What Taupo fun activity

Great, adrenaline-fueled day in Taupo.

We drove down 75km or so from Rotorua. Taupo is also on the bank of a huge lake, with plenty of fun tourist activities, and still in thermal territory. I think it's nicer - Rotorua had the feel of a new town, with a small grid of shops and eateries, but it always felt pretty dead. Taupo seems a bit livelier, and its lake is a lovely clear blue with people swimming etc, whereas Rotorua's is grey and off-putting.

Two good reasons for moving on to here today: it's on the way to Napier, and it's maybe the skydiving capital of the world, with 3 operators, cheap prices, the best safety rates and beautiful scenic landscapes. It's also rare (they tell me) for jumps from 15,000 feet to be allowed as they are here - 12,000 is the norm for freefall.
I have wanted to do this for ages, though I knew Lilly wouldn't (she wouldn't fancy getting in the small planes, let alone out of them) and I was a bit surprised she wasn't freaked out by the thought of me skydiving when I suggested it. But she was very encouraging, so that was my main excuse out of the way.

The sky was heavily overcast when we set off and I was worried it would be called off. But gradually it cleared into probably the sunniest, hottest day we've had here, so that was excuse #2 gone and I'm committed. So I figured, I may only do this once - let's go for the 15,000.

 I wasn't really nervous - there's very little that can go wrong (well, one main thing) and this is a tandem skydive, so I'm firmly strapped to an experienced, well-motivated professional called Jon. But there is the odd nervy moment as the little plane climbs through the clouds and I look down at the beautiful view.

First of all we dropped 4 jumpers off at 12,000 feet. The door at the back of the plane rolls up and there's a bit of cold air gusting in. But I was too far away to see how scared they were. The door shuts and we head up to 15,000, me and another girl, our instructors and a video guy.

Jon gave me my instructions and reassured me by telling me how many thousands of jumps he had done and was in fact a month from retiring. This gave me a bit of a Lethal Weapon-style worry, but I decided a month was far enough that things wouldn't necessarily go wrong.

The most nervous moment was when the girl had gone and I was the last jumper and we shuffled up to the door. What if we fall out, I thought. Oh yeah, I realised, that's kind of the point. Jon is in charge of getting us out of the plane, I just have to relax.

We tumbled out and for a second I was facing up, but then we hit the more traditional skydiving position and I could stretch my arms out any enjoy it. I had a massive grin plastered on my face and couldn't get it off for all the air whistling past!

All too soon - after 45-60 seconds that felt a lot less - the chute opened and we seemed to jerk upwards. I actually found parachuting more nerve-wracking than freefall because you have a lot more time to think about what you're doing! But once the chute is open you're pretty much ok. I was able to take a turn at steering, which is pretty easy on a nice calm day like this, although a bit stomach-churning at times. And, finally, a nice smooth landing right on target. Very cool.

Lilly had obviously caught some adrenaline off me because she wanted to get on a boat. A very fast boat.

On the way to Taupo we'd stopped off at the Huka falls, a not-very-deep but extremely fast-flowing and violent drop. The water is a lovely clear blue, reminiscent of glacier run-off in the Rockies. And the Hukajet boat runs up and down the river below the falls, doing mad 360 spins and stunts. So we went back and took a 30-minute ride. It gets up some serious speed and the driver throws it at rocks, trees, and under construction bridges, dodging and spinning away at the last second. A pretty impressive display of driving - and a fairly wet one. Lilly managed to pick the prime seat for soaking. The river is lovely, too - it runs down to a dam where they filmed the flooding in LotR: The Two Towers.

Now we needed to find some cheap activities to balance this out! Doesn't come cheaper than a quick swim in Lake Taupo. Then we enjoyed a fairly scenic drive to Napier through rolling hills - it feels like proper Lord of the Rings territory now, albeit only the less impressive bits with bands of wandering hobbits and fellas on horses.

Finally, Napier - flattened by an earthquake and rebuilt in the 1930s in an art deco style that it retains to this day, nicely maintained. We had time for a stroll round the centre before dinner. A good way to wind down.

Just a typical building in art deco Napier