Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
kristy's travels
today we went to Te Puia thermal reserve where i saw the real life bog of eternal stench! (think labyrinth - david bowie film we loved as kids!) Well.............it had the farting sounds and the farting smells! basically just a stinking, farting boling hot mud pool! the geisers were so cool - boiling hot water bursting out from the middle of the earth! its a bit scary to think what is going on below our feet!!
after treating myself to a big piece of lemon meringue pie (what a life us travellers lead!) we headed down to some waterfalls and did the scenery thing followed by a volleyball match at the hostel! spent the evening being very english drinking tea with janine and steve (an irish guy on our bus!)
fri 17th
got up early to go to waitomo caves where i was about to embark on the abyss!!! fisrt we had to put on the most unattractive and smelly wetsuits ever! they stank of onion! i hate to think why?! one balaclava, harness, white boots! and a helmet later and i was ready to go caving! ( i have been nicknamed G I Jane on the bus as i am the smallest, weakest looking girl but i always seem to be doing the hardest activities!)
after getting to know our crazy instructors we began to abseil down into the cave! this should have been easy except it was so narrow you had to wriggle through the gap in the rocks whilst controlling the ropes that stop you falling 50ft down into the pitch black! well as you guessed i got down safely! after a bit of caving (squeezing through small gaps - easy for me!) we reached a zip line! unfortunately i was first on and it was pitch black (had to turn my light off!) so you couldnt see where you were going or if you were going to hit a rock! was very scary but cool as going really fast and tunnel full of glow worms!
when i reached the end one of the instructors made a huge bang and pretended i had hit the wall! the others were freaking out...it was hilarious!
after this we had a rest (tea and chocolate) whilst sitting on a ledge above an underground river and discussing how high we were! surprise, surprise we were told we now had to jump off here with rubber rings under our bums!
...........and just before we did that the instructors decided to get their torches out and point out all the huge eels in the water!!!!!!!!!
after doing all these types of activities you start to realise that they are all safe really so i jumped........... and the worst thing was that the water was freezing!!!! after fiji it was a bit of a shock!!!
after floating down the river looking at the glow worms (which are basically maggot poo's! - cool though as its just like looking up at the night sky) we had to climb up
two waterfalls and eventually emerged out of a hole in a field in the middle of no-where!!! it was so strange to see people crawling out of this hole back to reality, knowing what we had just done and that these huge caves are just below us!
back on the coach heading for taupo and the driver announced that the weather was perfect for skydiving!
what a day this is going to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! only trouble was i had put my bikini on in the morning for caving and had forgotton to pack any underwear in my day bag! so i now had the possibility of doing a sky dive with no pants on! uh-oh!!!!!!!!
well being gi jane i decided that if i was going to jump i was going to do it properly and do the whole 15,000ft!!! 60 seconds of freefall - sweet as bro!!!!!!! (sweet as bro is the most annoying thing i have ever heard that all the kiwis say!)
i put on my red jump suit, pack with sick bag and life vest (in case we land in the lake!) and my egg hat (anyone who has been sky diving will know what i mean!) ............and i was ready to go! not nervous for some reason! its funny as you see everyone go up really scared..dropping out of the plane like ants........but when they come back they all loved it! .......without fail!!!!!
was jumping with a couple of danish girls from the bus but they were all going from 12,000ft! so.........after squashing us all in the plane (there is seriously no room to breathe! - bit too close for comfort!)...........we took off! i have never been in a small plane like this but it was ok and the tandem masters are joking around the whole way up so you dont have time to be scared!
after watching the others jump i was all alone!!!.....the pilot decide to be a daredevil to get to 15,000 ft and told us to hang on!! oh my god what is going on!!!!!! the next thing i know we are pretty much climbing vertically up into the sky!!!! the view was amazing!
well the time had come........i dont remember being nervous but my expression on the dvd says it all!!you have to slide towards the doorway and they tell you to put your ankles over the edge......before yoyu know it you are out and i cant describe the feeling when you first drop out but before you know it you falling and loving it! its so hard to show how you feel as the wind stops you being able to move your face and your mouth is so dry! i have serious hamster cheeks in the dvd!!!
after falling through a cloud the parachute came out and the rest was easy! swooping down with parachute was so much fun! i had the perfect landing ....literally just placed my feet on the ground and stopped.........and even had a pink parachute! it was the best thing ever and cant wait to do it again in oz.......hopefully with tiff! gave my instructor a huge hug as so happy!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!! i did it, i did it!!!!!!!!!!!!
my tandem master had done over 10,000 jumps so very good.....he was even an extra in the lord of the rings!!!!
well........how do you top a day like that?! well actually with lauras birthday and a night out with a load of irish people on st.patricks day!!!!! was such a good night as everyone on the bus getting on really well especially with erin and blake.....the coolest aussie couple ever!!!!...hi guys - see you soon hopefully)!!!!!
- comments