North to South

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Hi people,

I would like to start with the scariest, yet most exciting thing i've ever done!
I decided to do a tandem sky diving jump,this involves me being attached to a sky-diver who then jumps out of a perfectly good plane from a great height!

The build up to the jump was way from the norm.
The previous day I paid my fees to the booking agency who then arranged a bus to come pick me up from my hostel, at 7am prompt, said bus picked me up on time, but as i was waiting for others to arrive i spied a copy of that mornings paper, the headline read "TAUPO SKY-DIVER IN NIGHTMARE DESCENT", i asked to read the paper but the driver filled me in on all the gory details, apparently the cameramans' 1st chute didn't open fully, so he quickly realeased his reserve chute, which, got entangled in with the first chute. Now, this guy was recording his imminent departure from this world, he is shouting "why me" and saying his goodbyes' to his family and friends!
Lucky bastard survives,and only has a broken ankle and a punctured lung to show for it!
Apparently, enough air got into his chutes to slow his descent down, coupled with him landing into some thick bushes.

So, i'm shitting myself now, i can't get out off it, i've paid me money. So what do i do? I decide if i'm going to die,i'm doing from the highest possible height, 15'000ft.

All was going fine and dandy, they weighed me to see which jump suit i had to wear, they pointed me towards a T.V. screen so i could watch the safety video, they also gave me a piece of paper to sign, roughly saying tha if i die it wasn't there fault and who should they post the body too.

It was jump time, they gave me my suit, i put on my suit, my tandem partner "skoty" put my harness on and checked everything was ok? It was then i noticed the number 33 on the sleeve of my jump suit, well this sent me into a cold sweat, 33 is the number that lillibet thinks will have a great bearing on her life, I ask to change my suit but they won't, the planes here and its' jump time.
Skoty asks if i have any questions? I say " who scored for england in the 1966 world cup final"?
He says' "I don't fucking no, i'm from the czech republic"!
So off we go into the plane and upto 15,000ft, when we are at altitude we have our exit photo and Skoty gets us into position, this position is, Skoty in the plane and me dangling out of the plane with the wind buffeting me at a speed i don't really want to think about, next second it's lets go, and we are tumbling out of the plane plummeting towards the ground in a freefall that lasts' for just over a minute, the camera guy is trying to make me look like i'm enjoying myself, i'm looking out over the horizon and seeing the curve of the earth and the south island and find myself really enjoing it, after a minute the chute opens and we spend the next 5 minutes floating towards terra firma.

This was so,so,so, fastastic, i'm hoping to get the video onto youtube.com,i'll keep you updated, for know you'll have to make do with some stills.

Take care

Ollie

I have left the North Island and now i'm on the mainland or South Island

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Photos

seals
I hope this picture of seals doesn't exite you to much chris and deanne,we don't the baby popping out to early!