Take a deep breath

And JUMP !

That's what I did when I went back to Taupo ! You remember, Taupo, the town with a huuuge lake where I went with my German friends ? Well, I went back and it was a really exciting week end. On the first day, Manon (a French intern at the same lab) and me went for a walk along (and not around, now I know the difference ^^) the lake, and did a boat cruise on it to see some Maori carving you can only access from the water. The carvings were cool, but the cruise was the real attraction. It lasted for two hours on a small sail boat, with the wind, the waves and the dying sun over the hills. Cool.

Sailing on the lake

On the following day, I went for a hike to Huka falls, around 5km away from the centre. The walk was longer than I thought but it was worth it ! The Waikato river, which initiates from the lake, is small there, not very deep but already very wide. And it's colours are amazing ! Like the lake, it's vivid/turquoise blue and green, and if the sun's here, which was the case, you can see all through it until the bottom :) So pure ! It goes through curves and cliffs and forests, to finally arrive to a narrow pass between two cliffs : Hula falls. There's a small bridge above the water, and it's so nice ! The water is being broken on the rocks, and it's vivid light blue turns to white as it flies in the air. A really cool place worth the visit.

The Waikato river and huka falls

But the main attraction of the week end is what I did just after. At 12, a blue and yellow van came to pick me up at the falls : Taupo Tandem Skydiving was written on it. It took me to the airport and I signed some kind of commitment about potential dangers ect (STRESS; stress), and I had a briefing on what would follow. At the last moment, I decided to jump form the highest point possible (4.6km), and boarded the small plane. I had 20 min of amazing view on the region from the plane, and then, the door opened. I was the first one. My jumping master took me to the door, and he jumped. As I was sitting on his lap, I also 'jumped', which is good as otherwise I might have changed my mind at the last moment ;) For three seconds, I was afraid, and then , pure awesomeness !!!! It felt sooo GOOD ! Just there, high above the fields, between the earth and the sky, in the middle of nothing ! It wasn't really like falling, more like being  somewhere, doing something weird but incredibly addictive. Like a drug. The 1 min of freefall seemed to last for hours, but then, suddenly,  it was over. And it felt too short ^^ We did loopings with the parachute and I could see so far : the whole of the North Island was under me :  Tauranga, the East coast, the Waikato and Taranaki, even if I couldn't see the mountain. And of course the lake and the Tongariro : so majestic, so breathtaking, so .....

The skydive

If you ever have the chance to do it one day, just do it ! I will, again.

See you soon

Mig