Sky diving over Fox glacier!

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Our next leg of the journey was from Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef and on the way we had a few stops that the Kiwi bus took us to. We stopped at probably one of the weirest musuems I have ever been to; it was meant to represent New Zealand hunting past times. We were shown a video where deer and moose had to be captured and the way they went about doing this was rugby takling them by jumping out of a helicopter! We also were shown a violent pig that apparently thinks its a dog and we got to try possom pies. My highlight of the morning though was when we were all on the bus and Rick decided he wanted a picture of a moose so ran out the bus slipped on the wet surface fell down the hill and ended up muddy and on his back side. He received a round of applause by the 40 of us on the bus.

Our next stop was the sky diving centre where we were going to jump from 12000 feet over the fox glacier. The day was perfect blue sky ( the best sky dive weather for months.) It was me Rick and Nick joined by 2 funny sweedish guys Rickas and Nick, Charlie and Helen- all friends from the bus. The funniest was Fin an Irish guy who was sooo pale and looked petrified. The plane was tiny it could only fit 2 jumpers in and the door was covered in masking tape! We swallowed hard put our jumper suits on and climbed into the plane. We expected a full training session but all we got told was when you jump out pretend your a bannana and when you tapped on the head spread your hands out. The women instructor on my back was really nice and was pointing out points of interest as we climbed to 12000 feet. Mount Cook and Tazmare moutain looked amazing, Fox glacier was also very impressive; however viewing scenery wasn't really what I was concentrating on. Just as we reached 12000 feet the woman on my back was flirting with the pilot and proded him so he decided to get her back by dive bombing the plane..my stomach was in my mouth I have never experienced as much G force ever! Just as I was recovering she flung open the door and a strong icy wind blasted into the small tin can plane. I was now told to dangle myself out the plane whilst she held on to me! The few moments as I dangled over the edge seemed like forever and then bam! I was falling 120 mph the equivelent to 20 stories a second. It was 48 seconds of free fall, I opened my eyes as we came out of a roll and a smile hit my face..wow! I was falling..this isnt natural but its awsome! My jump buddy then opened my parachute...was relieved it opened and we then spiralled down to the ground. I then saw Nick plumet past me and then his parachute was opened( Quite weird seeing your brother fall out of a plane.)
We exchanged some words of excitment and then prepared for landing. We lifted our legs up and skidded along the floor finally coming to a standstill. We had landed in a field of sheep ( quite normal for new Zealand.) As the New Zealanders say it was Premo baby!!!!!

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