Wooooooooo!

Location: Taupo Cybercafe
Weather: Cloudy and not that warm

OK, yesterday(Wednesday), I did a very clever thing. Despite not feeling 100% - still tired from the Tongariro Crossing and the odd beer I had after that, around 5.30pm I decided to get in an aeroplane, fly over Lake Taupo, get to 12000ft and then jump out, free fall for 7000ft (that took all of 45 seconds) and then parachute the rest of the way down!!! Yes, I SKY-DIVED!!!!! it was a tandem and some bloke called Elad was strapped to my back and he opened the parachute and it really was MENTAL! the view for the last 40 seconds of the freefall was like a satellite photo and went so fast it was unreal! the first 5 seconds is a total blank as you wonder what on earth you are doing. When the parachute kicks in, you drop somewhat in the harness and it feels like you're going to fall out! but you slowly drift down to the ground and more and more things come into focus and it's pretty much indescribable.
The only part I wasn't too keen on was when Elad steered or rather spun the parachute to our landing spot, that made me quite dizzy!
But again I was very lucky with the day I chose to do this and the time I went, it was staggeringly clear and the sun was just going down - you could see for miles over and around lake Taupo - it was exactly like when Keanu Reeves jumps in that fantastic movie Point Break! AWESOME!

http://www.skydive.net.nz/

By JamesReed on 15.04.04 @ 07:41 AM GMT