Copthorne Manuels Taupo

... 8220;No worries” Martin assured us. This is the default phrase he uses in ninety per cent of conversational circumstances. We were, however, just a little worried that we wouldn't make it and as a consequence may not be able to make the jump at all. We drove like the wind to try and make up the lost time and after an hour noticed a police car flashing it's lights behind us. This was not good. Martin got out of the car and, as luck would have it, got chatting to the ...

... they don't leave you enough time to **** yourself as each person jumps 10 seconds apart from eachother. I was last which is worst as you have to watch everyone else fall out and plummet towards the ground and 200kph. The actual jump was great, it doesn't actually feel like you are falling and for about 60 seconds of freefall I was essentially weightless. The company was really good as everyone had their own cameraman who took photos ...

... he landed third after Hannah the finnish girl. A few minutes later Phillipa and Ben, who were diving from 15,000ft, landed and it was high fives all around. We all headed back into the office, took off our gear and went to watch our dvd. The full dvd shows us all gearing up, taking off, waiting in the plane, and four of us diving, and all five of us landing and our celebration. This was far too long to post so we cut out the rest and are posting just our actual dives. But we ...

... former professor Cheryl Shanks whose "politics of global tourism" class I took senior year. The funny thing is that tourists look for the "authentic," while the fact tourists are actually there is a large part of what makes it a totally inauthenitc experience. If the "experience" were "inauthentic" people wouldn't go. In reality it's all just a show, a reinactment, and that's fine. I wouldn't have felt nearly as uncomfortable ...

... jours d'ailleurs...). D'un côté je râlais intérieurement, car tout ce monde m'empêchait de me retrouver seule avec la nature. Mais d'un autre côté, je dois l'avouer, lorsque le brouillard s'est épaissi, j'étais bien contente de sentir la présence rassurante de tous ces inconnus... Puis, pur finir la journée en beauté, une fois rentrée à Taupo, je rejoins mon cher lac pour une petite baignade... Le soir je croise Séverine à l'auberge ...

... were staying at and they hooked us up with a camping fridge and 2nd airbed that they had brought but did not need so that was cool. To say thanks we shouted them a BBQ dinner and played cards till it got dark. I was able to record a 1st and 2nd in last card but no such luck with Gin Rummy where Jazz took out all of the games (with Silla's help). Another excellent day with options of Taupo Adventure Park or a ride in Ben's boat tomorrow.

... for a cheap jump before 11 so it was all hands on deck and down the road to the ravine before anyone had a chance to say jimini jillikers no-WAYYYYY. We had both done a bunji before so we decided on originality by doing a tandem one this time. It actually made the experience a lot more fun and a lot less scary. We were joined together as you can see in the video and had to raise our free arm aloft and drop after 3. If you look at the photos though you can see that ...

... and I went for a walk to the lake (Lake Taupo is the biggest crater lake in the world - you can fit Singapore in it!). After saying goodbye to the group and Thumper (for the final time this time) I went back to bed and amazingly slept all day! I am basically spending time in Taupo in a hope that I might get to do the Tongariro crossing - not happening tommorrow, hopefully Monday! Apparently there's a political situation stopping groups going out. Bit of a ...

... her screams back in England if we had gone ahead with it... Quite amazingly, I managed to convince two girls to accompany me to the pub that evening so I could watch the All Blacks v South Africa in the Tri Nations! I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but it was quite satisfying to see the Kiwis lose...they really don't take losing at rugby too graciously!! Bit of a shame they keep bottling it in World Cups then...

... tegen zijn schouder), Volker trok alle koordjes nog eens goed aan... En toen was het tijd om in het vliegtuigje te stappen.
In het vliegtuig zat ik naast een Nederlands meisje, die morgen weer naar huis zou gaan en nog eventjes haar eerste parachutesprong maken wilde. Al kletsend vloog het vliegtuigje (met net genoeg ruimte voor 8 personen) ons het volgende kwartier naar 12.000 voet (oftewel 4000 meter) boven de grond.
Kijkend uit het raampje zag alles er ...