out and slowed down. The shutter at the rear of the plane opened. Time to throw ourselves out of a plane. Therese was before me too. She shuffled along the bench, sat on the floor near the 'big hole in the plane' and then the instructor shuffled her to the edge and her legs were dangling out!! Next thing, she was gone...

A couple of others went, then it was my turn! I shuffled along the bench and towards the edge holding on to anything around me. Then the instructor shuffled me towards the edge of the plane. I grabbed hold of the bar above me and dangled my legs out, and he was still pushing me further out. Then he told me to let go of the bar and hold my harness around my chest. So I was sat there, holding onto myself with my legs dangling out of a plane at 15,000ft hoping that the guy behind me who has the parachute has actually attached me to him!!! I put my head back, and we dropped! We sort of span on to our backs facing the plane and then span back to our front to face the huge Lake Taupo! It was absolutely amazing. The views of the lake, then the mountain range in the background where some of Lord of the Rings was filmed e.g. Mt Doom. It didn't feel as though I was travelling that fast because it's not like you can tell that the ground is coming towards you very quickly. The wind was flying in my face and Mick was recording video, getting me to put my thumbs up and pose for the camera etc. I stuck my Tongue out and felt a bit of slaver fly up my face. You don't get that falling feeling in your guts either which is weird.

We drifted down and then Mick yanked the parachute cord and that really put the brakes on...the harness tightened up a bit too much for comfort!! Then we just glided down and I took in the scenery. It's just unbelievable to be up so high and just slowly gliding down. Mick did a few spins and stuff to see around the lake and and all the mountain ranges. I could see a load of cows being herded in, but they were just like little dots. Then we swung around to land. I held my feet up and we landed no problems......and that was it. One of the best things I've ever done in my life. If I had the money, I'd have gone again!!

Therese had a huge grin on her face as well and she really enjoyed it. She was really glad she went through with it! It's such a fantastic experience, everyone should make sure they do it once in their lives!

We got changed out of our skydiving gear and not too long after went to watch our personal DVDs in the big screen room. They're really cheesy because they ask stupid questions, but they're still kind if funny. Not as funny as watching my face on the freefall though. My lips get caught by the wind so I just have a massive blown up mouth. So glad we paid the extra money for the DVD.

We got back and had some tea as it was nearly 4pm by the time we got back, then went on a walk to the Thermal Stream. We had a lovely view along the river on the way. The water looked so clear with deep blues and greens in parts, rather than a mucky brown that we get in England. It was quite a long walk actually right up to the stream. The stream flowed into a couple of pools, so we took our flip-flops off, sat on a couple of rocks and dipped our feet in. It was red hot!! Way too hot to keep our feet in. Even the rock was really warm that we were sat on in the water. The hot stream flows into the river, so it's a nicer temperature where the two meet.

On the way back from the walk, we made a backup of our skydiving DVDs and also I uploaded mine to Facebook! Took a while but it's on there for people to see!!

We made a quick stop at Pak 'n Save supermarket for some food bits, then got back to make some lunch for our big trek tomorrow...

We had a fantastic day and did one of the biggest things we were looking forward to whilst travelling! Bungee jump next!