The Kiwi Experience Begins

So it's late and I'm far too tired to come up with an interesting title. Sorry about that guys.....

I'm in NZ, in the beautiful town of Taupo which borders on a national park. As everyone knows NZ is known for natural beauty and adventure outings. What I didn't know (and maybe I was the only one who didn't know this??) is that NZ was formed by numerous volcanic eruptions is littered with volcanoes!

From one of the peaks in Auckland. I liked the image of this older man just sitting and observing the city. Your can see one of the dormant volcanoes in the distance.

Above is just one such example. This was our view driving out of Auckland, which is built on five volcano sites!

Our first day out we went to a beach where you could dig holes in the sand and find hot water springs. We tried, somewhat successfully, to dig our own bathing pool.

Bathing was followed by a walk to Cathedral Cove which had some gorgeous natural stone configurations.

I decided that if I was going to go come all the way to NZ I may as well take part in the beauty and adventure. Yesterday I went black water rafting (which should more appropriately be called underground tubing), saw crazy glowworms that reminded me of star gazing, and did a bit of cave walking. Sorry though, no pictures of that one.

Lord of the Rings brought a lot of publicity to NZ's natural beauty, and, understandably, the country is taking full advantage of that. We stopped for a lunch break in a small town that neighboured on the site where filming of the Shire (or Hobbiton as they've renamed it) took place. Cheesy picture I know, but it had to be done!

Tomorrow we head out for a 7 hour summit hike in Tangariro National Park, where one of the three volcanoes was used for LOTR filming as well.

The excitement for today was skydiving over Lake Taupo. I don't really know how to describe it, but I absolutely LOVED it! The scenery was stunning and the weather was perfect. I think it would be a bit too expensive to take up as a hobby, but it is tempting!

Our group on the way to the skydiving site.

This is the view from our plane before jumping. Jumping by the way was beyond weird. And Damien thought it would be more interesting to flip when we exited the plane, oh god! We spent the first few seconds upside down, plummeting towards earth. I was so disoriented, and I definitely screamed for most of it... at least I think I did.....

Damien, the one who made sure I wouldn't die, and I tandem skydiving.