Top House Taupo

... times, oops :( . The canopy ride was wicked (that's when the parachute goes up) and I went through a cloud!! Awesome pics of that. The lake looked soooo beautiful from so high up, and so did Mount Doom (ok, I thought I'd put that in there for all you Frodo lovers). <br><br>My dvd is sooo embarrassing, but yet much hilarity ensues from watching me fall, scared, with way more skin than I thought I had. Excess skin is not attractive.

... I just couldn't connect with the place, the cities are too small, the landscape is too much like Scotland and the weather, just that bit too mild for my liking. There was just no spark. It's not you New Zealand, it's me - or so I thought.<br><br>For New Zealand did to give up on me, but continued in it's unobtrusive, calm manner to pull out the stops at every opportunity. The people couldn't be friendlier or the scenery more spectacular (not just ...

... that it is the thinking about it before hand that is the worst part. Your mind starts to run through all sorts of scenarios and usually they are not good. With Carolin's skydive she didn't have much time to think about it. We arrived at 11am and asked if the had any vacancies that day, they booked her into the 1pm group and it was all over by 2pm. Kiss kiss bang bang. Well done Caroline, Im proud of you(And a little jealous)

... lodge we took a peek around the town. During weekends &amp; holiday season the town comes to life as it's a tourist haven. Accommodation had been booked out over a week in advance but many bars were shut as they are not allowed to sell alcohol during Easter without a special license. <br><br>The town sits on the lake front which makes for sweet views although most premises overlooking it are fast food joints! Again for Easter they ...

... of the landscape with Mount Ruapehu on the right and Mount Ngauruhoe on the left. The uncle was left panning on the way up and on my mind I was wondering if he is going to make it for tomorrow walk which is 19km up to approx 1900m in height and lasting about 6 to 7 hours. We left whakapapa village and head to the National park village where we will spend our night. The bus will pick us up to the Tongoriro Alpine ...

... a surf life saving competition, which kept us entertained. The beaches on that coast all have black sand which is something completely new to me. The only thing I can think of is that it's from the volcanic rock. But it sure soaks up the heat from the sun and you can't walk on it barefoot! I'm looking forward to the beaches up north because they'll be a lot warmer! Like I said before, we're in Taupo now and have been here for a few days. We don't usually ...

... a nice day and we had, of course, waited three days to do it. so the next day I took a bus up to Lake Taupo. the bus was two hours late picking up passengers in turangi -- for a one hour bus ride -- with no explanation for the delay. hmmm.... Anyway, I made it to Taupo fighting a slight cold and did all the x-mas grocery shopping. on x-mas eve at the appointed time i went to the bus station to meet john coming up from turangi. the bus arrives -- no john. uh oh. lo and ...

... of us off at the local YHA to check in. Throughout the day I was talking with a few people on the bus, in particular one guy from England, a guy and girl from Scotland and a girl from Germany. The guy from the UK (whose name is escaping me now) and I decided to take a quick walk around downtown Taupo to get the lay of the land. We made a brief stop at the local art gallery, which was only 5 dollars. The art was so so, but their ...

... So yesterday afternoon we did a 3 hour free walk up to Hooka falls (where they filmed the flooding scenes in Lord of the Rings!!!) Emma was like "what?" lol but she hasnt actually seen the films and thinks im a complete looser when i get excited about these things!!! lol Then had another early night after making some dinner in the hostel and playing a few games of guess who and ******** (a card game) with some other people in the hostel! This time 9 ...