OH MY GOD!

Weeee.........
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I jumped out of an airoplane at 12,000 feet!

WOW! This has to be the most amazing experience of my life! A tandem skydive over the beautiful Lake Taupo, with fantastic views of the surroundning mountains, I just can't imagine anywhere more perfect to do this.  I really can't begin to explain how it felt, but if I say that it moved me (almost) to tears, it will hopefully go some way to explaining how I felt.

We spent a couple of days in Auckland, while I caught up on some sleep, then on Wednesday we got on the Magic Bus.  The bus tours round both islands, and you can get on and off wherever you like, for as long as you like, then pick the bus up again.

Abseil gorge
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We went from Auckland to Rotorua, via the Waitomo Caves, where I did a 150ft abseil into a beautiful gorge (twice). It was great fun, I've done it once before (about 19 years ago!) but the scenery was much more impressive this time.

In the evening we went on the Tamaki Experience. Four bus loads of people are carried out to a traditional Maori village, and on the way each bus load nominates a chief of the tribe. On arrival, the four chiefs are greeted in the traditional Maori way, with a challenge to establish whether the tribes come in peace.  Once peace has been established, the head woman welcomes all the visitors into the village, then the tribe perfoms traditional dances and songs.  You then proceed through to the dining area for the 'Hangi', a traditional Maori method of cooking food in a fire pit for several hours, making it eally tender and delicious.  We had chicken, fish (yes Mum, I ate fish) and lamb, with Kumara (sweet potato), spuds and carrots.  Not sure that the sponge pudding and custard was cooked in the Hangi, but it was lovely anyway!

At the Tamaki Experience
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At the end of the evening we were picked up by Ngata (pronounced Nutter and he sure was!). I was impressed when he could remember the names of everyone on the bus, but even more so when he sang the first verse of the national anthem of everyone on there! A great night.

The next day we set off for Taupo, stopping on the way at a (very smelly) thermal mud pool, and the Lady Knox Geyser.  This goes off every day and shoots water about 30ft in the air.  Slightly disappointed to learn that they set it off using washing powder though! From there we went on to Wai O Tapu, to the Thermal Reserve.  This is not quite as pleasant as it might sound, as the thermal pools are actually full of acid and other unpleasantness!  Cool colours though.

Thermal mud pool
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We had put our names down to do skydiving and the huka jet (more on this in a mo) that day, but our driver told us we had to do one or the other.  We opted for the skydive, only to be told that the weather was bad and it probably wouldn't go ahead, so he recommended we went on the Huka Jet.  This was great fun - the jet speeds up and down the lake, weaving in and out and getting very close to the hedges and things sticking out of the water. The highlight though is when the boat spins 360 degrees on it's own length - great fun!  Check out www.hukajet.co.nz  You then go up the lake towards the waterfall, which is absolutely stunning, although I don't have any photo's as it wasn't a good idea to take the camera on the boat - we got soaked!

Lady Knox geyser
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After this you can imagine how gutted we were to get back on the bus to find that a few other members of our group had managed to do the skydive.  Fortunately our driver kindly agreed to take us up there, and we had the most incredible experience ever.

Naturally we had to go out and celebrate after that, so wondered off to the Irish Bar just down the road, where we kicked a few backsides at pool before finally being beaten by two Israeli lads. Oh well, can't win them all I suppose!