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Published: March 31st 2008
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One tiny plane. Three irish chicks. 15,000 feet in the air. And three Australian gentlemen who claim to know how the hell we got here. Hmmmmmmm.......quite an afternoon.
But before that we had to get the Lake Taupo (sky diving capital of the world, so surely THE place to do it. If you're ever going to do it!) - we took a bit of a scenic route from Wellington, taking in the art deco town of Napier on the way. The North Island is instantly much busier and more commercialised than south. The roads are still bendy, but around many of those bends there are strange little towns (most of which are miserable enough looking places with just one main street). Napier is on the east coast, and the entire town was flattened by an earthquake (the north island is very volcanic, and has some funky landscapes as a result) in the 1930s. It was completely rebuilt, with a major nod towards art deco style architecture. It was very quiet while we were there, but it still seemed to be a funky town; we had a coffee in Cafe Ujazi (reccommended by both the Lonely Planet and a local), and headed
to the information centre to book our DEATHFALL! There are i Site information centres all over New Zealand, and they have proved to be an absolutely invaluable resource. They are very well staffed with friendly, helpful people whose only aim is to give you some advice and help you plan your trip. They can book pretty much anything for you, and there is no service charge, and there is always realms of brochures and excellent maps on offer too. And we've popped into various i Site centres for directions, and they have been faultless every time (which is saying something, as directions are never straight forward in New Zealand).
Anyway.......we booked a skydive for the following morning over lake Taupo - we initially just booked 12,000 feet and said we would decide if we wanted to upgrade on the day itself. The drive onwards to Taupo was fairly spectucular. We passed through what I can only describe as Hobbit country. Not only are there no straight roads in New Zealand; there are no flat fields either. But in this particular part of the North Island the amount of humps and hills everywhere was unbelievable; and the mountains and hills were
lined with such thick, lush green vegetation that it looked like it would be impossible to navigate any of them, purely because there would not be enought space between the trees. I kept expecting Bilbo Baggins himself to step out on to the road to ask for a lift.
Taupo is much much bigger than I was expecting, and it very much feels like a holiday resort. I couldn't say it is particularily pretty, and we are staying in a hostel which is yet again making me reassess my assessment of YHAs - this one is filthy!!!! I barely slept the night before the dive, and we all got up the next morn feeling a little nervous, but not toooooo bad.
Waiting is always the hardest thing. We arrived at the skydive centre a little early, and begrudingly sat down to be shown the promotional DVD "just so we know what's ahead." I'd rather live in ignorance thanks very much. So with one eye open and one eye shut we watched, and still managed to decided that FECK IT if we're jumping out of a plane, it may as well be as high as possible - so sing me up
for 15,000! I had been hyming and hawing about whether to go for the DVD or not (price being the only issue)...and ended up opting for the DVD, photos and the t-shirt. It's all or nothing now!
After a few more minutes waiting, we were brought outside (ours was the first dive of the day), and kitted out in red jumpsuits and hats, oh and an oxygen mask, because apparently if you go above 14,000 feet you need it. Great. Once we were suited up a man with a slightly swollen face strolled in our direction looking for me. Turned out it was my instructor Dan, who had got a tooth out about an hour earlier. For some reason this seemed quite worrying. Dan was also missing half of one of his fingers (thankfully I didn´t notice this til after the dive!), and he wasn´t exactly a spring chicken. BUT he was a really nice guy, and to be honest I think I got the best of three. Claud´s bloke had crazy bulging eyes, and kept saying "Easy as" in his ridiculous New Zealand accent, and Sib´s guy, well he seemed to be mute, so that never helps.
We were
brought over to what I can only describe as the smallest plane in the world - there was only just room for the six of us to fit in. Actually there wasn´t enough room, but we squeezed in anyway. The great thing was it was just the three of us together, which we were really lucky about. Oh, no wait, there wasn´t six of us, there was eight - both myself and Claud had our own private cameramen who were jumping out ahead of us (Sibs didn´t get a DVD cos it was her second dive).
You are given a run through of what you need to do while you´re still on the ground, but once you´re in the air, sure you haven´t a notion what´s going on. Through no choice of our own, it turned out that Claud was going to be out first, then me, then Sib. With us all sitting VERY snuggly together (it´s an intimate thing, this skydiving) the plane climbed higher and higher and higher. There´s no proper door on the plane, just a see through shield separating us from the universe hurtling by outside. I had expected to get really nervous in the plane,
but I could not believe how relaxed I was. In fact I was laughing my head off the whole way up - I loved every minute of it!!!! There wasn´t a bother on either of the girls, although I did think Claud´s eyes were going to bulge out of her head when the time came to JUMP! We knew that time had arrived when Claud´s camerman put on his helmet - no turning back now lads. The door opened (EEEEEEeeeeeeeeesk!!!), he climbed out, followed by Claud´s instructor (with Claud strapped to his front!), legs dangling over the edge of the plane, then BAM! Spuddy´s a goner. Quicksmart, Dan moves himself and myself into position - I have to keep my head and legs bent back (inverted banana!), we´re only at the edge of the plane for a few seconds then FREEFALL!!!!!! It all happens so quickly there´s no time to get freaked out, and then the feeling of the freefall is unbelievable. My cameraman was fantastic and kept making me do stupid actions and faces as we fell through the air. Because we went for 15,000 feet (the highest possible in New Zealand) we had more than a minute of
freefall, before our instructors pulled the string for the parachute. At this stage you are yanked back upwards, and then you are just gliding gliding....such a peaceful feeling. I Absolutely loved it loved it loved it, and would have gladly hopped straight back on the plane to do another jump if given the opportunity. Ah, it was amazing, if it wasn´t for the money I think skydiving would be my new addiction!
Feeling elated, we decided the day´s fun shouldn´t stop there and that afternoon we took the Huka jet boat - which spins and twirls its way up to the Huka waterfall on Lake Taupo. Our driver Brett twirled his finger in the air in a motion akin to a Girls Aloud dance move to warn us each time he was going to do a 360 degree turn. It was great craic, just lasted half an hour in all, and we just got a little wet, rather than drenched as expected. There was a couple in their 70s sitting behind us - fair balls lads!
So Lake Taupo will forever be the place where I first threw myself out of a plane....I wonder where location number two will be??
(BTW - I can only manage to upload the photos from my own skydive CD at the mo, so thats why it´s all me me me me meeeeeee, and none of the girls! Sorry Sherlocks!)
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UnaRocks
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AWESOME
amazingsies!