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Published: January 16th 2008
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SkyDive
This is a snapshot of myself and the instructor just before we jumped January 16th
Monday morning, I went to the rent-a-car company and rented a car for Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Sandra and I went on a bit of a vacation, just to get away from Wellington for a few days.
We started by driving North-West about 9 hours to Raglan. Raglan is said to be one of the best surfing destinations on this side of the world. It's a small town with a population of just over two thousand, and we happened to be there in the heart of the summer, so it was very nice. When we arrived on Monday night, we were pretty tired from the long drive, but went out for a nice dinner.
On Tuesday, we got up and went out for breakfast. We were both anxious to do some swimming, so we drove to a nearby beach. Raglan beaches are weird in the sense that they have iron sand. The sand on the beach wasn't tan, it was all dark. Not quite black, but like a grayish. It was cool. We swam for a little while, and then laid on the beach for a tan. The rest of our day consisted of walking along
Sandra
Snapshot of Sandra and instructor just before they jumped the coast, and in the town. At night we went out for a meal at a cafe, and then got some ice-cream. The hostel we were staying at had nice summertime hostel uniqueness. The center of the hostel was a small yard with no roof. It had decking running all the way around, with rooms a few feet apart. On one side was just the kitchen and lounge area. Along the decking just as the deck ends and the grass began, there were small hammocks lining all the way around. So I could chill on a hammock next to my room under a roof with the yard and open sky just to my other side. It was really nice.
When we woke up on Wednesday morning we basically just left the town. We had seen everything and didn't really have anything more to do. Plus we were anxious for the next adventure that awaited. After stopping off for a quick lunch, we drove South East to Lake Taupo. We got there around 1pm and spent a couple hours just hanging around town. We went and bought some fruit, went to a music store, etc. Around 3pm we drove to
Sandra and I
One of the people who worked at Tandem Air took a picture of us after we put on our jump suits the airport, and went to Tandem Sky-dive.
First let me say, Sky-diving was the single greatest thing I have ever done. It was insane. We got there early, and had the opportunity to check out their set-up, and talk to them about safety, etc. At around 3:30, they called our names and it was time for us to go. So we all piled into the plane with our instructors, and Sandra and I were at the very back. It was so cool. The guy that I was strapped to was from New Jersey. Funny, what are the odds that I would have the American Instructor? So we got to watch everyone jump out before us. Well, I guess you could say "listen" to everyone jump out before us. Couldn't really see much, and only heard the first half a second of their screams as they exited the plane. For some reason, I wasn't that scared. I didn't even hesitate, because I knew it would be awesome.
We did a freefall from 15,000 feet for probably 30...maybe 35 seconds. It was incredible. It just topped off the already kick ass vacation that I had. Once he pulled the chute,
Sandra
Out front of a cafe in Raglan we just "hung out" and enjoyed the view. We jumped over Lake Taupo, so it was an extremely spectacular view. We got back in the car, and drove back to Wellington. But the entire drive back, we kept just looking at each other and saying over and over....
"That was the coolest thing I have ever done"
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