Day 4 - February 24

Kia ora,

Today was another amazing day. We got to sleep in a bit, though I was still awake before 7. After breakfast, we headed to Wai-O-Tapu. This was the heart of the geothermal activity I had been anticipating. We checked out some bubbling mud pools, and then drove to the Lady Knox Geyser for her daily eruption. We were told that sometimes the geyser will only erupt a few meters, and other times it will shoot up much higher. On this day, we were fortunate to witness a very impressive explosion that was between 20-30 meters. I took a video of it that I will probably upload to Facebook at some point.

We remained in Wai-O-Tapu a bit longer and attended the thermal wonder park. I had the pleasure of seeing very uniquely coloured lakes among steaming craters and additional mud pools. I was amazed at seeing so many landscapes I had not seen before.

For as great as this day was shaping up to be, it got even better in the afternoon. I ended up doing something I did not plan on trying - skydiving. Each day, our tour guides send a list of activities for us to sign up and do. I initially passed on skydiving, but as time passed, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So, I went for it - and I could not be happier with the decision. We arrived and got registered, and then went straight to putting on our jump suits. Our plane was waiting for us, me and a girl from our group boarded the plane. I did not even have time to build up anxiety. The plane was packed tight, and we made our way up to 15,000 feet to jump. Wearing the jump suit had me imagining myself in Top Gun. Our turn came, I smiled at the exit camera, and my jump partner did the work to get us out of the plane. He was great and kept talking with me during the plane ride. I was surprised how little nervousness I felt. Once in the air, I was having a blast. I saw amazing views on a sunny day, and once our parachute opened, I got to control it and spin us around a bit. It was an incredible time.

In the evening, we had a fantastic grillout of sausage, chicken kabobs, lamb chops (gotta eat lamb in NZ), and the eel we caught the other night.

Now it is off to bed, as we have to hit the road for the highly anticipted Tongairo Crossing hike at 5:45 am.Read more