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Published: October 31st 2011
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On our journey back to Auckland we had a couple of days driving through rainy weather to catch the ferry back across to the North Island. It was all to be worth it though as we were headed back to Taupo where we had arranged to do a sky-dive!! It would be a crime to come to New Zealand, the home of adrenaline junkies, and not do something a bit crazy!
On the way to Taupo we were pretty excited about doing a jump, none of us had done one before and this country is the perfect place to launch yourself out of a plane so it was a must. Once we woke up on the morning of our jump though reality kicked in bad!
After a fairly sleepless night, Tina woke up with the realization that she was soon going be thrown out of a plane and it’s fair to say was beginning to enter panic mode! It is not every morning you strap yourself to a stranger with your life depending on them getting you back to earth!
To calm Tina’s nerves we somehow got into our heads that it would be a good idea to get
ourselves a cup of coffee and psyche ourselves up for the big jump. It was only after we had downed the cups that we realized cups of coffee maybe wasn’t the best tonic to have – there are no toilets at 12,000 feet…
Once we arrived at the sky dive centre the instructors quickly took over and in what seemed like no time we were fitted out in our trendy red jump-suits (after a quick visit to the toilet and pray!). We were led into our small plane with our tandem jump partners in tow and packed in like sardines. Once we were up in the air we started the climb, waiting for the moment we got to 12,000 feet. It was at this point that our nerves seemed to trade places – Tina seemed to be over them and happily chatting to her instructor while Paul entered the ‘keeking his breeks’ phase! It didn’t help that he started reading the back of one of the parachutes packs which explained they could cause death if they malfunctioned on a jump – not the most comforting moments of his life!
It was all second-nature to our instructors though who
had done countless jumps, and once we got to 12,000 feet Tina was the first of the plane to jump. Before you hurled out into the sky you had to sit on the edge of the plane with your instructor behind you and your legs tucked as far under the plane as you can get them – oh my god! It’s hard to explain the emotions that go through you when you actually jump out but you torpedo through the sky at 200 kilometres an hour covering 7,000 feet in 45 seconds before your parachute opens. The rush that goes through your body is unbelievable and totally exhilarating, and for the second half of your jump you drift down to earth taking in the amazing views and feeling like you’re actually flying! Paul was second to jump and was soon in the sky with his life flashing past his eyes. Once we were safely back on the ground we were still on cloud nine, it has been one of the best experiences of our trip.
Afterwards we got a bit carried away with ourselves, and addicted to the adrenaline so much so that we actually drove along to the
bungy centre and considered doing a jump!
Unfortunately our pennies didn’t stretch quite far enough, which was probably a good thing as we would have been on a major downer for about a week afterwards. Our pennies did stretch far enough though to invest in a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate in the camper at night!
The next morning we were on the home-run back to Auckland, with a quick flying visit to Matamata – the home of Hobbiton! Paul was looking forward to seeing some hobbits but it turned out they were actually filming ‘The Hobbit’ so it was all closed off. If only we had a few more days to spare we could’ve hung around and auditioned as a couple of hobbits!
It will be a high-five when we actually manage to hand this camper in tomorrow morning and board the flight to the final leg of the trip – The U S of A!!!!!!
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Dave Barnes
non-member comment
Hey guys that was just awesome, you are truly a pair of adventure junkies, well done for showing such bottle. I just hope your not too bored when you visit New Jersey as an exciting time for us is playing Yahtzee in the evening!!!! see yous soon dad.