Terminal Velocity

We arrived back on the north island and everything instantly felt different as we drove around New Zealand's capital city. Wellington was bursting full of life and our lonesome and peaceful driving days were over as we sat in the crammed bumper to bumper traffic which poured it's fumes up into the valleys. Neither of us were quite ready for such a hectic welcome and the thought of driving a few hours towards Tongeriro National Park to be amongst the mountains and lakes away from noise was more than appealing. We had read plenty of brilliant things to see and so in the big city but this one we'll just have to come back to when we have more time and strength.

Energy was something we were both clearly lacking today and within minutes of heading towards the park Laura had fallen fast asleep. The roads there were seeming endless to me and it wasn't long until my eyes were wanting to shut too.

We made it to a campsite about an hour away from Tongeriro which was only five dollars each, a bargain considering it's riverside setting in the woods complete with a kitchen, toilets and the option to build a fire. I was like a kid and went straight off into the bushes to gather some wood while Laura set up the tent. Everything was really damp so our fire was constant hard work but we raised a flame good enough to cook marshmallows on. After some tasty hot chocolate we squeezed into our sleeping bags for the night.

We were off the next day towards our mountainous destination and soon the three spectacular peaks of Mt Ruapehu, Mt Tongeriro and Mt Ngauruhoe came into view. The latter volcano was used as 'Mt Doom' in 'Lord of the Rings' and the surrounding area for 'Mordor'. There was no sign of any Orcs or evil here, more a landscape of towering beauty.

After a few stop-offs to take photos we reached Lake Rotopounama which we had seen on a postcard earlier in the day and thought it would make for a decent walk. We had been doing so much driving of late that Laura had lost all motivation to do, well anything. It's happened to me on several occasions where no matter how amazing the destination is that day, your mind and body just aren't in the mood. It seems you can have too much of a good thing. Laura said that I had to choose whether to drive on or take the three hour trek around the lake and after making a quick lunch I persuaded her to put on some boots and get some fresh air.

The walk through the twisting green forest to the lake which had a backdrop of mountains was picture perfect but with the swarm of sand flies gathered there all wanted a taste of Laura's sweet blood. May be I had been playing with the bonfire too much last night and stank of smoke (or just generally stink) as they didn't give me a second glance. I went further around the lake to take some pics and could constantly see Laura waving her hands around, slapping various body parts and away cursing to herself. It wasn't much later that she looked like she could burst into tears so we headed back to the car and moved on towards Taupo to find a place to stay in preparation for my horrendously exciting yet nerve racking activity the next morning- I was going to skydive!

You can imagine how I was feeling the next day with the thought of falling through the sky in my mind. As I ate my usually delicious Marmite on toast my belly felt like it had turned inside out and was being tickled by a hundred small children. I couldn't have been any more excited but I was about as terrified as the day I had to meet Laura's entire family for the first time.

I phoned the booking agent who said that as the skies were calm and bright blue that the jump was on but as it was a few hours away I needed to call back later. A few hours later and typically the clouds had covered the sky in a thick grey blanket and I was told there was a good chance it might be postponed but to call yet again in 15 minutes time. Moments on and it was now officially all go! This on, off, on morning was feeling quite intense and the build up was just getting bigger and bigger with Laura, who wasn't even going to jump, in a similar jibbering state.

The Freefall company soon collected us both and took us to the airport where all the skydive companies seem to operate from. I had to sign a piece of paper with the small print basically saying that if I die then they hold no responsibility. Reading such things just before you are about to get on the plane really didn't help things and as I filled out the paper work I made constant mistakes forgetting my name and address, so Laura ended up writing the rest!

We reached the skydive centre and were quickly seated in order to watch a few short movies that demonstrated the DVD/picture package we could buy in order to capture our moments throughout the whole experience. As I stared at the TV, Laura said my face went completely white and she then proceeded in having great pleasure at filming me.

Alongside a large group of Japanese tourists also here for the dive it was now time to move into another room and get our jump gear on. The second I was about to slip into my red boiler suit I was told that there was no room for me on the next flight as everyone had requested to be filmed meaning that our group had doubled in size. I didn't mind as I could get on the next flight but this about put the final drop of build up to the maximum!

Fifteen or so minutes later and the sky was full of colourful parachutes and various members of the Japanese group came running up to tell me how much I was going to enjoy every second of it, despite how sick some of them said they felt. One even complained that he couldn't hardly breath during the freefall- greeeeat.

The plan was to get on the next plane with a group of skydivers from the company next door but as they were taking so long to get ready it was decided I would get the entire flight to myself! I said my goodbye's to Laura who would nervously wait by the landing zone and got on board for a twenty minute ascend before stepping out.

