Jump Day

February 2nd, Tuesday morning, Brian and I woke up feeling weighted down, our feet too firmly planted on this earth. We craved a change, we needed to fly. 
"Hey should we go skydiving today?" "It's looking a little cloudy"...


So we moseyed on over to the main office at the Rainbow Lodge (our hostel) and before we had a chance to put our lives in order, in case there was a travesty.. we were in a shuttle to Taupo Tandem Skydiving at the Taupo Airport-- the skydiving capital of the world.

After little convincing, our expected 12,000 ft drop was bumped to 15,000 feet and our decision to avoid paying the big bucks for a dvd & photos... well we needed pictures, right?! 


So  I thought we would watch a DVD with serious instructions about how to NOT die. According to Brian, there was a DVD but I guess in my nervous stupor I never saw it... HA They zipped, tied and strapped us into red jumpsuits and in order to pass the time we played rock paper scissors and sang (and danced) along to the radio. 


Next thing we know, we were in a plane, taking off backwards.

How did it feel prior to falling?:


Brian: "I felt, anxious.. I wanted to get up in the air, stop waiting around, be over the edge and waiting to go.  Usually taking off in a plane makes me nervous but it didn't even phase me, and we took off backwards!"
Mai: "I was sitting right next to the door that's clear and slides up.. I was thinking that what I was about to do was absolutely ridiculous but there was no way I wasn't going to hop out of the plane after spending all that money."





So what was it like to fly?


Mai: "exhilarating, insane, breathtaking, heart-pumping, jelly legs, eye tearing, adrenaline rush, flying, floating, fear"
Brian: "All i could do was laugh because i thought it was too ridiculous."


What about when the parachute was pulled?


Brian:"Very serene- cool. You could catch your breath and take in the views."
Mai: "Agreed."


How was landing?


Mai: "SUPER easy. We just plopped right down."
Brian: "I was just worried about not being able to stand up, and I couldn't.. my legs buckled for a second- and then I immediately wanted to lay on the ground"


Do it again?


Brain: "Absolutely, I wanna take a class so I can jump by myself."
Mai: "For sure, the next time I don't want to worry about smiling for a picture."

Time for Taupo, But Not Before The Most Awkward Concert Ever

Saturday was our last day in Rotorua.  

We recovered from the night before by visiting Hell's Gate, a geothermal wonderland, or so we thought.  It was actually pretty lame and the Tallest Hot Water Waterfall in the Southern Hemisphere was a complete let down.  We did get to sit in a mud pool, which was more of a pool than mud, and we had the woman take our picture covered in mud.  Overall, the experience was mediocre, but out skin feels nice!  That night was Lakefest, an outdoor concert right next to Lake Rotorua.  We caught the tail-end of the concert and were fortunate enough to witness quite possibly the most awkward ending to a concert ever.  First of all, the closing act was Australian Idol winner (and native Kiwi) Stan Walker, and after performing only two songs, he ran off stage so he could be called out for an encore (weird).  The encore began and about 30 seconds in, the CD playing over the speakers began to skip.  He wasn't lip synching, but the band playing behind him was quite fake.  So he asked for the CD to be stopped and, although he had trouble keeping the guitar player (his brother) playing to a consistent beat, they performed the final song successfully.  Next, the MC came out and started performing a song he had already performed earlier in the night after saying something to the extent that EVERYONE wanted him to be the final act.  I haven't seen people flee a concert so quickly.  After that awful performance, he tried to sing ANOTHER song, but was interrupted by another act.  After that one, he came out AGAIN and sang "Time Of My Life" with some other woman, and as the song went on, it seemed they just started throwing all the other acts on stage to sing with them because he was horrible.  It was clearly not planned.

But finally at the climax of the song came the most amazing fireworks we've ever seen.  It felt like we saw the future of fireworks and it was clear  Rotoura spent heaps of money on the show.  The fireworks were SO GOOD that we can't explain it and you probably should have been there... We were so mesmerized by them, we didn't realize that everyone was still on stage and STILL singing.  Just when we thought the travesty was all over with, the MC guy came out again and had an old guy who I'm almost positive was Tony Bennett come on stage and sing another song.  We don't know if the concert kept going or not, because we had enough with the awkwardness and were ready for some well deserved Dominos.

Sunday we left for Taupo, the site we will be skydiving and bungy jumping. With a big week ahead of us, we took two days to relax, though we had a surprise visit from Federico (from Kerikeri) and his cousin, Rami, which was pretty cool.  We have friends in New Zealand!