Day 41 – Kaiteriteri to Westport.

***WARNING! THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE!***

I never thought I’d be up, checked out and ready to jump out of a plane at 7am! Yes, that is what time we had to be on the mini bus for. We arrived at the centre just gone half past 7 where we were shown a video, explained how it works and what packages they have to offer. As this was my second skydive obviously bigger is better and I upped my game from 14,000ft (the drop I did in Mission beach, Australia 2010) to 16,500ft!!! I decided to go for the whole shebang again and get the DVD and photos. You just can’t beat watching them over and over again. I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve seen my other one. Plus, I know my mum wants to see me fall out a plane again, after all she did treat me to the few extra quid in getting it added onto my insurance. 

Just before 9 we were suited and booted in a very sexy onesie and harnessed up. Last time we just wore a harness and our own clothes which I think it way more hardcore, but y’know what they say goes so we had to dress up like clowns and get on with it.

I was excited to do another one especially as the weather was so clear and amazing but I was feeling just a little sick in the plane on the way up. To reach that height took just over 20minutes and when we got to 10,000ft we had to put an oxygen mask on and breathe through that which we definitely didn’t do before. I’m not quite sure why but they said it was to do with altitude and stuff.

THIS IS IT, Charli flew out first and then it was my turn… my camera guy got out the plane and then we went. The wind and the force was insane, I don’t really know what to say or how to describe it because I think I was more worried about how much pain I was going to be in with my ears later and how beautiful it looked around me. I must say free-fall is probably the least enjoyable part for me but wow what a feeling. 

As soon as he pulled out the parachute it’s a much calmer experience. You just feel like you’re flying through the air and you could even see as far as the bottom of the North island which was amazing. I just urge anyone to do it, if you think you can. It’s such a surreal feeling but totally worth every minute!

We arrived back at Kaiteri lodge where everyone was already on the bus, we thought we were late but in the end it didn’t matter. Something was wrong with the back fire exit door so we all piled off the bus and had to wait for about 2 hours for it to be fixed! Luckily the beautiful sun was shining away and it gave me a chance to relax after such a crazy morning. I had my laptop out so I loaded up Photobooth which passed some time and Kirsty, Francesca and I had a right old giggle!

FINALLY we were on our way! Once again we arrived at our next destination very late meaning we only stopped for breaks if we had to so Gary could just power on through. I was right about him; he is the best driver we’ve had so far. He’s informative but is also up for a laugh. Each driver has their own little thing and his is when he’s finished speaking his final words are ‘Sweet, stand by’. It makes us laugh every time. When explaining things he also pretends he knows people, for example when we’re arriving somewhere and he says ‘the toilets are on the left hand side of the bus where ohhh, who is that? Lucy, is just going in now, she’s a lovely girl.’ It probably makes no sense written down but you might get the gist of it.

Another thing Gary likes to do is as there isn’t a lot to do in Westport apart from a few activities and this is one of the points where there are a lot of new and different people on the bus, he asks for $3 towards some food to have a big BBQ & Bonfire on the beach.

We met outside the Bazils hostel at 7.30 to jump on the bus down to Westport beach, being introduced along the way to many of those people Gary knows (I think he might just be making names up y’know!) Within a few minutes of arriving on the beach we had a big fire going and found enough big logs to create a circle of benches. It was such a cool atmosphere and this is what the Kiwi bus should all be about, chilling, making new friends and having a good time. After the tide came in about 10pm we made our way back to the now party bus, sang some songs very badly and got dropped off at the only bar in the village to finish the night off.

Day 35 – Taupo Rain & Spa Thermal Park.

Yesterday I went to the tourist information centre and grabbed some leaflets on what to do in Taupo. One of them I saw was for a market that is held on the green on a Saturday morning and as that is only over the road from where I’m staying I thought I’d check it out. As I got closer I noticed it wasn’t on because Lynyrd Skynyrd, 10CC and some other bands were having a mini festival.

I decided just to walk around some more and pop into Pak and Save for a few things; Timtams and stuff… the necessities. When I came out there was a slight drizzle in the air so I grabbed a pie for lunch (Butter chicken, bloody lovely!) and made my way to the library to do some research for other places I’ll be visiting. Chrissy told me yesterday she’s going to join me for the last 5 weeks I’m away, so Vietnam to Thailand, which I’m very excited about now!! Another reason I wanted to create a rough plan so I can tell her my ideas and whether there are any other places or things she wants to see and do.

The lake above is called Lake Taupo and is the largest lake in Australasia, it is 616 square kilometres and you could fit the whole of Singapore into it!

I walked out the library to go and meet some of the girls and it was absolutely hammering it down! I feel your pain back in the UK. We didn’t end up doing a lot just chilling in reception, watching one of their Bungy videos.

It cleared up quite a bit and the sun came out and one of them said she was going to the hot pools in the Spa Thermal Park which is about a 40min walk from our hostel so I decided to join her, as I wanted to go and see them anyway!

They were really cool and it’s surprising how hot the water actually is. We chilled in the hot spring for about 45mins and at one point it started to chuck it down. It was a weird sensation as the rain was cold hitting you but the water was super warm, it created this weird steam mist making it really hard to see. Within 5minutes the rain had stopped and the view cleared up.

We made our way back to the hostel and I was excited to have my leftover curry! Unfortunately for me it wasn’t that simple. The microwave rotated your food and the light was hot but it didn’t actually heat up your food, I tried to grill the naan so it was warm and that didn’t work either… I then thought there is only one thing but to bung it in a pan and heat it that way. The gas has to be lit using a match or something but all of those in the kitchen were broken, so I had to find someone with a lighter to do it for me, you wouldn’t think reheating something could be so hard?! Bits were hot, bits were cold but it was alright.

Finally I was ready to meet everyone else, we hung around in the girls room for a bit watching some sky dive videos as 3 of them got to do it yesterday and then we went to check out the Element bar that is linked to our hostel.