We climbed higher and higher through and far above the clouds and had to breathe into oxygen masks in which I took my fair share from. The plane then became completely silent, like it had ran out of fuel but this meant just one thing, it was time. My camera woman Jenny shook my hand and started to clamber out the door onto the roof to film me now sat with my legs dangling into thin air. My jumpmaster Mike tilted my head back and without any warning or am I ready for this leapt out into the windy nothingness. We rocketed at a face melting 200kph towards the ground for a whole 60 seconds of freefall and I was screaming all manner of things. It was totally indescribable, my body was electrified with adrenaline and I was thinking to myself how glad I was to have done a lengthy poo before doing this. Jenny was zooming all around me taking footage and pictures of my face which must have shown a hundred different emotions but all with the same look of terror. I was enjoying it so much that I failed to notice Mike tapping me on my shoulder which meant to put my arms on my chest and prepare for the parachute to open. We carried on speeding like a bullet but feeling as heavy as an asteroid about to smash into earth until I noticed Jenny flapping her hands around trying to signal for me to pull my arms in which Mike then grabbed and all of a sudden we were shooting back up into the sky. My ears felt like they were going to explode but then everything fell silent again and we drifted like a feather downwards. I put my hands on my nose and blew away my blocked hearing and took a good look around at a truly stunning land with everything in miniature form.

It did happen all incredibly fast and before I knew it we were coming into land with me shouting out loud "Laaaaaauuurrrraaaaaa" to the small pinpoint in the green field below. As we rather gently hit the ground (thankfully) I ran to my lady love like an absolute lunatic and gave her a big kiss. Surely one of the best birthday present ever and a walloping huge thank you to my friends back home for collecting money towards Blakey Aid! A couple of minutes later we both sat in front of a small cinema screen and watched back my captured insanity and it was completely insane.

How did I follow up such a mind melting morning? Well we went to Woolworth's. Actually this was pretty exciting as we bought bags and bags full of Christmas grub although I had left my brain in the clouds and Laura had to make all the tough decisions like what chocolate pudding to buy.

We made it back to camp absolutely exhausted and I was getting a cracking skydive hangover with my head feeling like it was going to cave in. Bed soon followed, what a day though!

The next morning I awoke with a much clearer head although I was still in disbelief to what I had done and we packed up to drive towards Rotorua. We arrived to the famous natural wonders that occur at Te Puid. The moment we stepped out of the car the distinctive smell of eggy sulphur was inhaled. Here there are over 500 springs, from bubbling hot mud pools to the fascinating geysers which explode into the air. Before seeing any of this we were to watch a Maori concert, something we both had been dying to see since arriving in New Zealand.

We sat near the meeting point for the performance and ate our lunch and soon there was an enormous influx of people gathering around. There was hundreds of tiny toddlers running in between the legs of at least five coach loads of rather grumpy looking elderly folk. I know one day I'll be old too and want to complain about my legs falling off or something but this lot were the most unimpressed, moaning collection of people ever.

Anyway we were welcomed by a member of the Maori tribe who briefed us on what to expect along with the do's and don'ts in the church which we were about to enter. A warrior then came stampeding towards us and performed a powhiri greeting to determine if we were friend or foe. He placed a leaf on the ground and a member of our group who had been appointed chief then had to pick it up. A woman who had now come outside with a group of muscly, long tongued Maori's began a ceremonial call and soon we were invited to come inside.

With our shoes off we entered the beautifully carved church and took a seat. The next 45 minutes were full of cheerful Maori songs, poi and the haka (war dance) which was easily our favourite part of the show. Although it was interesting to watch, with so many others here, many who seemed uninterested or too young to care, it lacked the attention it deserved which prevented it from being the true spectacle we were hoping for and came off more like a commercial and slightly tacky tourist day out.

It was now time to see the main attraction of this thermal wonderland- the geysers! The Pohutu geyser in particular was very impressive and was constantly erupting boiling water around 30 metres into the sky. We carried on around past endless sulphate waters to some mud pools which bared a resemblance to 'the bog of eternal stench' in Labyrinth and the odours smelt like it too.

We decided to squeeze out from the crowds on to find out what our accomodation was going to be like for Christmas. We hadn't seen any pictures of the flat and had booked it solely on the fact that the owner was British, sounded friendly in his emails to us and it was one of the only placed available.

When we pulled the car up to a house fifteen minutes away from the smelly, busy streets of Rotorua we couldn't have been happier. We had a corking view over over mountains, a magnificent lake and an abundance of woolly wildlife to go with it. Ian and his family were instantly like-able characters and the flat was perfect. It was like Laura and I had decorated it ourselves and my Mum had payed Ian to buy us a big bottle of champagne, lush chocolates and a bunch of flowers which welcomed us as we opened the door. Apart from the lack of family and friends here we had all the right ingredients for an outstanding Christmas!