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Published: August 8th 2007
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The First job of the morning was to ring the flight centre. With every thing crossed I asked if it was all on and very happily the lady on the other end replied, YES!!
Our pic up was very soon after that and that is probably when the nerves started to kick in. I had thought that it couldn't be any harder than a bungee and even though I was getting nervous I was still sure it wasn't going to be as bad as that however I was about to jump out of a perfectly good plane and that certainly, in my view, warranted a few butterflies.
At the flight centre we were suited and botted in lovely red overalls and harnessed up (stress level going up form 3 to 5) here we met the guys who would be taking the film of our jump (stress level hits 7). The waiting around, while we watched the first plane leave and first jumpers coming back, was nearly the end of me, and when I met Brad, the guy I was jumping with, the stress level hit 8. Here there was a short time for introductions but
I was slightly distracted at how the ground crew kept responding with, 'Jumping with Brad Eh?!!!', when I told them who I was jumping with. I couldn't see why first off but as we boarded the plane it became clear he was probably a bit of a ladies man, a Cecil if you wish.
However my thoughts now- as the shutter on the plane shut- were on the fact that the only way I was now leaving this plane was by jumping out of it at 12 thousand feet.
Stress level hits 10. I was sat wedged between the legs of Brad, while he hooked me to him, and my camera man who was wedged between my legs- it was very cosy. I did have to double check that this was all procedure when Brad had me sit further onto his lap which he assured me with a grin it totally was 😊 But here, in all seriousness, I couldn't have asked for a better instructor as he was totally reassuring the higher we ascended.
Suddenly the hatch was whipped open and the first triplet of Cameraman, jumper and instructor were in place. I watched Bungee jumpers
over the river in Taupo
in terror as the cameraman crawled onto the wing in position and waited for the instructor/jumper to sit on the edge of the plain. Then the Cameraman jumped and in the next second so did the they. Then it was our turn.
The cameraman got out onto the wing and we moved forward with our legs dangling over the edge of the plane. I followed instructions and put my head back on Brad's chest then folded my arms against my chest. The wind was strong up here. Suddenly the cameraman jumped and so did we. However rather than being more scared, my stress level dropped as we experienced that first moment of freefall, something I'd done quite a bit over the last few weeks, and it felt bloody awesome! The only problem was that I was waiting for the G force to let up so I could breath and it didn't . I could see the beautiful scenery around me and the cameraman waving in front of me as we hurtled fast towards the ground, but I still could not take a breath. I felt Brads hand touch the tip of my nose, telling
me to breathe through it but I still couldn't. After just under a minute's free fall, the parachute was released and the cameraman appeared to fall away and suddenly I could breathe. After screaming out in sheer exhilaration I could hear Brad asking if I was ok, I replied that I was very pleased we only did 12 thousand feet as I didn't know if I could gone for a minute and I half with no breathing. From here on I totally admired the gorgeous view, talking to Brad about his worst experiences, which included a jumper being sick and the sick hitting him in the face on the way down. After talking a bit about where we were from in the world ( I mean what else are you meant to talk about when falling through the air attached to a bit of silk and a huge South African bloke?) I was instructed to lift my legs high as we hit the ground- here I was rudely informed I that couldn't be from Cambridge and must be from Essex to lift my legs that high. After hitting the floor I was still totally exhilarated and after giving my lovely instructor a huge hug I waited for the others to reach the ground.
After the jump, we headed for lunch with a Guinness to celebrate. Later I walked up to the bungee place in Taupo that it set in a beautiful location over the river and I watched a few jumpers jump, still totally reeling from my own sky dive. After meeting Liz on the bank of the river under the jump our day descended into weirdness as we got lost on a walk and ended up breaking into a sewage plant by jumping the fences- I think we were still a bit pumped full of adrenalin. Thankfully this did get us back on the correct path but we were lucky there were no big dogs lurking. The evening was spent dissecting the Sky dives and drinking wine, trying come down off the day's huge high.
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