Day 12 (June 2)

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Day 12 (June 2) Wow! I just jumped out of a plane at 15,000 feet. It was amazing. As you can see from my picture I was terrified...

I had a great time on the hike with my new British friends (Adrian, Sophie, and Lucy). They're so nice and fun and we all have similar senses (?) of humor. After the hike we were headed the same direction so we've carpooled over the last few days. I'll post pics of them when I get a chance...

I first heard about sky diving in Taupo when I was in Raglan. A Canadian guy was telling me about it and said it was one of the coolest things he'd ever done. I then heard the same thing from a few more people...

My Brit friends were all about doing it, and I went along to check it out. I decided to go for it, but chose the 12,000ft option (they were doing the 15,000ft jump). The cost was a bit more and I didn't think it would be worth it. But once we got on the plane and headed off, I told my tandem guy to take me all the way up.

The worse part about it was there were two Asian women who were going out at 12,000 as well. They were sitting to my right by the door (we are faced backwards in the plane). So when we got to 12,000 feet, the door about 2 feet from me is opened and I have to watch these screaming women disappear out of a plane right next to me. It was surreal. Then we had to wait another 4-5 mins while the plane climbed to 15,000, then I was first.

When my tandem opened the door, I was freaked. Hanging my feet out with nothing but air between me and the ground 2.5miles below. I looked over at the camera, my tandem pulled back my head and then shoved us out. We accelerated to 125mph in about 10 secs. I was trying to scream but the wind was so strong in my mouth that nothing could come out. As I chose not to have a video made, it was just me and a guy strapped to my back, so he started to play around almost immediately. He started spinning us around very quickly, and the mountains in the horizon (same ones we climbed over the day before) were spinning by a few times a second. I quickly grabs his arms to stop the spinning b/c I knew I'd get sick. And I wanted to check out the scenery and not have it fly by over and over. We couldn't talk so he thought I was having trouble breathing. After a few hand signals I got my point across, and we fell for the rest of the 60secs while slowly spinning. After the initial shock, I was able to take it all in. AMAZING.

We then pulled the chute at 3,000 or so and he let me drive. We were in one of the most scenic parts of the North Island, so the views were beautiful. After a few minutes of this we brought it in for a landing. We all landed withing a few seconds of each other and we were screaming and laughing and high-fiving. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I strongly recommend it....

I'm hoping to post more pics in the next few days and update you on the rest of my trip... Off to Australia tomorrow early. Sad to be leaving NZ.

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Photos

Absolute Fear
Look how freaked out I was...

Comments

[Drew Pinkin]

Miss you
Tom- We all miss you so much!!! Please come back soon and safely. Add me to your blog, chump. PinkinD06