The drive down to Taupo was unfortunately our first experience of a chip in the windscreen. The joys of driving eh?! But I can't complain too much because the views just seemed to be getting better and better. We came over the horizon to the awe-inspiring sight of the largest lake in the southern hemisphere (it's bigger than Singapore don't you know).

The first day here was spent navigating our way around the town before driving out to see Huka falls. The river leading away from Lake Taupo heads down a narrow part of the canyon which then drops down a level in the most epic fashion possibly. 220,000 litres of water a second crashing down upon a river illuminated by the snow white rapids and turquoise calm of it's stupendous magnitude... Words just don't do it justice. The evening rolled on and in true birthday fashion us lads decided to have a few drinks - kindly sponsored by the duty free George and Beans bought. Drunken s***head (card game) was the game with plenty of horrible forfeits. Truth or dare being one of them and soon enough us boys were making frequent trips in and around our camper vans in our birthday suits. I'm just praying none of it was caught on security camera! 

The following morning we were up to clear skies... Which meant only one thing - it was time to skydive! Thanks to our lovely tour guide Rachel, we knew the taupo jump was the cheapest and most frequent one in NZ. Having seen the ideal conditions we all plucked up some courage and booked ourselves in for midday. Then the nerves started kicking in, but to tell you the truth, so did the excitement! We were picked up in a limo and driven to the airstrip where we saw people falling from the sky attached to nothing more than an instructor and a chute. We were all shown a DVD of what the jump would be like and it had really good production which confirmed that we'd all be getting it along with the 15,000ft package! After selecting our music choice for the film the buttairflies all started to kick in and we all donned our beautiful blue jumpsuits and harnesses. Our tandem buddies were all really cool and started doing the pre-jump interviews on their handy cams before boarding us on the small, mean, PINK (?!), machine! Soon enough the colour started to drain from peoples faces and the prospect of falling freefall for 60 seconds at 200+ kph dawned on us. I was buzzing looking out at the stunning landscape but have to admit that when woody dropped out infront of me I questionned what I was doing. No going back though, hanging out the door was simply terrifying knowing you were putting your life in another mans hands. Nothing beats the addrenaline rush you get free falling though. It's a mixture of disorrientation for the first 10-15 seconds followed by excitement and fear as you're smacked in the face by addrenaline. The 60 seconds felt like the quickest in the world and your were soon jolted into the best view of you will ever see. The snow capped mountains of tongaria  national park to one side, the lake beneath you and a stunning landscape as far as the eye can see - the tandem guys literally have the best job in the world! We landed safe and sound before being shown the hilarious production of our skydives and picking out our tshirt to remember the occaision. As George quite aptly put about a million times... That was epic!

Once we'd recovered from the skydive (and yes, it does take a while to settle the nerves) we took a drive down towards Tongariro national park and settled in a national campsite in Kaimanawa Forest Park. The site was certainly off the beaten track as we took a route through gravel to reach it!   No electrical hookup meant a freezing night too as we awoke to a frost - it certainly was getting colder the further south we went! That didn't deter us though as we head around to the start of the renound Tongariro Alpine Crossing to see what walks were available. 

The crossing itself was a 6-7 hour trek one way so even though the weather was decent by the time we'd arrived it was a little too late to begin. Instead we picked a relatively short 2 hour looping walk that took us out to some breathtaking views of the two ACTIVE volcanoes that were covered in snow and a waterfall. The trek was beautiful and after reminicing about the scenery in Lord of the rings we were told that one of the volcanoes was actually Mount Doom and the waterfall we stood before was actually that used in the scene with Golem when he's fishing for food. That really got us inspired to explore more New Zealand, especially the hidden gems off the beaten trail. 

We even bumped into a couple of girls (Laura and Charlotte) who we'd met in Auckland. They were travelling with a tour and mentioned that they were headed to the River Valley lodge on their way down to Wellington. It sounded like a plan, so after a quick view of the map we were back on the road again. Windy roads and views of unreal quality is what NZ must specialise in because even through the yawns i was sat mesmerised by the sight of rolling hills which lead to a cool little riverside resort in the middle of nowhere. Time to see what adventures we could have down here!