We spent the afternoon chilling out in yet another minging Base hostel before going out for our Mauri evening. this was a great nights entertainment of new zealand history and culture including games, story telling, music, dance and of course the haka! We also had a buffet dinner which was much appreciated by us back packers!! being on an all girls table we took full advantage of not being polite and lady like in front of the boards and piled it high, greedy boards essential.
After a drink back at the hostel bar we headed to bed, after a couple of hours of skyping home. this is when I broke the news to mum and dad that we'd put our names of the skydiving list. dad didn't appear to bothered, mother on the other hand...!

On our way to Taupo we made a few stops, firstly to Rainbow Mountain. Here there was a beautiful bright blue lake. We next stopped at a hot mud pool. you're supposed to pay for a mud facial but our driver got a long stick and leant over the fence so we could sample some. I wasn't overly sold by it, my face just felt dry and dusty!! Our last stop was to Huka Falls. this river stems from lake Taupo itself, the largest lake in New Zealand. the waterfall wasn't high but had a colossal amount of water, apparently it could fill an Olympic sized swimming pool every 15 seconds! On our way to Huka Falls Dave had called the sky dive centre in Taupo to check the weather and got the go ahead for later that afternoon. eek! I assumed we'd go to the hostel first then to the centre however after spending a penny at Huka falls visitor centre I decided to treat myself to an ice cream. I plodded back to the car park enjoying my magnum...until I saw a 'skydive Taupo' minibus. I immediately stopped enjoying my treat to say the least!!! at the skydive centre we were shown a video of someone's dive, I don't think it helped!! we were suited and booted and put in to the pink plane. I was last in which meant only one thing. first out!! to reach 12,000ft took about 20 minutes. this was the worst part of the whole experience!! grace and I watched each other intently to ensure our guides clipped us in securely! I think they knew what they were doing though!! the door was opened, my camera guy went out first casually cotching on to the side of the plane to capture my free fall face. brilliant. sat on my guides lap my legs were involuntarily dangled outside the plane. Christ it was cold!! after a quick look down I shut my eyes and swore. a lot. apparently above 5,000 feet you have no concept of how high you are and it takes about 10 seconds to register the free fall so they recommend jumping from higher up. being of less wealth and having no comparison we stuck with 12,000 feet. it. was. AMAZING!!!! I spent the first 10 seconds with my eyes shut as we tumbled out the plane rolling in the sky. when I opened my eyes I wasn't sure if I was looking at sky or water! we levelled off and fell horizontal down looking at the lake for about 45 seconds. I actually want to free fall for the rest of my life! it's such an amazing feeling. when he opened the parachute I took off my googles and relaxed. he loosened my harness too (quick panic!!) so I was in a sitting position, calmly admiring the view I forgot that I was floating in the sky, most bizarre! it took about 5 minutes to reach the floor. Our package includes a t-shirt, photos and a video which is hilarious!!
We learned that to become a tandem diver you must do a minimum of 750 jumps before hand. now that's committed!!

buzzing from our dive we whizzed back to the hostel and headed to the pub across the road. we met an Irish guy and a kiwi that were working in the town. we had a really fun chat with them until we somehow got on to the Irish and their religious views and the north south divide...they had work in the morning so called it a night...probably for the best! 1 or 4 jars of cider (tastes amazing after 7 weeks of foreign drinks!) later we took the mature decision to get some sobering pizza before bed... and a glass of wine.

we had some interesting company in our dorm; the two Laura's were fine. ginger Jesus is from Israel (his father is Scottish) and likes to be controversial and say anything for a reaction. the other guy, matteus, is the messiest person I've ever met. he was quite revoluting. there were tissues all over the floor, sweet wrappers and orange peel. how any of this made it to the other side of the room I'm not sure! the cherry on the cake was grace finding his boxers on her bed. LOL!!!!!!

the following morning we had a trip booked to do the tongariro crossing at 5.30am. the 20km walk including a billion and one steps on the devils staircase was certainly a good cure for a hangover!
it was also a really nice opportunity to get to know our fellow travellers. I walked for a while with Lyndsey who graduated in media 3 years ago. she was involved in filming the first series of Geordie shore and has just finished recording 3 series of embarrassing bodies! very interesting! Grace was with a more active group including Arvin who scaled both mountains featuring in lord of the rings and also carrying felixs sandwich! this caused some drama as they had separated so Arvin asked grace to take it back down and leave it on a rock for Felix to find...

That evening we took part in a pub quiz, so much for 'general knowledge' it was more like George and Martin style general knowledge!! needless to say we came a respectable third, with no googling of course...