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Caroline's World Tour
Ladies and Gentlemen, a drumroll if you please........I DID MY SKYDIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had begun to think that someone was giving me a sign that me and skydiving did NOT mix, but we decided to give it one last go and this time it was third time lucky! Today, at approximately 12 noon, I jumped out of an aeroplane at 12,000 feet with nothing but a Hungarian man called Yanni and a teeny little parachute between me and certain death! But of course, as you tell by the fact that I am writing this I did make it out alive and it was amazing.....
When we got up this morning in Queenstown it looked like it had potential to be a nice day, but I wasn't 100% sure. I phoned Skydive Lake Wanaka (this was where we tried to do it the other day - it was really nice and cheaper than Queenstown so we decided to go back there) and they said there was lots of blue sky on their side of the mountains and that we should come on over! The drive across the Crown Range is nerve wracking enough, but when I got there I actually felt fairly calm - maybe because after 2 thwarted attempts I didn't actually think I would be jumping! But no, after watching quite a few groups go it was our turn to get into the multi-coloured jumpsuits! Loz had decided by then that he wanted to join in too (despite being very afraid of heights) so it was going to be the three of us. As I said I was doing my jump with Yanni, and I had yet another Hungarian, Eugene, filming the entire process for my very own DVD! We all crammed in the plane, the views on the way up across Lake Wanaka and the snow-capped Mount Aspiring National Park were amazing. I was jumping first, so when we got to the required height the door slowly opened, and Eugene the nutter clambered out onto the side of the plane so he could film the big jump! We shuffled over to the edge (or rather, Yanni shuffled and I whimpered like a big girl) and then we sat on the edge for the requisite "sitting on the edge" photo. After that, Eugene came back in front of me and grabbed hold of the front of my harness, so that I was sandwiched between the two of them and Eugene could film the ridiculous expressions on my face as we actually fell out the plane! I think I probably had my eyes closed at the exact point we tipped off the edge, but all I could see most of the time was Eugene pointing his camera right up my nose! Loz has not been able to get over the sight of me falling over the edge - he said he couldn't believe how fast I just disappeared and has likened it to holding a crisp packet out the window when driving down the motorway and letting go!!! The first couple of seconds of freefall were hideous, and I was thinking to myself that if it was like that all the way down it was going to be horrible - my stomach was in my mouth! But very quickly you get to a point where you're not speeding up anymore and the feeling of plummeting becomes more of a floating (if moving very fast!) feeling - nowhere near as scary and almost enjoyable! The freefall was 45 seconds long - I thought it would seem like a lifetime but it actually went really quickly! Most of it I spent with Eugene bouncing around all over the show taking photos - these men have no fear!! Almost before I knew it he was disappearing off downwards - I was expecting a massive jerk when the parachute opened but it wasn't at all. After that we just floated down from about 4,000 feet staring out at some of the most incredible views I have ever seen - it was just amazing, I can't properly describe it!! Yanni spun us around a bit and maneuvred the parachute around so I got views in all directions - he really was very skillful - if it had been up to me I'd probably have ended up in the lake!! Landing was nice and simple, although I could have done with some advance warning from Yanni that he was going to loosen my harness so I could put my legs up - we were still pretty high when he did this and I thought he was unclipping me - I nearly had a heart attack! It was all over really quickly actually, and nowhere near as terrifying as I thought (if I exclude those first few seconds!!). It was a brilliant experience and I reckon I'd be up for doing it again - who knows, I might go higher this time!!
We all really enjoyed it - I think to be quite honest we couldn't quite believe we'd done it! I think Sarah's quite tempted to do one now, so I may end up doing it again in Australia! But if not, at least I'll always have the highly entertaining DVD and the T-shirt to remind me.........
Yesterday we went jet boating and white water rafting in the Shotover Canyon - both were excellent but in comparison to this.......well, there is no comparison!! My skydive over beautiful Wanaka has definitely become the highlight of my trip!! For your entertainment, I'm going to try and upload one of my photos......
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