Skydive time and New Zealand The Final Chapter

The poster in the skydive shop said "There is no such thing as TRY, there is only DO or DID NOT DO". The skydive was one of the most enjoyable experiences ive ever had. I cant wait to do another one.

Wednesday the 17th

Myself and peter decided to do a skydive Wednesday. But unfortunately the weather did not work out and the skydive got cancelled. When we realised the skydive was cancelled it was to late to go skiing. So it ended up being a waste of a day. So we bummed around queenstown, but with the weather not so good there isn’t really much to do in Queenstown unless you are snowboarding, skydiving or bungee jumping. The most exciting thing we did was go to the cinema. (We saw Tropic Thunder and it is very funny).

Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th

Instead of waiting on weather for a skydive we got back on the slopes. The weather was good and after the bad weather on Wednesday which stopped the skydive there was fresh snow on the mountains. Lovely!!!!!. I got through the last two days of snowboarding without injuring myself, no twisted knees or dislocated shoulders, so i might not be cursed by the mountains after all. On Friday, Peters mate Mat who is Scottish put his kilt on for the skiing. This was great craic and got lots of attention and comments. Thursday and Friday night involved trying out the burgers, pizzas with the odd beer and jagerbomb thrown in for good measure.

Saturday the 19th and the SKYDIVE

At 12.30 myself and peter checked in to do the skydive. We were driven out to the skydive centre with the other victims. When we got to the skydive field a girls gave us a talk on what would be happening. As she was talking a guy in a parachute came in behind her at 100 miles an hour and disappeared behind a building before he landed. Now i wasn’t sure if the guy was still alive and this made me even more nervous. As it turns out the guy was a cameraman and a professional skydiver. They approach the ground really fast but pull up at the last second and somehow basically stop and then put their feet on the ground without even having to take one step. I saw the next guy come in at the same speed and i saw him pull up and land gently. Its amazing the control they have. After the camera men we saw two tandem jumper landings and it was pretty gentle. After our talk and seeing a few landings i was excited and now looking forward to the jump.

Out of the group of 8 that were in the bus myself and peter were called up first. This was great as we could get it over with as fast as possible. So we brought in to meet out tandem masters (the guy we would be strapped onto). The guy i was jumping with was called Scott and he was a right comedian. He put me in the harness and showed me the four connections that he would use to attach me to him. Now i knew immediately that they were pretty sturdy. But scott continued to tell me that each connection could take 1 million pounds. I assured him that i was an engineer and this didnt fully make sense so he continued laughing to himself and giving me equipment, goggles a hat and gloves saying each of them could also take 1 million pounds. Funny b@stard! This equipment would come in hand on the ships offshore if its that bloody strong.

Anyways, he did seem to know what he was doing so I hopped on the plane with peter, our two tandem guys and our two cameramen. There were two other guys with us aswell who were jumping on their own. It was a pretty tight squeeze in the plane and we were all basically sitting on top of each other. One camera man was taking photos and videos as we went up in the plane and myself and peter were both looking a bit shaky. The scenery was amazing over the Queenstown mountains and lake but I wasnt taking much in due to the nerves as I was being strapped to the guy with the parachute. At 12000ft a green light came on and the door was opened opened. Before you could say boo the two randoms had jumped out, and one of them was looking fairly nervous, I think he was a trainee. Then peter and his two were gone. Oh christ i thought. The camera man climbed out onto the edge of the plane outside of the door. He was standing on some ledge. Then me and my buddy wend to the door. At this stage I was basically hanging out the door not touching any part of the plane, just attached to a man who luckily had a parachute attached to him.

The cameraman gave us the thumbs up, then with his thumb went 1....2....3 and next thing I was falling. The first 5 seconds incredible. My stomach clenched and i was completely confused. It is the craziest feeling. I think your body goes into shut down mode protecting you from what usually comes next if you ever experience this falling feeling. After a few seconds I came to my senses. The wind in my face was incredible. The tandem guy tapped me on the shoulder to put out my arms (they had been close by my sides at the start). When I spread my arms the wind pushed them back and I hurt my previously dislocated shoulder. But i didn’t throw much heed on the pain as i was having the time of my life. The camera man was flying all over the place. One second he was above me, then below me, then upside down then grabbing my hand. Before I knew it the freefall was over. The guy pulled the parachute and thankfully it opened. We completely slowed down and felt like everything stopped. Only now did I bother taking in the scenery. It was amazing floating over a lake between mountains. On the way down i had could talk and hear the guy with me. I think most of what i said shouldn’t be repeated here...... lots of "amazing" and "incredible" separated by four letter words and references to a superior being and a "holy" one at that.

The landing was perfect. As we approached we sped up a little then he pulled the brakes and next thing i knew i was standing up. i didnt even need to take a step. The guy is a genius.

Afterwards myself and peter, who also survived, (come to think of it I never saw that nervous guy on the ground) were on a serious adrenaline buzz. We headed back into town and couldn’t stop talking about the skydive for ages. We were going to do a bungee but pulled out. I would have easily done one after the skydive but having just spent 520 dollars (about 260euro) on the skydive I wasn’t up for another 100 euro on a bungee jump. Anyways ive already done a bungee jump (by the way a skydive, isn’t as scary but is much more fun as you have way more time to take it in) so instead we did this down hill gravity based go-karting. It was good fun especially for me as I kicked mulligans ass.

