so i went back up to Taupo, (lake taupo), for the 2nd time because they have the best and cheepest skydiving, i believe they do more jumps than anywhere in the world.  Anyway i went up there with Sarah and Ketura, in hopes that Saturday we would do the famous new zealand "day hike", a 17km (about 10.5 miles) but the mountain at this time of the year is covered in snow, and when we got there they told us that no one coudl go with out a guide, you need special equiptment and it costs 100 bucks per person to go on the hike.  The hike takes around 8 hours.  But because of bad weather no shuttles were going out anyway, and we all didnt' want to pay 100 bucks.  so i attemped to sky dive for the 2 time, and again a cloud moved in last min. before i was about to go up.   jeeeeepers.  so i was re-booked for the next morning.  The crazy part was, your picked up ina limo by this company, and i get in and first meet a 60 yr old father and son from new zealand, its a birthday gift from son to father, and then a mom and son from america and the sons girlfriend get in and i ask where in america they are from... WISCONSIN! imagine that, small world. they were from Milwaukee.  So then taht sunday morning was absolutly BEAUTIFUL day... awesome.  and i jumped with the other Wisconsinees.  you jump at the side of the lake, and see the mountains with snow caps, its amazing.  Ill have to say me being the adreniline pheen, i loved the Free fall (part before you put the parachute up)  your just falling and at 124 mph... yes ONE HUNDRED and TWENTY FOUR MILES PER HOUR... its amazing.  that lasted for 45 sec. and then when the parachute came up it was a lot liek parasailing from a back of boat, just very calm, slow, and floating down.  you can do lil turns and stuff too by just pulling down on sides of the parachute, boy did it make me dizzy when we did fast ones.  When we jumped out of the plane, i think i pulled a Roger.  I said every swear word in the book.  I was pretty chill and relaxed about the whole thing though, and the more nervous you are the better it actually turns out cause all the natural drugs your body produces.  i of course just like this kind of crap too much haha.  the older guy and his son also came back and went after us, liek i said he was prob. around 60 and he wasn't so excited about this, not just danger, but jsut not his cup of tea, but guess what, he got down and said to me, it was amazing almost spiritual.  and hes right, its impossible to really describe being sucked/thrown out the plane and just flying about all the land, we jumped from 12,000 ft. I also got a dvd made and pictures and a t-shirt, the video is super well done and pretty funny, but ill warn you its prob . rated R. cause i'm a lil excited and drop the f bomb and other worlds a few times, and if you can read my lips during the jump it would be rated X. haha

Besides that, we didnt' get best weather days previous to that, but walked along the beach shorline and just enjoyed being outside and away from the big city.