SKY DIVING

Today I finally got around to doing a skydive. I was woken up by someone's cellphone at 8AM and attempted to fall back asleep until 9AM. I got up, showered and had a Muesli Bar and some milk for breakfast and then headed out to check my e-mail and make some last minute phone calls before boarding the bus. 

The drive to Kerikeri took about 20 minutes. There was two other guys on the bus from my hostel one from Denmark and one from Australia. We picked up another Australian girl along the way who worked as a chute packer at the sky dive place. Upon arrival the two other guys got suited up for jump and I found out I would jumping on the second round. I hung around the little area adjacent to the hangar and played Scrabble on my iPod. Another guy showed up and wanted to do a jump so it was decided he was going to be going up with me. He was from Israel.

Time passed and we eventually saw the other two guys descending towards the ground. After they got back in I was given my harness and set up with that and headed out towards the plane. The plane ride up to 12,000 feet was very cozy. It was six people packed into a little Cessna (I think it was a Cessna 180 or a Cessna 185) for a twenty minute plane ride. My first feeling of "oh my god what am I doing" didn't come until I was sitting on the edge of the plane with the air blasting in my face and knowing that as soon as I felt the one rock forward from the tandem master I was going to be hurtling towards the ground. The first roll after falling from the plane just consisted of me yelling "HOOOOLLLYYY SHIIIIIIIT" as the pictures illustrate. That was the only really intense and scary part is the roll out of the plane. After that it is just 100% pure awesome (except how screwed up your ears get because of the rapid descent and rapid changes in pressure as a bi-product of that descent) unadulterated awesomeness. 

The free-fall lasts for approximately 45 seconds and you are traveling at roughly 200Km/h. After the free-fall portion the tandem master pulls the parachute and everything goes dead quiet. All you hear is the light sound of the wind in the canopy and your own breathing. The view from that height is amazing and I wish I could of brought a camera with me. 

After doing this tandem jump I am seriously considering doing the "A" Sky Diving License Course up here near the end of my trip if I have enough money left. The course is about $3,000CAD and consists of 25 jumps starting with a self deployed tandem and leading up to about a dozen solo jumps to hone your skills. Following the course I would be able to skydive solo anywhere in the world.

The video is now live on youtube. Enjoy!