That evening we took it easy as everyone was off early in the morning.

Sunday the 20th

Peter and Mat left in the morning and for the first time since I landed in Lima, Peru I was getting on a bus on my own. Now that is pretty crazy, considering how I am meant to be travelling alone. Anyways the plan for the day was a trip to milford sound, apparently a beautiful ford. I never found out. We drove all the way there in the pouring rain. When we got there the boat wouldn’t take us out on the water since there were winds up to 100 miles per hour. Most people I know say how milford sound was amazing. You wont here me saying that. All I can say is a waste of money, but I guess you cant control the weather so what can be done. To tell the truth the 8 hour drive (for nothing) was pretty cool since due to all the rain there were waterfalls pouring down the sides of all the mountains, something that is only visible in the rain, since the waterfalls dry up when it clears up.

I met a group of three Irish girls and and Irish guy on the tour, all nice people and good craic, even if I forget their names, but as usual everywhere I go there are Irish people. I think Ireland would be over crowded if we all actually went home at the same time. The bus driver was also a bit of a comedian keeping us well entertained when the waterfalls were not.

That night was my last night in Queenstown. Queenstown has been good to me for the week with the snowboarding, skydiving and nightlife. But it hasn’t been so nice to my bank account. Its well worth the visit but bring some cash.

Monday the 21st

Again got on a bus on my own (Maybe now I will actually see what it is like to travel on my own) heading for fox glacier. As usual the scenery was stunning. I think I am getting a bit blasé about beautiful scenery. Its still mountainous (snow capped of course) with lakes but the mountains are now covered with a sub tropical rainforest due to all the rain that falls. The bus driver explained a lot about the areas we were passing on the way and as we got closer to our destination 7 hours away from queenstown you could feel how remote the area was. We passed a primary school that has 7 pupils and will only have 4 next year, and the bus driver pointed out things like “Oh there is Carol going for her daily walk” and there is “Jim mowing his lawn”. Very small town feel where everyone know everyone. The town of Fox glacier is a strange looking place surrounded by Sub tropical rainforest. I was kind of expecting dinosaurs to wander in from the trees at any second. Its pretty small and a permanent population of 100 people.

Tuesday the 22nd

Again it pissed rain. Now this was not cool as it was glacier trekking time. I met up with the guide, Jono, and the rest of my trekking group, a malaysian family at 9.20. The fitted us out with rain gear, wolly socks, boots and those things you attach to your boots for walking on ice. Of we went in the pissing rain. Ive said it before and ill say it again, new zealand is incredibly beautiful, but christ does it have a knack of pissing down from the heavens when im planning to do something. Once when it was raining lightly, Jono the guide said, "i think its going to start raining soon", obviously a joke the kiwis in the west. Every year there are between 5 and 9 meters of rain here. I dont know how they are still sane. The trek lasted 7 hours. Honestly, i did not enjoy it, but this was solely due to the fact that it was raining. However, every now and again the rain eased off and walking on the glacier was pretty cool. The best way of describing it is Otherworldly. I had this image of the top of a glacier being very smooth, but its not at all. Its all rough with mounds and crevices. Its like something out of a science fiction movie. Some of the crevices were 20 to 30 metres deep.

I got talking to Jono for a while and he described, where he lived, 45 minutes away from fox glacier. He teaches part time in the school with 6 children. He gets his groceries sent to his house on the school bus and he has blank signed cheques left in the grocery shop so that when the groceries are sebnt down the shop owner fills them in. Now thats just a little bit too trusting if you ask me, but aparently it seems to work and no one has been ripped off yet.

Watched Lord of the Rings, the return of the king back at the hostel that night, fitting as it was filmed in newzealand.


Wednesday the 23rd

Got a morning bus to Greymouth, five or six hours north of Fox glacier. Of course it was a beautiful sunny day now that I was getting on a bus and not walking on a glacier. Anyways, maybe this isnt a bad thing as you take in the scenery along the way which was as amazing as it always is.

Then in Greymouth I got on the Trans Alpine, a train that runs from greymouth on the west coast to christchurch on the east coast over the Southern Alps. Its ranked as one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world and with the mountains lakes etc it did live up to its reputation. I got into christchurch at about 6 or 7 that evening and called Tom, the farmer from christchurch that I met when I was in Argentina. He arranged to pick me up the next day in town and bring me out to his farm.

Thursday the 24th

In the morning I strolled around the city of Christchurch. It is a pretty enough place with a nice centre square with a cathederal and beside it there is a small tree lined river. There was the biggest chess set Ive ever seen in the square. And few guys were playing with a bit of an audience.

Tom picked me up at midday and brought me out to his farm. Its only about 20 minutes drive away from christchurch. When we got there the key for the door of the house was on top of the welcome mat outside. I think we might sometimes hide a key under a mat, but to hide it on top of the mat where it can clearly be seen seemed a bit funny. On 750 acres they farm a mixture of sheep and crops with a few experimental calves thrown in the mix. It was interesting seeing their setup, with the tractors and even a combine harvester. Pretty similar to home only the land was better. So we fed a few calves, and went into town for a couple of new zealands finest beers and New zaland certainly have some good beers. Christ church had a nice little buzz for a thursday night and could be a good venue for a weekend.

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