After jumping off a platform from 134m.... it was obvious that when I got to Taupo I had to do the biggest, highest most bad ass thing I could think off. The answer was a 15000 ft skydive over a SUPER-VOLCANO! I promise this is the last adrenaline rush I will do in NZ.
So this is maybe 5000-10000 ft in the air. In the plan were 4 skydivers, with their own jump master and then each person had a camera person. So the small plane had about 12 people in it. At the front of the plane were the 12000 ft jumpers and their crew. My skydive jump master was Amos, a cool aussie. He informed me on what was going down and let me know how many feet we were. At 12000 ft the door to the plane opened and all the 12000 ft people jumped out. I was of course scared but was just looking out the window and trying to concentrate on my breathing. You'll see that in the video, but you'll have to ask me to see it. Anyways once those people left it was pure oxygen time. Yep because we were going so high in a not air tight airplane we had oxygen til we got up to the 15000ft.
This is on the ledge of the plane and yes you can see that I was enjoying that oxygen mask and it looks like I had no worries about the 15000 ft drop, 1 minute free fall and then the 5-10 minute parachute glide down.
Barrel roll out of the plane and at this point for about 3-8 seconds your brain is thinking "WTF!" feelings of roller coaster/ Farris wheel.
Then once you stabilize it just feels like you are floating.
I was enjoying the fall so much I didn't feel the tap on my shoulder to release my hands so good thing Amos was nice enough to spread my arms out.
I'm swimming in mid air here.
This picture is ridiculous. 1. It looks super-imposed. 2. looks like I'm just touching the ground. 3. Amos is having a friggin blast. 4. The mind wonders.
With living in the moment to the best of my abilities I did the skydive while having an unfortunate head-cold. *WARNING* if you have a head cold or have crappy non draining ears like I do....wait to skydive when you feel better cause it was very painful for me at this point. While I was falling I didn't realize that my ears hurt. As I got closer and closer to the earth to the 5000ft deploy parachute mark and my ears couldn't equalize it was searing pain in the middle of my head. So the experience wasn't very fun here
At the time it really hurt and hindered my rush and skydive experience, but when I look back at the pictures and re-visit my visual experience it was AMAZING. I might even try skydiving again but I will make sure I am in perfect health.
This was my view.
Pretty :D
This isn't my jump, this was my friend Amy's jump. The day she went was gorgeous. So bright and beautiful that you can see the reflection of the sky over Lake Taupo.
****
So we landed and it was good to be back on the ground. This is when things started to not be so good. I tried for hours to equalize my ears and relieve the pressure. This was what I was doing while myself and the other skydivers waited for our video to be edited and burned. Then I went to pay for my skydive and boom "declined." Shit this means that when I was in wellington I canceled my kiwi bank account, and I was out of funds in my Canadian account and my visa was just declined??? hmmmm instead of promising them my first born they took me into town to an ATM. I could get out $200. They took me back to the skydive place and it was time to call home. "Hey Dad it's Jill.... I just did a skydive...oh don't worry I'm fine nothing is broken .......I just can't pay for the rest of the bill and I am stranded....broke in Taupo!...with one more week to go before I come home....help"
Thankfully my Dad was very supportive and helped me out. THANKS DAD! but the day didn't get better. I checked my Canadian bank account back in Taupo after I was free from the skydive place. I had $30 in my account and withdrew it. I was putting something in my bag and took to long so the ATM ate my money. DAMN! I needed that money so I could top up my phone and call my travel agent to see if I could get an earlier flight home. Shit out of luck. So off to the hostel. While in Wellington I had somehow foreseeing financial dilemmas and sold a bunch of my stuff. Paying what I could for my skydive, I had the exact money to pay for one night and the key deposit at the hostel. Good thing the hostel I was at had free internet for an hour.
Okay sweet. Went to my room, dropped off my stuff, and relaxed for a couple minutes. Then off to the computers....oh great I have to wait. Read my book and then jumped on the computer when there was the first opening. This is when I tried to get a hold of my travel agent. I tried sending her an email informing her of my situation, but then I kept getting a delivery failure from the address. GRRRRRRRR! I called my travel agency and left a message on my travel agents extension. But when I got threw it was someone else's name. Regardless I needed help so I left a long message on this random person's answering machine.
Finally some success. The next morning I checked my email and Matt from the agency emailed back and informed me that my travel agent left the company and that a flight change would cost $900. Well thanks for the great info.
My first plan was to twiddle my thumbs in Auckland for a week. But the bus driver suggested I do a loop and see other places and just enjoy the scenery. As I knew how much of a waste a week in Auckland would be I agreed and decided to make the best of my last week of more bus travel. So Taupo to Auckland it was.
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