17.12.09 Skydive - Lake Taupo

I'd grown ever more indecisive about doing a skydive because of the horrible stories of peoples' parachutes failing and not living to tell the tale. I realised that if I kept dwelling on this fear I would never do it and so I decided to book it that very afternoon so I wouldn't even need to sleep on it, I'd just have to get on and do it while the sun was shining and I was up for it. I had a very real nervous feeling as we drove to Taupo airport but I told myself, if I started to panic, I'd chicken out and not do it, so I tried to keep as calm as I could and not think about it. It was fortunate, in a way, that when I arrived 1/2 hour early for my 3pm booking that they managed to fit me in on the 2.30pm flight, so I didn't need to wait and get more apprehensive. I was rushed through to the hanger to get kitted out with a harness because everyone else was already seated in the plane. My co-diver luckily insisted he strap me up properly even though his colleague was calling him to hurry up. Because my co-diver and me were last on the plane, we had to sit facing the opposite way, on the floor, next to the see-through door and would be the first to jump!

I started to get a bit worried about the fact I was the last one and maybe my straps weren't done up properly, but I was sure to banish all thoughts like this to the back of my head. My co-diver attempted conversation with me, perhaps to stop me panicking, but I couldn't really hear him because of the noise of the plane. Then he ran through the jumping procedure with me so I thought we must be getting high. However it was still only 5,000 feet (he had a watch with an altitude indicator) and he explained that this is the height at which he'll deploy the parachute and we still had to get to 12,000 feet before we could jump. I was looking down out the see through door and thought this is high enough for me thanks. When we reached 12,000 feet a green light went on next to the door and the other divers were indicating that we should go, go, go. My stomach had butterflies in it and I tried to keep smiling because everyone was looking at me, as I was the first to jump. My co-diver said it's going to be really windy, cold and noisy when he opens the door so be prepared. He checked I was okay then the door was opened, I swung my legs out into the air, feeling the force of the wind immediately, leant my head back, gripped on to my straps and before I knew it we were out, plummeting face down through the air, the earth coming up to us very quickly.

can you see me? - I'm the little white dot to the left of the plane!

The force was terrifying. I thought I was going to die. My co-diver tapped my shoulder three times which meant I could stretch out my arms, which I did. After what seemed a very long freefall, our parachute was deployed and suddenly we were jolted upwards and I was in a sitting position and the noise of the air had completely stopped. It was like we were hardly moving at all, just floating along, catching the breeze. Again he asked me if I was okay and I gave him the thumbs up saying it was fantastic. We were able to enjoy the brilliant views over massive Lake Taupo and up to the Tongariro mountains in the distance. The day couldn't be better. The sky was cloudless. He told me we'd have to do some spiralling down to get down a bit quicker because there were jumpers behind us. It was fun but made me quite ill from the pressure as we spun downwards. I was loving looking round though at all the patchwork of scenery, fields, buildings and when we circled down round the airport I tried desperately to pinpoint Greg who was waiting below with his camera.

Landing was a bump to the bum and we were down. I'd survived! Woohoo!