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Published: December 2nd 2006
Phils blog...
The aircraft door slid open - below 9,000ft of pure cold air. We were high above a huge lake and river delta, surrounded by snow capped mountains. I was the first to jump. I'd felt only a little nervous while we geared up and boarded the cramped little plane only 15 minutes earlier. A quick glance down out of the hatch, and my human survival instinct momentarily took grip - I can't do this
I said - I was sh!tting it! Yes you can, you'll be just fine
, said Rob my tandem sky diver. I pushed my fears to one side quickly and I was ready. Nerves gone. I dropped my legs out of the plane, we jumped, and we plummetted! A quick spin upside down, and we faced down hurtling at 120mph towards the floor - free falling. WHOHAAAAAAAAA! WOOOOHOOOOO! THIS IS BRILLIAAAAAAAAAANT! OOOOOH MYYYYY GODDDDDD! YEEEAAAHHHHHHHHHH! 30 seconds of free falling! At first a few whispy clouds whisked pass revealing the landscape below as the wind gushed past. The parachute opened and we quickly slowed down to a gently glide. However my photographer, who also jumped with us, was much further below so we had to descend quickly to catch up with him. Now the free
fall was just amazing; I wasn't scared one bit and wanted it to last longer; I've never experienced anything like it. The next bit suprisingly caught me out - we entered a spiraling motion to descend which unfortunately made me suffer from motion sickness - I felt dizzy, couldn't see properly, and felt sick! bah! After a few spirals we caught up with the photographer and took a nice gradual descend the floor. I landed, and watched as Shelley land a few moments later. I still can't believe I'd done a Sky Dive - it was incredible! Definetly the highlight so far!
Shelleys blog...
Wow - what a day! This has been the highlight of my trip so far. As the weather was good we had booked on to do a skydive above Glenorchy! It is an area surrounded my snow capped mountains and a large blue lake in the middle of it all. I was nervous about doing the skydive but not as nervous as I had been when I did the Skyjump. We flew for about 15 minutes in a very small plane with no seatbelts and no real seats. Even this scared me! I was attached
very firmly to the front of a man called james (don't get jelous girls). The after Phil had jumped (who looked more scared than I have ever seen him) we hung our legs over the edge of the plane and James jumped, with me obviosly. We free falled for about 30 seconds which was bloody scary but amazing at the same time. I was falling all over tha place and then James released the parachute and I enjoyed a very comfortable ,easy, enjoyable fly all the way back down. I was on such a high when we landed - I loved it and want to do it again!!
Later that day...
After throughing ourselves out of a plane we decided for something a little saner... a walk around the Glenorchy Lagoons - which had great scenary. It was getting warmer and was sunny with blue skies.
We then headed back to Queenstown to book into a Campsite for the night. That evening we visited the Minus 5 bar - a bar completely made from ice. Even our "glasses" that we drank from where made from Ice. We were given parkers, gloves, and boots, and when we entered the
room it was actually -8 degrees - so we got an extra 3 degrees for free. :o) A great end to the day.
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Shep
non-member comment
WOW!
Looks amazing! Great experience, will have to find some courage and do it myself! Glad your having fun - looking forward to catching up in OZ....