Sunday 21st February 2010:
Having woken up to Abba, I was keen to leave and onto the bus we went! Next stop Rotorua for our white water rafting adventure. We got ourselves kitted up- loved the water booties. And we were soon off into the rapids. It was slightly disconcerting when the guides constantly prayed to the gods to keep us safe in the water; don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did,
but it is slightly daunting! Anyway, very interesting to hear their Maori prayers, and great to see how much they all respect mother nature and their beautiful surroundings, instead of taking everything for granted, as people often do. We had a fantastic time in our teams, flew down a seven metre waterfall which was exciting! Again, lots of prayers to precede that, hmm. Are we safe? They probably want to instil as much fear in us as possible to make it all the more thrilling. Woop. was great fun anyway!
Busy day out on the water, and on to Taupo. Beautiful Lake Taupo. There is a long-winded story behind it's existence but 1. It is too long and 2. I can't actually remember it. But yeah, pretty. And we were knackered and happy to have a comfortable bed for the night.
Tuesday 23rd February 2010:
We have by this time made our way back up to Auckland, and continued further up the road to Paihia and the beautiful Bay of Islands. Wow what a place. I also decided at this point that I wanted to do a sky dive before leaving New Zealand, so this would be the place to do it! I booked myself in and got up early the next morning to jump out of a plane! Got all psyched up and nervous in the waiting room and then after all that anticipation, it was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Bummer. When you're rearing to go and then they turn around and say you can't jump, well it sucks. So that was a disappointing day. Maybe tomorrow?
Got up early again the following morning, looking pretty glum outside, do I bother going to the sky dive centre again? Hmm. Anyway off I went in the little silver bus. Nerves had dissipated by this point, probably best. And despite the clouds, there were a few patches of blue sky that apparantly we were about to go and jump through! Ha ha sounds crazy. Got into our highly unflattering and uncomfortable outfits. Probably the largest wedgie I have ever
encountered. Lovely. Anyway we got into the world's smallest plane and up we went, into those clouds. Beautiful views from up there; I didn't even think about my fear of flying. I think the fear of jumping out had taken over. But I was strangely calm, which was nice. So I got strapped to my instructor- Carl. And we hit 12,000 feet, door opened and there I was dangling my feet out of a plane, looking out over the clouds. Took us a bit longer than usual to find our spot to jump and then we were gone. Weirdest feeling in the world. You fall, but it doesn't feel like falling; it really does feel like flying. Freefall was the best part, 45 seconds at this height. And then the chute opened (thank god) and we were gliding down to the ground. We brushed through the edge of a cloud which felt so strange, very fluffy! And then for the landing, got our legs up high and down we were, feet on the ground again! Nice feeling. And that was the day I did a sky dive over the Bay of Islands! fantastic. Would recommend it to anyone.
Back in Auckland that afternoon. Flight to Fiji tomorrow!
Having woken up to Abba, I was keen to leave and onto the bus we went! Next stop Rotorua for our white water rafting adventure. We got ourselves kitted up- loved the water booties. And we were soon off into the rapids. It was slightly disconcerting when the guides constantly prayed to the gods to keep us safe in the water; don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did,
but it is slightly daunting! Anyway, very interesting to hear their Maori prayers, and great to see how much they all respect mother nature and their beautiful surroundings, instead of taking everything for granted, as people often do. We had a fantastic time in our teams, flew down a seven metre waterfall which was exciting! Again, lots of prayers to precede that, hmm. Are we safe? They probably want to instil as much fear in us as possible to make it all the more thrilling. Woop. was great fun anyway!Busy day out on the water, and on to Taupo. Beautiful Lake Taupo. There is a long-winded story behind it's existence but 1. It is too long and 2. I can't actually remember it. But yeah, pretty. And we were knackered and happy to have a comfortable bed for the night.
Tuesday 23rd February 2010:
We have by this time made our way back up to Auckland, and continued further up the road to Paihia and the beautiful Bay of Islands. Wow what a place. I also decided at this point that I wanted to do a sky dive before leaving New Zealand, so this would be the place to do it! I booked myself in and got up early the next morning to jump out of a plane! Got all psyched up and nervous in the waiting room and then after all that anticipation, it was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Bummer. When you're rearing to go and then they turn around and say you can't jump, well it sucks. So that was a disappointing day. Maybe tomorrow?
Got up early again the following morning, looking pretty glum outside, do I bother going to the sky dive centre again? Hmm. Anyway off I went in the little silver bus. Nerves had dissipated by this point, probably best. And despite the clouds, there were a few patches of blue sky that apparantly we were about to go and jump through! Ha ha sounds crazy. Got into our highly unflattering and uncomfortable outfits. Probably the largest wedgie I have ever
encountered. Lovely. Anyway we got into the world's smallest plane and up we went, into those clouds. Beautiful views from up there; I didn't even think about my fear of flying. I think the fear of jumping out had taken over. But I was strangely calm, which was nice. So I got strapped to my instructor- Carl. And we hit 12,000 feet, door opened and there I was dangling my feet out of a plane, looking out over the clouds. Took us a bit longer than usual to find our spot to jump and then we were gone. Weirdest feeling in the world. You fall, but it doesn't feel like falling; it really does feel like flying. Freefall was the best part, 45 seconds at this height. And then the chute opened (thank god) and we were gliding down to the ground. We brushed through the edge of a cloud which felt so strange, very fluffy! And then for the landing, got our legs up high and down we were, feet on the ground again! Nice feeling. And that was the day I did a sky dive over the Bay of Islands! fantastic. Would recommend it to anyone.Back in Auckland that afternoon. Flight to Fiji tomorrow!
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