Skydiving and Walk to Mordor...

Over the weekend I went on a little camping trip with some IES friends. We decided to drive 5 hours down to Lake Taupo and Tongariro Crossing. This weekend was 100% about thrill seeking adventure. Point of the Trip: Go skydiving, climb Mount Doom, and go on a hike through Tongariro Crossing. The crew consisted of Laura, Ian, Jeremy, Zach, and myself. We rented a car and took off Friday afternoon. Thankfully no one let me drive. On the way to our campsite, we saw a really beautiful rainbow that touched down on both ends. I crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t rain this weekend. We made a quick stop at the supermarket to get the essentials for survival: bread, peanut butter, nutella, raisins, peanuts, and fruit. The drive was nice and scenic and we arrived in good time.

It was dark by the time we got to the campsite. We set up tent and crammed our five selves into our four-person tent. We knocked out some card games and taught Laura the way of Hearts. She shot the moon, which is pretty impressive for a first timer. After that we crashed for the night. As I was trying to sleep I realized a couple of things. First, I could use a sleeping bag. A blanket is just not enough to trap in heat for the night. Second, even though I DESPISE wearing socks to sleep it was a necessity for survival. My feet were frozen and numb. I couldn’t get into the car because it was locked and it was the dead of the night. I didn’t want to wake up anyone so I just tried warming up my feet with my hands. Not so successful. Luckily, Jeremy woke up and threw me his socks. Chivalry is not dead. Or maybe it was just watching me pathetically try and warm up that evoked pity to chuck me socks. After I put the socks on I finally got a good hour of sleep before we all had to get up to start our day.

This last Saturday was my definition of a perfect day. I’ll take you through it start to finish, but I’m pretty sure it may be one of the best days of my life:

Woke up to Happy Valley, our campsite. It was nice and sunny. No rain to be found. We packed up and decided to go check out Huka Falls before our main event. We got to the park and the falls were absolutely stunning. It pours out massive amounts of water, giving off a Niagara Falls feel, but it’s not crowded with tons of tourists. We went hiking around there for a little while and then decided it was time to take off for our next adventure.

We all went on this trip to go… skydiving. Yes, the insane act of falling out of a perfectly good airplane for the heck of it. We get to the shop early to make sure our reservation was all ready to go. When we got to the desk they informed us that the wind was suppose to pick up during the day, so we might as well just go right now. Uh… Um… Not quite sure if I was ready for that. We watched this video of what jumping out of an airplane looks like and it was less then comforting. Then they shoved a piece of paper at us to sign away our life. It is not their fault if we die or get hurt. Great… I just signed my death sentence. I’m sitting on the coach in a complete bundle of nerves. They take us outside to get suited up and ready to go. We put on fire truck red jumpsuits, funny cap with goggles, and gloves. Then they strap on a lifejacket around our waist, since we’ll be diving over the lake. After that they hooked us into our harnesses. I met my instructor, Rhys. He was a pretty attractive kiwi skydiving instructor. I figure, hey if I’m going down at least I’ll be strapped onto the back of a beautiful man. We head towards the plane and hop onboard. Everyone looked terrified. My instructor told me his first time to go skydiving was when he was 8 and he didn’t want to go. His father was an instructor and took him along for the ride. When I was 8 I was terrified of roller coasters. I couldn’t imagine jumping out of a plane. I was fourth to jump. Watching everyone go ahead of me was not the least bit encouraging. I started thinking about all those thoughts that run into your mind when you panic about dying. But then I knocked myself back into my senses. This guy is a trained professional. He’ll get me to the ground. No worries. My turn finally came and I sat on the edge of the airplane. I refused to look down at my doom. Then Whoosh! I was out the plane. 12,000 feet, 45 seconds of straight freefalling. It was intense and exhilarating. The view was spectacular. At times it was really tough to breathe, because the wind was smacking my face so fast. Skydiving is the closest I will ever feel to being a bird. As I was falling I started to wonder when the parachute would go off. Would it work? Luckily it came out and it did indeed work properly. So, I just spent the remainder of my flight, floating along with the wind enjoying the glory of the fall. I was happy when we touched down onto land and could hardly believe I actually went skydiving. The whole thing happened so fast that it was hard to swallow the whole experience.

