Somewhere over the rainbow…

The main focus of our time around Lake Taupo was our planned skydive - this was the one activity we had both been dead-set on before leaving home and we were very, very excited.We had chosen Lake Taupo as the freefall here (like some others in NZ) is 15,000 ft - plus the view of the NZ's largest freshwater lake as you are plummeting to earth also seemed quite appealing.The day before was spent in Taupo wandering around the lake and in an actual holiday park rather than freedom camping (a hot shower seemed a good idea since we would be strapped to a stranger).The main chat was around the weather, which seemed to change rapidly from sunshine to dark clouds, and whether the jump would be cancelled.

Despite our concerns, we were given the go-ahead and arrived at the airport for our morning slot.After a short wait for the lower clouds to part, we were suddenly in tiny plane whirring our way through layers and layers of cloud.We had been put in harnesses with lifejackets (!), goggles and hats on the ground and the only instructions from our tandem jump partners were - 'hold onto your harness, when I tap you once put your arms out, when I tap you again hold your harness as the parachute will be opening…' That was literally it.

As I sat breathing in oxygen from a mask (an indication of how high we were) squashed in the plane with 5 other jumpers (Sam in front of me) and partners plus photographers I looked out of the window at the blanket of cloud and my thoughts surprisingly weren't ones of panic but 'This reminds of where the Care Bears lived'.

Before I knew it Sam had disappeared out of the door to the skies below and it was my turn.Shimmying onto the edge and then tipping forward with a large man on my back (Mike who was quite a bit bigger than me to balance the weight out) I involuntarily gasped as all I saw before me was parting cloud and the vast Lake Taupo and green land.It's amazing how falling at 200km/hr doesn't feel that fast when there are no objects/buildings around.The photographer grabbed my attention waving and making actions for me to copy as the air (FREEZING) whizzed past my cheeks.It was difficult to have any awareness of how high up we were until after 1 minute of falling the parachute opened and we were suspended (still in cloud) looking down at buildings and eventually cars that became tiny dots in the distance.We drifted slowly to earth (a few spins and tricks with the parachute) and I landed standing up, somehow ahead of Sam.The whole thing was a feeling unlike anything else I've ever experienced (and not really very scary!) - we've watched the DVD a few times in the van to relive it!

After all of that excitement we had some lunch and drove along the lake to Turangi.After a look around and seeing some thermal mud pools we camped up for the night.

The next day we decided to visit the Whakapapa area and with snow threatening the popular Tongariro crossing we chose to walk to Upper Lake Tama with a view of a volcanic, snow-capped peak (otherwise known as Mt Doom in Lord of the Rings).The changeable weather came back into play with some freezing wind and rain - it did however produce numerous incredible rainbows.

After 4 or 5 hours 'tramping' we decided we'd had enough and set of in search of another night's camping spot.

Liz