We had our usual early start on Sunday to catch the 'volcanic wonderland' at Wai-O-Tapu. After watching a geyser erupt, we had an hour and a half to go round the thermal park which contains an almost unbeliveable number of mineral, mud and assorted pools of varying colours and sizes. The region is such a hotspot of volcanic activity, but to see so much in such a small area really brings home how active it really is.
I was booked in to go skydiving in the afternoon and the weather was ominously cloudy, but I decided to wait around and go to the airport anyway to see if it would clear up. While the others - Guy, Rebekka, Andie, James, Mel, Pascal and Alice - went on a walk to Taupo, I took the shuttle bus to the aerodrome from the town centre.
When I go there it looked very professional, if a bit commercial, with lots of staff and gear around. The three others in my load and I got suited up and briefed on our jump, but when we were ready to go, it started to rain for the first time in about a week. Typical, eh?
So we waited around for two hours until it stopped raining, then hung around looking expectantly at the tandem masters who make the call and do the jumps. We were told that they'd take us up in the plane and hanve a look, but we might not jump at all if the weather was still not good enough. After so much waiting, it was certainly reliveing to be up in the air.
We climbed up over Lake Taupo and my tandem master - the guy who you're strapped to - told me that I couldn't jump at 15,000 feet, but instead at 12,000, which I was fine with. We were the last one out of the plane and into the cloud, and what an experience it was.
Because of the weather, you couldn't see a lot for the first seconds of freefall and you tumble to begin with, so it was extremely disorientating. Once we got level and through the clouds it was much better, but still a complete assault on the senses. When the parachute opened there was a huge jolt and you could sit back and enjoy the scenery, but I found it even more frightening that the freefall part, because it feels like you're just hanging by a thread above the ground.
It's almost too hard to describe in words; skydiving is so quick and intense that it takes a while to sink in. It's definitely worth the money though!
