Above the Lake at Windsor Charters Taupo

Well it's a few days past the 4th but as the Tongariro Crossing was such traumatic experience I thought it deserved it's own special entry.

The two days before we reached Taupo, the Crossing had been closed due to bad weather, but fortunately (we thought) the afternoon before we were due to do it, the people who own the company we were going with gave it the OK, and so we were permitted to climb the mighty ...

... whole time to put on a CD and sell to us later?

Finally, after getting out of the cave, it's back to the changing rooms to strip out of our wetsuits and take a hot shower and have a hot cup of soup before driving another 3 hours to Taupo. Right before Taupo are the Huka falls, where we stopped for some pictures. Into town at 7:00 that night.

Not much time to do anything in Taupo proper. I snapped some pictures of the lake ...

... more than we expected. It's cold here but sunny and clear. There are several fireplaces going but it's warm enough to have lunch out on the terrace (after they put a blanket on your lap) Nice touch. It's hard to eat because I cannot stop taking pictures. We'll spend a very relaxing first day here and come back to the lodge tonight for cocktails and dinner. We each have our own little cottage and the only noise you hear are the quacking ducks and the running stream.

... earth and I LOVED IT! Freddy had somersaulted us out of the plane and after we had flipped back over to face the earth below us JK was straight over filming us close up. We had a great time doing all sorts of cool moves (superman, blowing kisses, swimming etc) as we rushed towards the ground below and I was having an absolute ball when Freddy pulled the parachute and we were jerked upwards from the pull of it. It wasn't the most comfortable on the ****** area but luckily I'm not ...

... course the lamb. I mean New Zealand: where men are men and sheep are nervous... After the dinner I used my two for one drink ticket to have a couple pints at the Lava Bar next to the hostel and met Khalid. Khalid was from Saudi Arabia, studying English in New Zealand for 3 months. He understood probably 3 quarters of what I said in our half hour conversation. He was funny, explaining that he didn't drink or eat pork at home ...

... or pretend i was swimming, well superman does this alot more often so excuse me if i couldnt quite gather my thoughts 12,000ft off the ground!!)

It was absolutely amazing, i am infact enjoying it so much i completely ignore the one thing i am supposed to do, when he taps my shoulder, grab on to my harness, as you will see in the video, i am a little slow on the uptake!
Contrary to what it looks like or what people say i couldnt feel the ...

... I have to go and collect the tickets in Wellington next week... According to the manager at the site I'm on these tickets are as rare as hens teeth so I'm well pleased.... :-) My plan for Taupo originally was to walk the Tongariro Northern circuit a 3 - 4 day trek in the national park staying in back country huts, but as I've been feeling under the weather I may now ...

... nothing to say this couldn't happen again. Thankfully it didn't do so whilst we were there!! As we drove along the main road to Lake Taupo, passing fields and woodland, it was extremely strange to periodically see plumes of steam rising out of the ground on either side of us!! Over the next 2 days we visited a number of geothermal sites and oohed and aahhed almost continuously as yet another visual treat or unusual sight appeared before us. On occasions we felt ...

... calm, i think it was a form of denial, that and being sat on his lap and shamelss flirting- and that i was distracted by a stupidly fit camera man aboard. I didn't even realsie what i'd done but soon found myslef infront of him talking to him and gushing a bit! Anyway we were soon in a plane and after a brief period at 12,000 feet and some people jumping we headed on up, by this time i had a trail of thought not disimilar to 'what the **** are you doing ...