Oakura in Taranaki is where we spent all our time last week. Had some good days surfing but mostly just lazed about waiting for the right conditions to surf in as there was a really strong onshore wind from tuesday to friday. On Tuesday we decided to go to a chinese restaurant for lunch as it was all you can eat.I had about 3 main platers and two desert and then felt ill. Watched loads of movies and completed Time Crisis 2 and 3 which kinda got a bit tedious by the end of the week. No more TV for me! On Saturday we went to a bridge which was higher than brighton pier and jumped off. The water was pretty chilly though cos it was a stream that ran down from the Mt Taranaki. Mt Taranki is pretty big but we only saw it one day out of seven as it was mostly cloudy. Saturday was a clear day and the waves were pumping, the backdrop was Mt Taranaki and the water was clear blue. A nice surf.

On Sunday we drove to the Tongario National Park via Opunake. Opunake is very much like cornwall in terms of the geography, with lots of coves and rolling hills. Tongario National Park has three main Mountains, one is Mt Doom which is in the Lord of the Rings, there was no Orks though which was a bit of a let down. We walked the Tongario crossing which took about 6 hours. Its all volcanic landscapes with several craters and volcanic lakes and ponds.

On Monday we went to Taupo to sky dive. The weather turned bad and it rained all day so we didn;t do the dive. IUt was St Patricks day so in the evening there was a couple of irish bars having a mad one. We got given a free beer voucher during the day. How went and photocopied it 16 times in a professional photocopy in town. Cost about 2 pounds to do. We then cut them out and made them looked creased and ruffled. Later that night in town we had tryed them out and they worked a treat. Free beer alln ight from several bars. Definetly trying thast one out again! Today (Tuesday) has been action packed! In the morning we went flyfishing with a guy called Adam who is a guide. He took us to a couple of Local rivers which flow into Lake Taupo. He showed us two techniques of Flyfishing, Nymph flyfishing (with a small float and sinker) and dry flyfishing (a fly lure on the surface). I could see two fish which kept comeing to the surface and eventually caught one whilst dry flyfishing,. It was a 6lb rainbow trout, sickness! Going to cook it later on the barbie. How caught a little tiddler so had to put it back. We both enjoyed it and i rekon i might take up flyfishing one day. In the afternoon we went skydiving which was proper hectic! Really enjoyed it! The sky was clear with only a couple of clouds. We put on our overalls and harnesses then eight people squessezed into the back of a small pink plane, all sitting on the floor imbetween eachothers legs, cosy. The plane flew up to 15 000ft, great views on the way up. I was last to go so i saw everybody else just fall out the plane. It was madness, they excellerated soo fast. My instructer was pretty serius with no mcuking about. We sat on the edge, i looked down and then we just fell out. The accelleration is immense. You get the fallin feeling in your stomach for about a second or two then you are just waitless looking down at the clouds and earth. On through the clouds we kept freefalling. It was pretty cold up there while falling. Once he pulled the shoot he done some spins and then we sailed for about 3 mins. Excellant views all the way down. I really want to do it again as you get a phat adrenalin rush. Tomorrow we are heading to Gisborne to do the Rere Rockslide then head on down to the south island. There is not much surf for the next week so finger crossed!