To the north!: falling from the sky

I don't know why it's 4am and I decided to write about skydiving now. But ah well.

So skydiving. I can't remember if I came to New Zealand thinking I would skydive or not, but after bungy I felt like I could do anything. So I mentioned to my travel group that I wanted to go skydiving, and my friend Emily expressed an interest in doing it as well. So we booked our skydiving pre-Northland departure and we were all set. Already paid for. Whoa.

We booked skydiving for 9am, which wasn't too difficult since we slept in the car and it was bright outside around 7am. Emily and I were the only ones skydiving so our friends dropped us off and we hung out until they were ready for us. It was foggy so we didn't jump as early as we otherwise probably would have; we had to wait for the fog to lift. There were two other anxious skydivers who were jumping after us so Emily and I made conversation about Denmark - their homeland. And my homeland, only four generations later.

this is how I was feeling pre-skydiving

this is the face that I think they expect you to make when you're about to go skydiving

Eventually our snarky instructors taught us what we were to do when we got out of the plane and we got into our snazzy red jumpsuits and harnesses. Emily was jumping from 8,000 feet (I was jumping from 12,000) so we were the first to go up in the plane. I will openly admit that I was very nervous and the instructors laid-back responses to questions like "what if the harness detaches?" ("you'll die and I'll live, I have the parachute") weren't of much help. While I know they were only kidding I was very much not in the mood to appreciate it. I was surprised that I was so nervous for skydiving but wasn't for bungy; typically, it's the other way around since when you bungy it's just you and you have to jump off yourself instead of just fall.

The plane ride up to 12,000 feet was beautiful. We flew over the Bay of Islands so there was beautiful ocean on one side and green everywhere else. My skydiving instructor took over 100 pictures of me and the scenery throughout the whole time so fortunately I have pictures to capture how beautiful it was. When we reached Emily's skydive height the door of the plane came open and out she fell. I was not feeling very good, especially after the plane wobbled as their weight fell out one side of the plane. My skydiving instructor could tell I was not feeling very good (the thought crossed my mind to just fly down, but that left quickly when I realized it would be faster to just skydive down) so after some reassuring comments that I would be fine and that he really does all the work so I should just relax I calmed down more.

After being harnessed to my instructor and pulling on my very unattractive skydiving goggles we reached 12,000 feet. This was it. As I was on my instructor's lap because of the harness, he did all the work. I crossed my arms and put my legs to one side out the plane door. After a few seconds of deep breathing mixed with panic and a strange feeling of calm, out the plane we fell. We only tumbled once before evening out and I was able to stretch my arms out and really fall.

(what are you talking about, no that smile doesn't look forced)

It was an interesting feeling - freefalling, that is. It felt like it was over so fast. My instructor had to keep telling me to look out at the islands instead of just staring at the ground that was getting closer and closer. I think I only screamed a little bit. When he pulled the parachute, that was shocking because I'm pretty sure that both of our weight, plus resistance to the wind, was on the harness straps on my inner thighs. So that was a little painful. I didn't buy my skydiving video but I got to watch it afterwards and right after the parachute was pulled I said in the most Minnesotan accent I think I have ever had, "I feel a little sick now, oh yah, I feel a little sick". It was hilarious to watch. I was feeling a little motion sickness though. Part of me just wanted to get my feet back on the ground as fast as possible, another part just wished the harness wasn't so tight on my legs, the other part just enjoyed the view for the last 5,000 feet with an incredibly adrenaline-infused, silly stupid look on my face. And then we landed smoothly on the grass and I helped my instructor gather the parachute.

I have a very vivid image of this in my head too

ecstatic about having just gone skydiving, but also happy to be back on the ground

Skydiving was fun! I will admit, I liked bungy jumping better, but falling out of that plane was intense and I would definitely recommend doing it. And while skydiving here in New Zealand was more expensive than what I would pay to do it in the states, I got to skydive in New Zealand, in the beautiful Bay of Islands, and I have pictures to prove it.

This was a really long post for two hours of one day but I thought it deserved that much credit. Also, I have about 70 more pictures from this, so if you want to check it out do so here on my facebook album.