This morning we left Rotorua for Lake Taupo. We stopped at 10am to watch a geyser eruption and also saw some boiling mud pools. The driver told us not to put any of the mud on our face as a spa treatment as people have done this in the past and badly scalded their skin. Darwin awards anyone? Afterward, we made a stop at some outdoor thermal hot springs but Matt and I decided to hang out in the warm cafe instead. When I was walking over to the bus, the driver asked if anyone was interested in going skydiving at 1:30pm. I told the driver I would do it and casually mentioned to Matt when he got back on the bus that I had booked in a dive.

We made a quick stop before skydiving at the Rock and Ropes center where Matt and I each jumped off a 40ft pole into a bungy swing. Matt took off his wedding band and gave it to one of the girls working there before he jumped. The girl yelled up to the guy that was harnessing me in and said "this guy just proposed to me." Turns out Matt gave his ring to the wife of the guy harnessing me so the guy asked me out for drinks since I was now available. The swing was not such a thrill but a good warm up jump anyway.

When we got to the Lake Taupo skydiving center, our instruction consisted of "go meet your divemaster and keep your arms in when you jump and then when he taps you on the shoulder you can put them out again." Good enough I thought. My divermasters name was cookie as in monster. For the 5 of us from the bus that went to jump, 17 people crammed into a little plane. 1 divemaster and photographer per person plus two pilots. Two people jumped at 12000 feet and thats when I freaked out. There is nothing natural about watching your friends fly away from a plane at 200km per hour. They shut the door and we climbed to 15000ft. A few of the jumpmasters starting sucking on tubes of oxygen and I asked if I should do the same. They said, don't worry, your adrenaline will be going so much that you won't even know whether or not you're breathing. Again, good enough. Shortly before we jumped, Cookie leaned forward and said, you know I've only done this 3 times before. Ass. The jump was like nothing I've ever experienced and I can't wait to do it again. From 15000 feet you can actually see the ocean on both the east and west sides of the north island. The freefall was approx 1 min and 5 sec. Such a rush. Then we enjoyed the views for about 5 minutes between pulling the shoot and landing.

We arrived in Lake Taupo and checked into the YHA before walking around town. Small lakeside village with cafes, shops and a pristine park. We played on the see saw for a bit and then met up with our friends Marty, Sophie, Haley, Nadjia, Meg and Carmen at the Irish Pub Mulligans.