Sky Dive - Alan's Tale

Sorry to bore you all with another sky dive tale but it was my first time so I'm just going to blog away.

As Jacquie mentioned in her entry I had no intention of doing a sky dive - jumping out of a plane has never appealed to me, but when I heard that Jacq's was planning another jump (and the gazillion people we've encountered on our trip so far who never shut up about it) I thought ah what the hell and we both booked into doing a jump on the 8th. The weather of course in NZ is totally unpredictable so it went from a lovely day on Wed to a nasty rainy and cloudy day and our dive was cancelled - bummer, but we had booked into a slot on the 9th weather permitting. The next day came and we awoke once again to the now rather familiar weather(cloud). But then at 12.15 the cloud suddenly cleared and the sky turned into a magnificent blue - the dive was on!!!!!

At this stage I was just going to do a 12,000 ft jump as it was so cheap (cheapest in the world at NZ$145) but as the woman in Taupo Tandem Skydiving explained the view at 15,000 ft would be amazing and we should be able to see the South Island of NZ as well as the volcano peaks in Torriango National Park (which includes Mt Ngauruhoe a.k.a. Mt Doom from LOTR) both me and Jacquie were sold and we paid the extra NZ $90. Seeing as it was my first time to jump I was interested in getting some pictures and was told that the only way to do this was to go for the full package and get a free-fall dvd (this involves having to pay for another sky diver to go with you and film you). Being rock and roll, I signed up for this option - once in a life time and all that. So of we went to get suited up, Jacquie in a jump suit far too big for her and me in a jump suit too small for me (a wee bit tight around the old crown jewels).


I met the guy I would be jumping with - Henrik, a cool guy who's been jumping since he was 15 and splits his time between summer in NZ and summer in Stockholm just doing tandem sky diving, what a life). After some joking around for the camera we boarded the plane and after a majestic circle around the sky we had hit 12,000ft and the 4 people who were jumping first had to go for it. Up until this point I was totally unfazed about this jumping out of a plane business (granted my heart beat had increased when the tiny plane took of and soared into the sky) but then I saw the first person jump from the plane and suddenly vanish as if being sucked into some unseen black-hole - at this stage I did feel the fear, no doubt about it. Then before I knew it the little light in the plane had gone green, the door was opened and I was being inched towards the exit - we had hit 15,000ft oh shit!!!


The adrenalin was now pumping through my veins and as I dangled my legs over the side of the plane and looked out into the beautiful blue sky, the lake below and of the course terra firma at 15,000ft underneath me the fear accelerated inside me. But then one exit photo later I was pushed out of the plane with my legs flailing everywhere (I remembered to fold my arms in but not to tuck my legs up and backwards) as we tumbled through the sky I felt the wind hit my body like no other experience i've ever had. The next thing I knew was that I was spinning around posing for photos and just trying to take in the feeling, the view, the exhilaration of it all. After a free fall that seemed to last only 10 seconds (I'm assured it was actually 65 seconds) the chute opened and suddenly the tremendous noise of the wind rushing past my ears stopped and it just went so quiet, a kind of quiet I don't think i've ever encountered - absolute nothing, so serene and tranquil. We then just glided down taking in the views of lake Taupo and the volcanic mountains peaking through the clouds. Henrik allowed me to take the handles and steer us which was amazing - pulling hard down left, then right to do acute turns. Then before I knew it we were almost landing, a quick lift of the legs and we were back on solid ground (via our arses - unlike Jacquie's tip toe "superman" style graceful landing). What an experience, such a euphoric high that I would recommend it to anyone. Simply put - you just have to do it.