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1:12 p.m. - 2003-04-22
Totally Unoriginal Kiwi Extreme Sport Time....
2003-04-22 - 1:12 p.m.

Yes, I did a skydive. Well I had to. You can't come to Lake Taupo and not do a tandem skydive. It seems everyone and their dog has jumped out of a plane here. It's not a big deal at all. In fact it is quite dull to talk about it. However, if you are interested; read on...

It's the cheapest place in New Zealand to do it (�120 with video and photos). I was quite scared just thinking about it, then when we were walking down the road, Claire jumped into a phone box and booked us in for 10.20am the next day. I was pretty stunned, but relieved and excited that the decision had been made for me. Rob was adamant he wasn't doing it, and insisted he wasn't scared but that he simply didn't want to. We talked him into it though and I think he just didn't want to miss out.

Anyway, so I'm booked in for a morning skydive - which I'm happy about because I won't have time to worry about it. However, the next morning we ring up at 10am to check the weather and cloud situation and they tell us that it is too cloudy and we'll have to be booked in for a 3 o' clock jump. That is bad news for me, I just want to get it over and done with, plus we'd bumped into Cameron from Rotorua and he'd invited us out on his boat in the afternoon. So to kill time we go to Crazy Catz activity centre and do Go-carting and crazy car driving - the first time I have ever driven a real car (A VW Beetle) and it has had it's steering reversed. I also did a huge Tarzan style jump off a 30ft pole into a giant rope swing. That was pretty scary, especially as I thought I had paid $15 to cruise down a flying fox.

All morning I kept experiencing alternating periods of rational and irrational thoughts: "I'm definitely not going to die"/"I'm definitely going to enjoy it". Then "What if the harness slips and I fall out?" I considered getting caned before my jump. Rob talked me out of it. For some reason I thought it would make it easier. Don't know where I got that idea from, I think I would have been slightly paranoid. Owen from Rarotonga told me he had taken acid before his jump, he also told me that he was free-falling for 45 minutes (I now realise he must have meant 45 seconds). 2.45pm rolls around and we have to ring up the skydive centre again to check the clouds.... This time we're jumping.

They pick us up from the campsite and the realisation that I'm actually doing this hits me. I'm a little bit nervous.

The scariest moment was arriving at the skydive centre, it looked just how I remember seeing it on TV. When you see the Blue Peter presenter preparing the parachute on the floor and getting into their boiler suit. And you think, "I hope he packed his chute correctly, he'd better double check it". Videos of the people that had just jumped were being shown. I had to sign a declaration that if anything happened to me then the company wasn't responsible. That made me feel worse.

I knew I could back out, but I would have really regretted not doing it and deep down I knew it was safe. We had to hang around a bit and watched some people landing. I went to the loo about three times.

We get into our suits (nice red ones) and our harnesses and go out to the plane. My cameraman Rob is really nice and gives me lots of smiles and good luck handshakes. I'm the first in the plane, so that means I'm jumping last. As the aircraft is climbed the 12,000-ft I got really nervous, my legs were like jelly. As we ascend, I'm thinking, "this is pretty high". We're jumping from 12,000 ft. 45 seconds of freefall, and we reach terminal velocity after 10 seconds! It doesn't help that the guy on my back isn't very talkative. We even had a false start when the door was opened and I thought we were jumping, but we had to wait a further 5 minutes because of a raincloud. The second time the door opens and Rob is the first out. He looks shit-scared and screams as he jumps out. I know I'll be jumping in approximately 15 seconds. Claire is next; she disappears into the clouds. Then it's my turn. The cameraman gets out first and hangs off the side of the plane to film my exit. I think I gave him a brave smile - then I throw myself out. Sitting on the edge of the plane waiting to fall out, is the weirdest, most surreal thing, I felt compelled to throw myself out. I just wanted to get on with it. All you can see is blue sky above; it's really sunny and big white fluffy clouds below. I think that makes it easier to jump. You can imagine you're jumping into loads of cotton wool.

The feeling of falling out of a plane is one of surprise, helplessness and fear. The first five seconds of falling feels wrong. You leave your stomach behind and you think "Wait, WHAT am I doing?" But as you reach terminal velocity (which is 200km p/h), falling feels completely normal. I didn't feel myself falling anymore. After passing through the band of cloud I could see the amazing view of Lake Taupo beneath me. I had forgotten about the cameraman and my guy had to tap me on the shoulder to remind me to ham it up. I looked up and, so I was told, smacked him in the face. 45 seconds went by really quickly, when the ripcord was pulled, I was surprised but I also remembered to be relieved. I was struck by how peaceful it was floating down to earth. Complete silence. I did get a little queasy with all that spinning. It took 10 minutes to get back to terra firma, and my landing was clumsy.

Rob was so pleased with himself, he would not stop going on about it. It wasn�t that big a deal. Cameron came to our campsite that evening with his weed and his bong. I think we deserved it.

 

 

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