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18/4 - Today I thought I would go for a walk along this little path that i found on the map, and it would take me to this big park along the river, and wouldnt take too long. But, my map reading skills obviously arn't my greatest attribute, (although to be fair the footpath wasnt easy to see, and got really confusing at times) so it took me a bit longer than expected! But i did eventually get to the park, and it was really nice, very green and the sun was out for the first time in a few days! The walk along the river was amazing, and i had a bit of a picnic alongside it, the views were spectacular and it took me past the bungy site, so i could watch a few ppl diving off the cliff into the river! I then walked up to a place called Huka falls, where there are some rapids, all really nice :) I had originally planned to walk back a diff direction, but thought it safer to just re-trace my steps instead :P I did eventually make it back to the hostel, and I had been alking almost non-stop for about 4-5 hours! So I got back just in time to make some dinner and get some drinking games in before hitting the bar agian!
19/4 - Today I managed to stumble out of bed and prepare myself for skydiving!! The drop zone was a couple of mins down the road, and i was bricking it the whole way!! We got to the drop zone and got kitted up, then got straight into our plane. There were 3 of us jumping in the load, so there were nine ppl in the plane (3 cameramen),we were jammed in with hardly enough room to move, felt like sardines! which didn't help me relax! The journey up was scary enough, it took about 10-15 mins before we reached our jumping height of 15,000 ft! We were so high that we had to use oxygen masks on the way up! Luckily I had absolutely no control over jumping out, which is good because i probly wouldnt have jumped otherwise :P It was such an amazing feeling when we first left the plane, such an adrenaline rush, you barley know what you're doing until about 20 secs into your freefall!! The frefall lasts about 1 min, though it felt really quick! the views were amazing as we jumped over lake taupo, and apparently at the top you can see both coasts of new zealand at the same time (east and west) and even the curviture of the Earth, but i don't really remember taking in much of the view :P I was too busy trying to do the poses the cameraman was asking me to do! When the chute was pulled i relaxed a bit and finally sunk in what i was doing :P I was finally able to take in the views and just float down over the lake onto the landing site :) The whole experience was unforgettable, it was so cool!! so now i'm ready for a bungy :P So, after that adreanaline fuelled morning i needed a nice relaxing afternoon, or another skydive but that would have been too expensive!! So i decided to walk out to the hot springs, it is a nice walk along the river and then through a park, bout 30 mins or so. The weather was still really good when i got to the springs in the late afternoon, they are basically a natural hot-tub!! so amazing!! so I just sat in the springs, with a waterfall behind me and the river flowing across in front of me, in the glorious sunshine and relaxed for a couple of hours :)
20/4 - I was going to get up this morning to catch the bus at 5:40 to the tongoriro national park, where I would do the 7-8 hour alpine trek! but, when my alarm went off at 5ish there was no way i was gonna get up :P I didn't even bother hittin the snooze button, i just turned the alarm straght off!! I did eventually get out of bed, then went to the Taupo museum. It's not a very big museum but had lots of interesting little things in it, and i got to learn a bit about Taupo. Like, the fact that the lake is so big you could fit the entire island of singapore in it!! after the museum i actually went for a run (crazy I know) around the lake, and i found some nice little beaches at the far end. By the time i got down there the sun was just setting making an amazing scene on the lake, I was so dissapointed i didnt have my camera on me :(
21/4 - I had to get up really early today!! I was doing the tongoriro crossing and the bus was picking us up at 6:20 in the morning, I didn't even know there was a 6:20 in the morning!! Anyway, the tongoriro crossing is a walk across these mountains just outside taupo, one of which is the mountain in Lord of the rings, apparently :P So, we started walking about 8ish and there was a bit of frost on the ground but the sun was already shining. I had been warned it would be freezing because of how high we were going so I wore loads of layers!! And i was also warned i would need twice the amount of food and drink i would normally need in a day, so my bag was already packed full and quite heavy :( just before I started the walk i was glad to have the layers and was even wearing gloves, but after about five minutes of climbing under the already scorching sun that soon changed! I ended up doing most of the climb in just trousers and a t-shirt, and was wishing i had worn shorts!! So now of course my bag was really heavy as it had most of my wardrobe in it aswell :P despite all this, it was an amazing day!!! we started by climbing devil's staircase, it was a bout 1hr climb and took us up to the base of the mountain that was used as Mt. Doom in the lord of the rings films. I chose not to climb to this optional peak as we were already a little behind schedule. We then had some slightly flatter walking to do across a crater. I should probly mention know that this was volcanic area, hence the craters. then we had another climb, which took us to the base of another peak, and gave us a great view of mt.Doom! then there was another flat and a third climb, this one was a bit shorter but more challenging as the rcks were very crumbly and it was easy to loose your footing. At the top of this climb there was a stunning view of the emerald lakes. These were lakes in the middle of the mountains that were glistening in the sunlight :) These lakes were also an interesting colour because of the sulphur and stuff from the volcanic rock. A lot of the rocks in the area were giving off wot i'm guessing was sulphur dioxide (from the smell) which looked kinda cool, steaming rocks! it was here that we pretty much started the downward part of the walk, which definately wasn't any easier! but in places the rock was so loose that you could just dig your heels in and slide down. The walk down was on the otherside of the mountain range and we there was a stunning view of the New Zealand countryside, lakes and the sea!! after winding down this mountain for about two hours we stopped for lunch at this small hut with a great view :) then we walked for about two more ours to the bottom, on this part of the walk we entered a small forest, with a stream flowing through it, which was a bit higher than usual due to the recent rain, making the path a little harder to traverse n places! It was just before 4 when i finally made it down to the bottom, so had been walking for approx 7hours and had covered about 17km in distance!! The views the whole way were spectacular, particularly of this one emerald lake, which was in this mountainous crater in amongst the clouds, it made an amzing scene, so I hopefully have some good pics!!! The sun was out the whole way, making the views even better, but also burning me quite a lot, my face was so red when i got back, and there was a distinct line under my hair :P
22/4 - I really can't remember wot I did on this day :P I think it was just a chill day to recover from the crossing the day before! I did spend some time wandering around town and went down to the lake in the eve to see the sun setting, and take some photos. I spent quite a while down by the water just reading and relaxing, then probly watched some dvd's in the eve. I think it was this night that the fire alarm went off at 1:30 in the morn, and we all had to evacuate and stand outside in the cold, it was cold for me anyway cos i was in bed!! Then the fire engine turned up as the firemen had to check for fire before we were let back in. It was quite funny when the fire engine turned up cos everyone started to pose for photos in front of it :P
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