sky-flipping-dive

On the bus back to Auckland with Doully (our original driver on Friday!) Turns out you can get wifi on a Stray bus - isn't that canny?

Just about recovered from the skydive to share the experience - first of all, it was bloody terrifying, but in a weird way - I've definitely been more frightened in my life, but of things like cancer, and failing medical school, and my sister. (She can be awesomely scary, I tell you.) But this was completely out of my control so I sort of gave myself over to the experience. Stomach-churning.

(None of the proper pics yet because they're going to post my CD to me, but the ground photos are here for your viewing pleasure!)

I was picked up by the Skydive people at 10am and they drove me out to their airport which is near Kerikeri, about 20mins drive. I spent the drive mainly looking at scenery and trying not to think about what I was doing. When I panickedly bleated out, "WHAT AM I DOING???!??" the massive dude who was driving (he looked like Marv from Sin City) turned round and said, "You're skydiving! Relax!" which is possibly the biggest oxymoron I have ever heard, but I didn't argue. (He was BIG.)

Arrived, signed form saying that I understood there was "an element of risk involved", and gave them my next of kin details (!!!!!!!!), then went next door to get kitted up in the most unflattering flightsuit ever.

I was chatting away to the guys who were getting my harness on, mainly about what to do with the hearing aids. We wisely decided I shouldn't wear them - moisture and high windspeeds etc.... also not sure how I'd go about replacing them if they fell out of my ears somewhere over the Bay of Islands. I was then introduced to my tandem jumper, a giant who made the driver guy look tiny. As he was yanking my harness on, I could lipread the other 2 guys mouthing "He's f***king loopy!!" which is not the most reassuring thing to be told about the dude you're going to be strapped to and then flung out of a plane with.

I think they were winding me up. But Gavin did seem a bit mental. He was easy to lipread though....my briefing went like this:

Gavin: "Have you been briefed?"

Me: "No...?"

Gavin: "OK, well, just enjoy yourself!"

Me: "errrr is that the briefing?"

Gavin: "what more do you need?! oh yes, when we jump out, you have to kick my ass and keep your legs back all the time we're freefalling and keep your arms folded, and then when I tap you you can put your arms out. and the most important thing is SMILE AT THE CAMERA! come on!"

I think he was definitely insane.

I got a bit more of a runthrough at the plane though, so I felt slightly more confident about it all. As confident as you can be getting into the tiniest plane ever about to fling yourself into space..... I had no hearing aids by then which was a bit odd, but actually quite calming...

I was fine as we took off (Georgina will tell you that's the dangerous bit...) and as we were climbing, but when we started getting clipped up to our tandem guys I got a little bit nervous....then when we got to 16000ft and they put the slidey door up and Nadia (a tiny Malaysian girl) and her tandem went, I suddenly realised that I had to do THAT and was like EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK. It happened very quickly though; before I had time to even think about backing out, Gavin had shoved us to the edge where my legs dangled horribly, taken a photo of my rictus of fear, and launched us into nothingness. I tried to breathe, couldn't, screamed instead, looked at the beautiful view, screamed some more, looked at the view, looked at the camera, screamed, etc etc. It was REALLY very cold - I could feel my mouth going a bit numb and my face flapping around - hahaha.

Spent about 60 secs doing that at 120mph and watching the clouds come up closer and closer, then WHOOMP the parachute went and we were jerked up. I was gloriously relieved that I wasn't going to plummet to a pancakey death, but then realised that parachutes are kind of swirly.... and that it was another several hundred feet to the ground. I kind of calmed down a bit though and watched the beautiful views for miles - Gavin steered us round in lots of swirls, and the ground started to come up rather fast...

I stuck my legs out as I'd been told to do, then fervently hoping not to break anything, sailed gracefully in and landed on my bottom. Comfy landing.... Hahahahaha.

Unfortunately I'd started to get a bit of headache on the way down, and by the time I landed it was thumping so badly I couldn't think about anything else, which was really annoying because I wanted to marvel at the fact I'd actually done the skydive! (I still did, but whilst chomping on Nurofen). I excluded the differential of a ruptured brain aneurysm fairly quickly, seeing as I was still alive, but it was a nasty headache and lasted a couple of hours - went away after I'd chundered everywhar yah!!! (back at the hostel). I think it was probably the pressure changes, though it's not a common consequence; most people just get really sore ears. I feel better now though still a bit washed out - most likely from the adrenaline!

Not much to report of the journey home, apart from a stop at the beautiful Whangerai falls which are 40m high I think. I feel slightly better about missing out on Milford Sound (snow cancelled all the trips from Queenstown) now I've felt the spray of at least one waterfall! and it was lovely:

ta ta for now - about an hour from Auckland and feel a bit drained - a kip beckons...

Only 2 days of hospital this week then it's off to the Coromandel with Anna! yay :)

Roz xx

P.S. Doully also keeps BEES!!!! we have been talking about how you can get them to make honey from whichever plant you want because they have a radius of about 1 or 2 km from their hive, so you can plonk them in the middle of a manuka bush area and get excellent manuka honey, or honey from New Zealand honeysuckle, or clover, or whatever you like. mmmmm. Being a beekeeper is very on my list of things to do :D yay!!!!