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Serious extreme sports day!
Another early morning, to go white water rafting on the Shotover River, which has grade 5 rapids. We struggled to get into the really attractive wetsuits and shoes feeling really hungover and tired, and then had a 40 minute mini bus journey up and down a mountain on a thin, windy road - not comfortable in rubber! Once we were by the water we were given scarily in-depth safety instructions, and then put in a group of seven. Ours consisted of all girls who were not exactly feeling our best, and our guide Jesse, who I think felt like he had died and gone to hell! He put me next to him at the back of the boat - I think he could tell I would be a liablility! The actual rafting was amazing, but very frightening, especially when Lisa and Daniela fell out at the same time at the first rapid. Another girl in our raft on our tour fell out at the second rapid and we also got stuck in between two rocks, which we found hilarious. I don't think Jesse was too happy though when he had to push us out while we attempted to move it by jumping up and down!
In the afternoon Lisa and I finally went skydiving! We had to wait about an hour by the landing field and then we were introduced to our instructors and given our jumpsuits. We went through a safety briefing - which was a lot briefer than the rafting one - and taught how to do the 'banana' pose when we jumped. Before we knew it we were on the plane, and there was literally only room for three divers, three instructors and three cameramen. I virtually had to sit on my instructor's lap! The plane ride was really bumpy, and it was quite strange to be taking off from a field.
Eventually we were at 12,000 feet, which was twice the size of the mountains below, and it was my turn to jump. I had to sit on the edge of the plane, with my legs tucked underneath and my instructor Mira sitting really close behind. Then he just pushed us off, and we were freefalling. It all happened so fast that there wasn't really time to think or be scared, but I was aware of the plane over my head. The only way to describe it is to liken it to the feeling of putting your hand out the car door as it travels really fast. As we fell the cameraman made me do different stupid positions - it was strange how easy it was to see what he was doing, although it was hard to move my arms and my mouth went really dry!
There was a jolt as the parachute opened, and then we just floated over the beautiful scenery of the mountains and Lake Tekapo. Somehow we managed to land in the wrong field because of the wind direction, so I got to watch as the landing team had to hurdle the fence to come and meet us - typical that happened to me! After we recovered we went to meet some of the other people on the tour for an Italian dinner and then fell into bed for an early night.
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