23rd - 26th Nov - North Island New Zealnd

The Magic Bus picked us up outside our hostel to take us on a magical sightseeing tour of New Zealand, well it's a Magic Bus so that's what I'm hoping for. Our first destination was Rotorua in the middle of NZ surrounded by pools of hot water from the volcano. Our hostel actually had a goethermal heated swimming pool. We stopped first to do some black water rafting which is basically white water rafting through caves (so the water looks black!).
It wasn't as fast as white water rafting, the guide having to pull us through a few sections but we had to jump off a 4 feet high waterfall into the mirky water below which was quite scary. The cave walls were lined with tiny lights from the glow worms and we floated down the cave looking up at the lights which were quite beautiful.

At Rotorua we had dinner and a show at a traditional Maori village watching all the Maori doing the Haka, sticking their tongues out and rolling their eyes, can't say I find it attractive, but each to their own! Singing and dancing preceeded the dinner which was really beautiful some of the people's voices were amazing.

Next day we headed for Taupo a huge volcano with a massive lake inside it. The country side is amazing, huge snow capped mountains and lush green valleys. It was a bit wierd cos it looks so like Scotland only bigger, I thought it was Scotland on Steroids, it's easy to understand why so many Scots emigrated here, it must have felt like home.

The mornings activities consisted of wandering through some pretty stinky thermal pools, all different colous and sulphourus smelling - lovely and the Huka Falls where a massive lake escapes through a tiny gorge pushing thousands of water past every second. The power of the water was immense and it made you wonder about the sanity of the white water raters who have tried to go down it, many failing and their bodies washed up a while later.

We arrived pretty early at Taupo cos there are so many activities to do in the area. I signed up for a Tandem Sky Dive. Just cos I signed up doesn't mean I'm actually going to throw myself out of a perfectly good plane. The bus stopped at the airport and we got off, or rather the idiots who had signed up to jump out of a perfectly good plane got off, Mairi not an idiot stayed on the bus.

They went through a video and chat about what would happen if we jumped and made us sign a declaration that if we died it wasn't their fault - reassuring.

We were then taken into a room to be kitted out, and I overheard one of the other girls saying - she was basically blocking everything out and didn't really believe it was happening - I think thats what I'm doing too. I may be in a jumpsuit with a harness, but that's an everyday occurrence - not.

A big cloud delayed the jump and I was getting pretty frustrated and said I just wanted to get up there, unforutnately the big cloud disappeared and we were ready, oh no - I didn't really mean it.

We were introduced to our instructors and taken to the tiny plane with a couple of benches in it, no plush seats, the last few minutes on the planet won't even be comfortable. The instructors were all very chatty and unscared unlike the faces of the poor idiots - white or green watching the land get smaller and smaller until we were at 12,000 feet. I asked the instructors had anybody every pee'd their pants whilst jumping he said no, but theres always a first time. I also asked if he still got a buzz (since he has done over 4000 jumps) and he said totally - wait and see - no idea why he said that I'm not doing it!

We were told we were at 12,000 feet and the plane door slid up and opened. The first pair immediately went, and I watched them plummet from the aircraft and disappear past my line of vision. At this point I started to panic, thinking you can not be serious, you cannot do this, it's insanity. The next person went and I tried not to watch as they too plummeted towards the earth at 200km an hour. I was thinking you can stop this at anytime. The third person went and at this point I realised my feet were now dangling out of the plane. The instructor strapped to me, all along, had been inching us forwards on the benches and now there really was no way to stop the lunacy, I really was going to be thrown out of a perfectly good plane. He shouted smile for the camera - smile - that's not the look on my face - click and head back we're out crashing, plummiting, diving towards the earth. My first thought was that I could have a wee accident in my pants - luckily I didn't. Then all I could think, as the air rushed into my face, was that I couldn't breathe and didn't know how long 45 seconds would last as I screamed, plummeting to the earth nothing protecting us cos there was no parachutte at this point and how long I could last without air. The instructor checked his altimeter and thankfully pulled the cord and the chutte opened and we started to float to the earth - easy nobody scared here.

The instructor asked me how was that and I said I couldn't breathe and he said I was holding my breath - no I wasn't - OK - maybe I was, in all my panic I'd forgotten how.

The next couple of minutes, floating high above the earth the only thing stopping you from crashing a large piece of silk, was fantastic. It's so peaceful and the scenery amazing. I don't think it would be the same if you didn't have the view of the snow capped mountains where the Lord of the Rings were filmed and Lake Taupo stretching miles ahead of you. At each pull of the chutte we twirled and saw another view, keeping in line with the landing strip. I first 45 seconds seemed to last for hours these few minutes flew past way too quick.

The landing site seemed to come up pretty fast and we were landing, elegantly, on our bottoms. What a rush, the others like me all wanted to go again it was so amazing. Maybe next time I would be able to enjoy the first 45 seconds, cos there will be a next time.

That night we met up with a few of the other divers and we ranted excitidly about our jumps. Poor Mairi and the other nonjumpers had to endure hours of us reliving the jump. Mairis only consolation was that the pub we met the others in sold Irn Bru, what a perfect day, jumping out of a perfectly good plane and drinking Vodka and Irn Bru to celebrate. If Brad Pitt had walked in it coulndn't have made it better (almost).

Our last day in North Island was totally overshadowed by the jump, every few minutes I would laugh and point at the sky - I think Mairi got pretty fed up pretty soon.

We stayed the night at Wellington and I went to the Te Papa museum which tells the history of New Zealand. Unfortunately I didn't have time to really explore the place but it was really good.