We left Maketu to go to Rotorua and a group of us (Sarah, Ryan, both Stefan's, Devon and I) decided to explore the town rather than do one of the activities.We headed to a café to have a big breakfast and then we headed down to the water and walked around to see the geothermal activity spots.One place said that the water was 112 degrees and it was steaming.You keep getting wafts of egg smell, which was not pleasant!We were supposed to meet back at the bus at 12:30pm so we slowly headed back but got lost and made it back just in time.We said goodbye to Ryan and Stefan as they were doing the East Cape trip and we were really said to see them go.We might see them in Queenstown though as some of us will be there for a few days.

We then stopped to look at the Huka falls and 9 of us got collected in a limo to go to do our skydiving.It was the first time I've ever been in a limo so I was very excited!I thought that I would be feeling really nervous but I was just feeling excited as I was with a good group of people (Sarah, Devon, Morton and Mia, Ellie and Sophie). When we arrived we watched a DVD about it which made me feel a little nervous and then we got kitted out in very unflattering blue overalls.Mine made me look like I had a huge bum!Ellie wasnot impressed when her instructor told her that he'd only done one skydive and kept making jokes about how he didn't know what certain things were, which made her feel really nervous.My instructor who was called Steve was nice though.We had to wait over half an hour so occupied ourselves by taking photos of each other in skydiving poses and watching other people come down.Then it was our turn!I had a quick chat with my instructor which meant that we were the last ones on the plane, meaning I would be the first one to jump!We had to sit on the floor next to the door which they left open till we were quite high up in the air so I could see right down and if the plane had turned I would have fallen out!My instructor kept showing me on his wrist watch how high we were and when it was only a few thousand feet up it felt so high and so I was wondering what it would be like when I got to 12,000 feet!There were amazing views of Lake Taupo which is the same size as Singapore so seeing that and how amazing the view was made me feel less nervous.My instructor started getting me ready for the jump and said that I would need to jump onto his lap so that he could sort out the fastenings.I jumped onto his lap and then one of the other instructors said "there's no need for that" and then said "whilst your girlfriend's away" so I was worried that I had been really gullible until I saw all the others doing it too!

When we were at 12,000 feet high Steve pulled open the door and asked me to shuffle over to the door. Luckily I couldn't see down because of all the cloud and he then told me to put my head up and then he jumped.It was a really weird sensation as all I could see was white cloud at first and we were falling so quickly that my cheeks were thrown backwards and because I'd had my mouth open ready to scream but surprisingly hadn't screamed, I could feel my lips wobbling around.We then reached a point where I wasn't falling as quickly and I could admire the amazing views.Steve then tried to pull open the parachute and I could feel him tugging at the ropes and him panting with the effort of doing so.It was taking some time and I started to panic a little when it felt like he was still really struggling.I said to him "you're starting to panic me now" and because I got no reply I suddenly had the thought go in my mind of "oh my god, something is wrong, this might be the last view I'm going to see!"The amazing view was the only thing that was distracting me from the fear and I was trying to convince myself that maybe Steve hadn't heard me.Then suddenly I jolted upwards at such a speed that I shouted an obscenity and huge relief came over me when I realised that the parachute was finally up.As we slowly started our descent down and I could suddenly relax and properly enjoy the view Steve asked what I thought of my first sky dive and I said that it was really good apart from wondering if I was going to die.He then told me that he'd not been able to open the parachute and we'd had to use our reserve.Because of the problem he'd had with the parachute we were going off course for our landing and I had a sudden worry that we were going to land in the road but then I saw the people at the skydiving facility running towards us over the grass and we landed about 100 yards away from the normal area.As we landed Steve said to one of them "who packed that parachute?!" and seemed quite worried about it.I asked him about it and he said that you don't want to be using the reserve if you can help it.I told him that I'd rather use the reserve than die though! He told me that I'd ended up with a much longer skydive! My first skydiving experience had definitely been interesting!

When I got back to the main building the others asked me what had happened and I told them my 'dramatic' story and we took some photos of each other and shared experiences.I said that I would be dining out on my story for weeks!I decided to buy a hoodie with skydiving in Taupo on it as I wanted evidence of my adventure and as an extra warm item for my travelling wardrobe.We then got a limo back to the hostel.

When we arrived at the hostel I told a few of the group the story and then we had some food and Sarah, Catherine and I had an early night as we'd only had a few hours' sleep the night before.