Sky-dive in Taupo and the end of my NZ-trip

On Sunday-morning A-M called the sky-dive place to see if the weather was good and it was. They booked us in for 9am so we got some breakfast and then we headed out to the airport.
When arriving at the place we got to see a DVD of everything that we were about to experience and that gave me some butterflies in my stomach, I can tell you.
Well no backing out now, so we signed the papers that I will take all responsibility for the jump (!) and got to sit in the sun to wait for our turn. A-M had decided to join me in the dive, and I am really happy about that. 🙂
We saw a few groups land just in front of us and all of them seemed so excited about it so I started to calm down.

Sarah from London and Claire from Ireland was in our group and we talked for a bit before it was our turn to get in to those red overalls.
After getting dressed we met our tandem-pilots. Grant was my pilot and he explained to me what I should do when it was time to jump. He checked all the equipment again and then we all headed out to the plane.
He joked the whole time up (15 minutes) which was really good, since that made me not think about the actual jump so much. We sat in the front just by the pilot which meant that we were the last couple to jump out. Well that wasn’t a problem because when we came to 12 000 feet and the door opened everything went so fast.

A-M and her hunk of pilot jumped just before me and then it was my turn. I took a quick glance down and it looked so unreal that I didn’t get scared.
The cameraman asked me if I was ready and I said ”OK, Let’s go!” and then we jumped. Wow, what an incredible feeling to freefall. Nothing like the bungee at all. I just enjoyed it the whole time and the cameraman kept me a bit busy with shaking my hand and making me do a lot of waving and stuff with my hands. It tickled in my stomach when the parachute opened after 45 seconds and then we had about 6 minutes of just hanging there looking at this amazing view over NZ’s biggest lake (Lake Taupo). Grant showed me some of the sites and told me what they where. He talks more than me which is hard to believe. :p
He also let me steer the parachute for a bit, and then we went around first to the left and then to the right. Made me a bit dizzy. :p
He explained what to do at the landing and then it was time to get back on the ground. The landing went really good and I gave him a hug for getting me down safely. o/ <–me doing the wave

When I arrived to the other girls they where as excited as me. We all loved doing this and the rush stayed for hours. 🙂 We got out of the overalls and then we waited for the DVDs to get ready.
I talked to a few people that also had done the dive, and we all agreed that this was a must to do again someday.
I doubt it will be as good as the first one, but at least now i know what to expect. I am hooked!
After this we went to develope our photos from the dive and then got a well deserved and needed shower. I took a nap because all this excitement in one weekend made me really tired. :p
In the evening we went out to take a drink to celebrate the sky-dive and at the pub we met Sarah and Claire again. Had lots of fun with them and their friends from the buss.

On Monday it was time to leave the great Taupo and we drove to Waitomo and saw the glow-worms in the cave. There are lots of caves under Waitomo and there is a river running through them. The glow-worms likes that so there are tons of them. It was like watching a star-filled sky. The worms that are hungry glows a bit stronger. The glow-worms only exists in Australia and NZ, they told us. We got to see some cool caves with stalagmites and stalagtites as well.

Tuesday morning we drove from Waitomo to Otorahanga to finally see a live kiwi-bird. I just had to do it before leaving NZ because they only exist in this country.
We saw the Great Spotted Kiwi called Atu (it's a Maori-name that means other) and a Brown Kiwi named Rodney Stewart. Kiwis are nocturnal animals (only awake at night) so they had dimmed the lights and they only let them sleep 20 hours of the day.
They are bigger than I imagined and very cute. 🙂
We also got to see a lot of the other native birds, like the Kea, Kaka, Weka.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Piha, which is a really nice little village with lots of surfers, a big rock named Tiger Rock at the beach and a nice view.
On Friday it was time to leave the car, so we drove to Auckland. I checked in at ACB hostel and then we drove to Spaceships and returned Atom. I also had to say good bye to A-M since she was going with bus up to Bay of Islands to help out at a horse-trekk place. 🙁
We did agree to meet up in Bangkok in December though.

In the afternoon I met Rikke and Johnny (the danish couple we met on the south Island) at ACB. They were staying there as well, so I wasn't alone for long. 🙂
We spent the weekend going up in the sky-tower, visiting the museum, seeing the 100-year old wooden church and many other things. Had a lot of fun with them and hope to meet them again at home.
Today they left for South America and I went on a free bus-tour in the city. In the afternoon I sat talking to my dorm-mates that are from Israel, Canada, Brasil and USA. Quite international. 🙂

The last day in NZ is tomorrow (Tuesday 15/11) and at 3.30pm local time (12 hours before Sweden) I fly to Bangkok, Thailand, again.
I feel really sad about leaving this great country. It has everything and I understand why people emigrate here (no I am not thinking about doing that :p).

Thanks for following my trip this far. I understand if you get all exausted by reading my long diaries but I think that from now on they will not be so long. Then again, you never know. 🙂

Hugs to you all!

(There will also be more pictures soon)