I Jumped Out Of Plane

Okay Okay, so sorry everybody. The last few days have been chaotic. I’m just gonna put the last 2-3 days in one post so buckle up…

Where did we leave off? Hobbiton? Or was it the geothermal pools? My days are all mixed up, Island life ya know? Geothermal pools were the same day as Karaoke so that means my next day was a free day and the Mauri feast.

A little more than half the group went white water rafting but I opted out...going over water falls? sitting in a boat with wet hands and no lotion for hours? No thank you. Plus that meant I got to sleep in which was really nice. A couple other people didn't go and so we decided to get brunch together. I believe it was Kate, Paula, Shona, and Me. It was such a cute little cafe, actually every cafe here is so cute and has the best food! Then we went back to the hostel, or actually we went to a store first so we could get our "Shit shirts" for the next night, then we went to the hostel and just relaxed until everyone got back. We were gonna take the Gondola up the mountain and go luging but it was raining so we didn't. Around 6ish we got picked up by a bus and got taken to the Mauri village and O.M.G. it was absolutely amazing. I mean, it was touristy, and not like a real real real Mauri village, but I imagine unless you are Mauri or marry a Mauri you're not gonna get much more than that. And for all of those out there that have been to Hawaii...I think I liked the Mauri performances better...but let's not compare.

We started off by watching some Mauri men come down this crystal clear river in a war boat and do their very intimidating whatever it was, ritual? Performance? I don't know, but it was something. And then we went back up and watched them pull the meat we were eating from the ground (because New Zealand is basically a big volcano and has lots of geothermal activity, this is how the Mauri people have cooked since they first got here. It's pretty awesome) then we all made our plates and sat down and ate, it was reallyyyyyyy good and I'm mad I didn't think to get seconds.

After our meal we got to go down to their theater area and watched them perform the Haka, some songs, and demonstrate a lot of the Mauri technology and traditions. It was very very cool and I wish I could've stayed there forever. I just absolutely loved their culture. How cool would it be to grow up in a family/culture like that. To know you come from warriors like that. Also, interesting fact, in the Mauri culture Woman are still at the top. Woman are seen as life itself. If a man dies it's obviously sad, but if a woman dies it's a much bigger thing because they see it as losing an entire family line. So basically the Mauri people have it right thank you very much.

When we got back to the hostel we played a couple games of Mafia and everyone kept voting me out because they thought I was Mafia. Every. Single. Time. I never was, but they said its because I'm "quiet" and "look suspicious" whatever that means.

The next morning we packed up all of our stuff and headed to Taupu. It took us a little over an hour maybe, not super long. We "hiked" with our incredibly heavy bags all the way to our hostel (it was like a 20 minute walk) but our bags WERE heavy. We dropped our bags off then made our way to the "worlds coolest McDonalds" where we ate in an old plane and played a bunch of mind games with each other. I'm pretty sure I left my hydro flask there but when I went back the next day they said they didn't have it, so idk. Some of us walked around the shops afterwards, and unfortuantly this is where I died. There was a claw machine outside of one of the stores and of course I had to play, but I sucked, so I asked Lewis if he wanted to try...Lewis had Lizzies croc in his hand because he was helping her put her jibbits (croc charms) in it, so when I asked if he wanted a turn he said 'Sure, hold this" and handed me the croc...which killed me. And since I had to kill Lizzie with sunscreen, Lewis then had to kill lizzie with sunscreen and since he's the king of sunscreen he killed her immediately afterwards. But then later on in the day I helped Ingrid kill Lewis, so HA! Back to the claw machine though, I had Lizzie give it a go as well and she was successful! So now we share a child together. His name is Kiwi Mauri Gaunt Swan.

The hostel we stayed at here (YHA Taupo Finlay Jacks Backpackers) was probably my favorite out of the 3 we've been in so far. The last one was cool because it had rock climbing and a cinema in it (neither of which we did) but this one we just stayed at had a hostel dog named Biggie, hammocks, personal and private bunks, and it was by the lake. That first day after we got back from shopping, some of us girls changed into our shit shirt outfits and swimsuits and sunbathed for a couple hours. In the hammocks, in the grass, on the lounger, anywhere we could. It was amazing. Around 7 we all left to get on our private sail boat and we set sail across Lake Taupo, which is as big as Singapore. It was so so so much fun. We listened to music, hung out on some bean bags, had photo shoots, visited some cool Mauri carvings, viewed our future houses, jumped in the lake, and I saw some real life Swans. Just making so many amazing memories on this trip. No offense to anyone but I never want to come back. New Zealand is amazing, and I'm not ready to leave any of the people I've met. I know most of us still have 9 days together, but it's not enough, I'm not ready to go back to real life.

After the boat ride we walked up to go get pizza and I also got married. We all kind of share our food so I didn't actually order anything, I just ate whoever didn't want the rest of their pizzas. A lot of us stayed up just talking and hanging out that night. I also took a shower in the dark because the lights weren't working.

The next day (yesterday) we all got to sleep in before leaving to go on a "hike". It was more like a really long walk and I enjoyed it very much. New Zealand has no natural predators so unlike when camping in the US I don't have to worry about snakes, bears, mountain lions, coyotes, or anything else like that, I could just walk wherever and not worry about a thing. For that reason I stayed at the back of the group, it was just so nice to be able to think without a worry in the world. Nature is just one of those places that you can think about anything and still not be stressed. A lot of people in the group thought that I wasn't enjoying myself and kept asking if I was okay, but I was just enjoying my time in my own mind. It was such a beautiful hike. The pictures don't do it justice. We "hiked" to Huka falls, which is where all the water in lake Taupo comes from and is a part of the longest river in New Zealand. It's illegal to go in this section of the river, but a couple years ago someone tried to surf it and ended up losing their life. Despite that though it's really beautiful and looks super cool.

A van picked some of us up in the car park and took us to our next location...which was skydiving. We went 15,000 feet in the air. I jumped out of a plane. We free fell out of the sky for 60 seconds. It was amazing. I'll upload pictures later if they haven't downloaded yet. 10/10 recommend. It went by way too quickly. After we landed we had to wait for the others to jump so we got to talking with some of the instructors. I commented on how cool it was that they came to work to jump out of planes everyday and one of them said I could do it too. I told him that the closest sky diving place to me kills people, he asked where I lived and when I said California immidailty knew it was Lodi which I thought was hilarious given he was form Ireland. But apparently he's spent some time in the states and Lodi has quite the reputation. He told me to go to Tracy California and gave me the name of some friends of his so I guess we'll see. Maybe I'll become licensed. How fun would that be?

Later that night we all went out to dinner where I met my possible future husband (Jk Jk I'm obviously not being serious) and then went out to the bar afterwards. And guess who was at the bar? Some of our instructors. It was kind of like a top gun moment, but instead of a bunch of guys who fly planes, they jumped out of planes, which is still pretty cool if you ask me. We were playing a game of truth or dare and one of the dares was for Kira (who didn't go jumping) to go up to one of the instructors and pretend like she jumped with him. That was fun to watch because he was entirely confused. That got the rest of them to move over to our table and our group and there's hung out for the rest of the night. The music was good, the company was good, the night was good. I was with the last group back and we didn't end up getting back until after midnight. We had a great time in Taupo.

Now I'm on the bus on the way back to Auckland for our farewell dinner. Kirsten, Katie, and Alessandro are all leaving us tomorrow. The rest of us have an early flight to the South Island tomorrow morning. I will try to keep this updated but I make no promises. Love you all!