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Published: December 15th 2008
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On arrival in Auckland we weren’t sure really what to expect. We had been told that it wasn’t really a city that we should spend much time in and that we should only stay a couple of days. So we decided to book 4 nights! We arrived in the city well rested after our relaxing time in Fiji and it was a good thing too.. We arrived in the city with directions to the hostel and a plan of how to get there on the bus. Off the bus we hopped at the last stop and headed down the docks towards the hostel. 20 minutes later we realised that the hostel was not where it was indicated on the Hostelworld.com map, but quite a distance the opposite direction on the other end of Queen Street, the city’s main thoroughfare. With the mistake realised, we jumped in the first taxi that came our way. Not very backpacker-like, we know, but there was no way we were carrying our backpacks any further that day!
The hostel itself was pretty cool, our room gave us the impression that it was an older building recently spruced up. It had a nice character to it
with oddly shaped and sized rooms painted brightly and all differently coloured to make it feel new and fresh.
We found out soon enough that people were right in regards the fact that there’s not a lot to do in Auckland, we walked up and down Queen Street I don’t know how many times! Aided I must add by the Auckland city buses which ran like clockwork and got us there within a couple of minutes each time for only 50cent a journey. The city would be much like any other, if it weren’t for the relatively recent introduction of the Sky Tower to the city which dominates the skyline and can be seen for miles around.
The Sky Tower was the scene of our 1st foray into New Zealand’s adrenalin rush/extreme activity lifestyle. There was the small matter of deciding whether or not to leap off the top of the tower 192 metres up in the sky to the ground below. It is basically, a base jump (with a harness) known as the Sky Jump. I had decided to do it from the moment I first set eyes on it but Lynsey was not quite so sure.
Over the course of the time in Auckland Lynsey had decided she was doing it and then changed her mind on more occasions than you would care to remember! Finally though when it came time to book it for the last full day of our stay, Lynsey had decided that no, she wasn’t doing it. That is, until I had booked it and was leaving the tower. Then Lynsey impulsively made the decision that she was going to do it and booked and paid there and then for the next day so she couldn’t pull out of it so easily!
So the day came and the nerves started to jangle. Not helped may I add by the worst weather conditions we had seen since we 1st arrived. It had been raining all morning since long before we woke up. Undeterred we made our way to the tower and got suited up. The staff made us very comfortable and put our minds at ease, so it was time to get in the elevator to carry us 630 feet up to the platform. Those of a nervous disposition would have found even this tough going with part of the elevator floor
being glass and as we moved on up the tower we had a view of the city dropping below us at quite a rate! We arrived on the Sky Deck just in time to see another person walk the plank and being strapped up before taking the dive. It actually helped put our minds at ease having seen the procedures the guys at the top go through to ensure your safety. So then it was time for us. We had decided that Lynsey, being the more nervous of the two, should go 1st so that seeing me drop wouldn’t exasperate her nerves. The 2 guys on the job that day were really cool and once Lynsey mentioned she was a bit nervous, any joking was put aside. Then the jump...
What happens is straight forward. They harness you in for the walk to the edge of the platform. Then change harnesses to the main one that’s gonna hold you as you plummet down towards the ground. After a pose for a photograph they double check the harness and the back-up before its time to stand holding the bars on each side. They pull on the rope tight so
you’re almost on your tip-toes, before a 3-2-1 countdown and it’s time to leap.. Neither of us leaped really truth be told, it was more of a nervous drop off the edge after a moment’s pause to consider our choice. Boy was it scary. They stop you approximately 10 feet after you jump, so you can dangle there as they look down to take a picture of you before just letting you drop with no warning. The feeling of your heart racing up into your throat as they let you drop towards the ground, it rushing towards you at 150kph is indescribable. The adrenalin rush that sears through your body engulfing every fibre of your being is so overwhelming that you start to laugh and scream uncontrollably as you hurtle towards the ground. It’s such a rush! Then it’s over as quickly as it started. Having dropped so rapidly, you reach the ground in 10 or 11 seconds as they slow the rope for you to land safely on your feet. And so it was over. Or so we thought. As soon as I landed and reunited with both Lynsey and my sanity on the ground, we were offered another
opportunity to jump.. for FREE! We couldn’t pass it up so up we went to go through it all over again! Well almost all of it. The 2nd time round there was no posing for photos having already done it, so it was a straight drop all the way to the ground. Surely now nothing could top that, though we still have to skydive 15000 feet out of a plane so, maybe that could rival it....
As if jumping from 192m in the air wasn’t enough, we decided that a spot of Whale and Dolphin Watching would nicely round off our day. We boarded the catamaran and soon found out we had a skipper with Irish blood in his veins. We set off into the Hauraki Gulf and soon enough we had found a small group of dolphins. They were sleeping though so they weren’t too interested in us, so we carried on the search. It wasn’t long before we came across a much larger group who were happy to drift in front of the boat so that they could use the swell we were creating to swim along without using their own fins to propel themselves. It was
an absolutely wonderful experience to follow and watch these Common Dolphins as our guide overflowed with information and jokes. Suddenly there was a lot of commotion in the wheel house. Our skipper spotted a huge Bryde Whale. This as a very rare sight in the area and got the crew as well as us and the other passengers very excited! It was very comfortable having us nearby and the crew managed to get a close picture of the fin to realise, upon inspection of the records, that it was infact a whale called “Bonza” that had been spotted a year previous for the very 1st time and this was only its 2nd appearance. It came very close to us, within about 20 metres which was awesome but we didn’t want to outstay our welcome and possibly upset it so we were on our way back to Auckland to finish up our 4 hour trip.
The next day we headed to Hertz to pick up our rental car and begin the next leg of our journey, driving around the North Island with The Coromandel as our 1st destination......
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Elvira
non-member comment
OMG!!!!
1st I would never ever be able to do it! 2nd if I did it.... I would cry, shit on my pants and die of a heart attack!!! You are sooooooo brave! Last Saturday was ICON´s Xmas party, really nice & good fun. I´ll show you the cd with teh POPICON music videos... soooo funny! Take care guapos!