Sky Diving on the South Island

1/23/2007

We had an early start this morning since we had to catch a fairy from the North Island to the South Island (those are the two main land masses of New Zealand). The trip took about 3 hours, and I enjoyed it greatly. The boat was massive with about 10 decks. I spent most of the time on the food court deck since it had plasma TVs showing the SKY Sports channel, which happened to be showing highlights of the Australian Open tennis tournament, which I am unfortunately missing. I definitely enjoyed watching a couple hours of tennis. I also spent some time on the open deck on the top of the boat, whch had some spectacular views and some incredibly strong wind that you had to lean into to keep from being knocked over. Here are a couple pics. The second is of me and Garner, who is probably the prime source of comic relief in our group.

After getting to the South Island, we drove to a town called Nelson, which is actually where my group leader of the SE Asia trip last fall lives. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to say hi to him since he was in Cambodia at the time and since we were only stopping in Nelson for lunch. Here is a nice picture I took from the van on the drive.

After lunch we drove to a town called Motueka to go skydiving, which was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I don't even know how to describe it. It was just unreal. After getting set up with a suit, I got into a very small airplane with my tandem partner Bob and a few other divers. We got all the way up to 13,000 feet before we jumped out. I wasn't scared at all because I knew it was (relatively) safe, but it was pretty intense to just fall out the door of an airplane over 2 miles above ground. I definitely couldn't breathe for the first few seconds, but then I was just screaming and loving the free fall. It is an unbelievable feeling. While the time after the parachute opened was not as adrenaline pumping, it was equally breathtaking. The views were spectacular as I just floated with a birds-eye view of the world. It was like I was in a glass elevator, simply spectacular. It cost 250 kiwi dollars or so, but it was well worth it for a once in a lifetime experience (or the first of many?) I was tempted to get pictures and a video for $180, but I in no way could justify spending almost the cost of another jump on pictures.

Me above

Not me below

After skydiving we checked in at our hostel for the night and then went grocery shopping for our next 5 day expedition sea kayaking through Abel Tasman National Park. Also, today another member was added to my group. Eli is from Wisconsin and goes to Winona State University in Minnesota. He actually did this trip 3 years ago, and he liked it so much that he decided to do it again. He began the trip in group PC1 but has joined my group (now called PCX with X being for "extreme") for the rest of our time in New Zealand before he returns to PC1 for the time in Australia.