After we finished, we decided to cruise around Taupo. We saw a stop for launching off goofballs out onto the water. I spent a buck to swing a golf ball to try and make a hole in one. I figured my golf ball was lucky. I was wrong. I swung and barely tapped my golf ball, which proceeded to roll down the hill into the water. It was crazy windy outside. Zach, one of the guys on our trip is a super athlete. He got two golf balls onto the plank. I thought it was near impossible. The weather conditions were unreal it was amazing that he landed two of those shots. Afterward, we stopped at a Honey Shop and taste tested all the different types of New Zealand honey. Then we went to a park that had a hot water spring. Hot water springs are a phenomenon: Hot water coming from a waterfall producing it’s own mini hot tub area and then the water eventually gets cold the further you trail out. I jumped into the water in my sports bra and dry fit shorts. Why waste an opportunity to go swimming in NZ? No one needs a swimsuit. The hot springs were incredible and rewarding after such an extreme day. After that we grabbed pizza to go and headed to our next campsite. We got to the campsite and jumped on a trampoline like 5 year olds for a little while. Then we devoured pizza and wine.

Overall it was a picture perfect day. Huka Falls, skydiving, launching golf balls out onto Lake Taupo, test tasting honey, swimming in hot springs, jumping on a trampoline, and wine with pizza. What a life.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to start our hiking trip. I woke up with my feet frozen even though I busted out 3 layers of socks. I decided to put on every layer of clothing I brought the night before. It was a good concept. It worked for the most part. We got our tent all packed away and we road a bus to Tongariro Crossing. I packed my Northface hiking backpack up with all the food necessities and was ready to rock the hike. The beginning wasn’t too bad. It was steep and I was wearing way too many layers so I had to shed them as the morning went along. It was super foggy around 7am and we could see where the clouds came down to meet the ground. The hike was 12 miles for Tongariro Crossing and then we also planned on hiking up Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings.

We got to Mount Doom and decided we’d take a whack at it. What a joke! Mount Doom is not a mount to hike up. It’s absolute insanity in the form of a mountain. There is no path. There is no safe or easy way up this thing. It’s just a ton of unstable rock and dust. The boys jetted off and were more then excited to tackle this hike. I was not in the mood to climb up to my death. Laura and I trekked up the mount together. It was awful. The incline was intense. I was not wearing proper hiking shoes. My backpack made me a bit unstable and I was sliding all over the place. I was terrified. We met pleasant tourists along the way. Not a single person we met was a Kiwi. Kiwis know better then to hike up this thing. Heck, I’m sure Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood never hiked up this mount. They just happily hopped on an airplane and flew up to the top. I have few words to describe the sheer agony I felt on this hike. I’ve decided to rename Mount Doom: Mount Turn Around, Mount You are An Idiot, Mount Suicide, Mount Irrational, Mount Hell. Any of these are suitable. People are morons for trying to hike this mount. After we decided we had enough, we decided to hike down. Hiking down wasn’t any easier then hiking up. I’d find myself constantly sliding and loosing my balance. I slipped and fell more times then I could count. I ate Mount Doom more times then I’d like to admit. I was not up for the challenge. I finally made it down to the bottom of the Mount and thanked God for sparing my life despite my idiotic attempts to climb Mount Doom. I am not a Hobbit. I did not enjoy my trip to Mordor…

The boys eventually caught up to us and decided we should get on with the rest of our journey. I was already physically wiped and now it was time to go on the Tongariro Crossing. It’s oh, only a four-hour hike! This is Outward Bound in a day. I needed my Fakahatchee Crew with me to make light of the situation. We started up the mountain and my legs were already cursing my existence. I toughed it going up the first half of the hike. We finally got to the top and the view was absolutely unreal. There were small ponds of emerald green and red rocked mountains off into the distance. We continued on the hike and the rest of the way was incredible. It’s the best hike I’ve ever been on. Tired and all it was absolutely worth it. We walked through tall grasslands with purple bushes. We walked past streams. We walked past lakes and tall mountains. And to end of our hike we walked through a semi rainforest. It was sweet. The people who made this trail knew exactly what they were doing. My body was so tired. When we finished our journey, I was never happier to see a car. We had quite the adventure. What a weekend.

This blog does not do this experience justice. And if you read through this whole thing, props to you. I wrote a ton. It’s good to be alive and it’s good to be on the ground.