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Exactly a month after we had arrived, we left the South Island and made our way across the Cook Straight in the opposite direction back towards Wellington. Here we got to see Colin and Flash who we'd left the last time we were in the city. Saturday was Colin's 22nd birthday and we spent it how any good adults would, visiting the zoo and eating Dominos. Wellington zoo would be a bit of a trek out of the city, but luckily the boys had bought "Kev ", a car much like the one in the Inbetweeners, however with lowered suspension and the exhaust of a race car. An interesting drive through central Wellington.
After we'd said goodbye to the boys on Sunday evening we spent the following days exploring more of the city. We went to a fantastic exhibition at the national art gallery by one particular artist who used interviews and videos as her way of expression. Ranging from singing child actors, twins discussing their lives and Michael Jackson fans singing the entire Thriller album, each project lasted several hours and we spent far longer than expected in the gallery.
After 5 nights in Wellington we returned to Taupo. Despite it being only a little more than a month later, the mountains were now covered in snow, a huge contrast to when Sofia had done the Tongariro Crossing Sofia in shorts and a vest, and walkers were now advised not to climb Mount Doom. As well as the change in weather, our return to Taupo also showed us how much we'd changed over the trip. On arriving in NZ we'd agreed not to partake in any of the hair-raising activities the country had to offer, however something happens while you're here, as your friends throw themselves out of planes and off bridges, you become used to the idea. Doing a bungee jump still horrifies us and seems pointless, but a skydive we could get something out of. We arrived at Skydive Taupo with some other members of our new bus, where we waited several hours as groups of people appeared having just done the jump. After getting all geared up, goggles and all, and having stood around for a long time, we finally clambered into the plane, eeach sitting in front of our skydive partners. At about 5,000 feet nerves started to really set in as we realised we still had 10,000 to go. At 8,000 we were handed our oxygen masks, probably more to calm our nerves than anything. At 12,000 feet one girl jumped out disappearing below the plane immediately. Sofia was by this point freaking out. Finally it was our turn, we were shuffled to the edge, put our feet out the plane and lent back on our respective tandem partners and, Sofia first then Martha about 15 seconds later, were suddenly falling out of the plane. The first two seconds we agreed were pretty unpleasant, because you really were just falling out of a plane, making for some priceless photos. Then almost immediately you stop accelerating, reaching a constant speed, and can spread your arms and legs and relax. It has to be one of the most surreal and amazing moments of our lives. Then before we knew it (though it was in fact a minute of free falling) the parachute was pulled and we were floating over Lake Taupo with the Tongariro National Park in the distance. We managed to avoid landing in the water, despite the fact that Sofia was steering hers, and landed safely on the ground buzzing with excitement and both tempted to jump back on the plane and do it again.
The next day we explored the lake in a different form on the Barbary sailing boat, cruising out to some Maori rock carvings. This took about an hour or so and we only travelled across about a sixth of the lake, which is larger than all of Singapore. The rock carvings look like they could be from a thousand years ago but in fact were done by students in the 80's. How very New Zealand. On the way back it was Martha's turn to steer as the skipper trusted her with the wheel while she made us milo (the kiwi version of hot chocolate).
It was with increasing trepidation that we got on the bus the next day to our last stop and first place we'd visited: Auckland. In a lovely turn of events, somebody who was also on our very first bus in the North was also finishing her trip so we had some company. Almost two months after our bus had left Auckland, the three of us were back, some of the very last people to return.
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