Auckland and The Bay of Islands...

After a great 2 months in Australia I left Melbourne and flew straight into Auckland, New Zealand. Feeling very tired from my flight and being a bit moody now that my boyfriend had left and I was again traveling alone I got some food and went to bed. Feeling in a much better mood the next morning I went on a day tour around the city. We went to see a dormant volcano, visited a small fishing village then took a walk along Auckland's harbour bridge and got to watch a few people bungy jump off. Watching the others terrified me enough so I chose not to jump! The next day I had my first day on the Kiwi Experience bus taking me up to the Bay of Islands. This was a really nice place and was still pretty hot so got to spend some time sunbathing on the beach. My first day here was pretty chilled out as was my next morning which was much needed as I had for some reason signed up to do a skydive... I was with 4 other people waiting to get picked up, all of us managing to freak each other out as we were all pretty scared however much the guys tried to hide it. I was a mess in the car on our way there, signing the forms made it all so official and I just wasn't sure I could go through with it but before I knew it we were there and after much convincing that I would be fine I paid my money and got suited up and strapped into my harness. The plane itself was a bit scary, it was a tiny thing with no seats, we were just squashed in as they shut the plastic door. It took half an hour for us to get up to 16000ft and I managed to remain pretty calm. I was going out first as I was the most scared and thought it best not to watch the others jump out as it would probably scare me enough to not be able to do it myself. The guy who was my tandem was so lovely, he had done over 3000 dives and talked me through the whole thing, once we were fully harnessed together he opened the door I closed my eyes and we fell out. It was the most surreal thing which is so hard to describe, you don't feel like you are falling all you can feel is the wind, it was so much fun. The free fall lasted for over a minute and when the parachute opened I was relieved but also a bit disappointed it was over. Floating down was a pretty cool experience as well however and we even got to float through a cloud. After landing I was feeling very proud of myself for doing it but I had gone deaf from the pressure, it took over a week before my ears were back to normal. Back in Auckland I spent the day exploring the city and visiting the art gallery were I found my old tutors book in the shop and was amused to see a picture of myself in a book in a shop in New Zealand. I got a pretty early night that night as I was starting my proper Kiwi Experience bright and early the next morning.