Rotorua

12th November 2009 It’s very difficult to spot a Kiwi (New Zealand’s national bird) in the wild. Not only are they nocturnal and shy with a wicked sense of hearing and smell, but they are also severely endangered. The population is currently declining so rapidly it is halving in size every ten years and the Kiwi could be close to extinction by 2015. This flightless bird survived millions of years and developed defenses against other birds that preyed on them. However, these defenses were useless against man, who in the past hunted Kiwis, and the preditors he introduced such as stoats, rats, cats, dogs and possums which tarket kiwi and their eggs while wild pigs dig up their burrows. ...

10th November 2009 After yesterday’s disappointing weather which prevented us from doing the Alpine crossing we woke up this morning to a glorious day - typical! I’d been thinking about doing a skydive for a while - something which had been brought back to the surface again after chatting to a guy in Hamilton a couple of days ago who had done one in Taupo. He raved about how great it had been, and it turns out that Taupo is one of the cheapest places you can do it. And we just so happened to be passing that way this morning. I’d already decided which of the three operators to go with, so we called in there about 10:10 this morning, to find that they had some slots free on the 10:30 flight. There were two drop heights available - 12,000 feet or 15,000 feet. Someone we met on the rafting day yesterday had recommended doing the 15,000 foot one as you get an extra 15 seconds or so of freefall, so that’s the one I opted for. With the decision made it was off to get kitted up, meet the guy who was going to be my tandem and board the plane. ...