Brace Yourselves!

Well, ladies and gents, I have to be honest. I've been doing some cool stuff in NZ, but I'm not feeling it like everyone else is. Yep, I've hit a bit of a rut here... I'm fine, but the high of Oz and Fiji had to end at some point I guess. To be fair, I've been on the road for over half a year and to get this far unscathed is quite an achievement. However, never fear, I'm still having a great time and this is still the best thing I've ever done. I'm only mentioning it really as I haven't got much interesting to say about most of the past week. That's OK, it's just been normal, but you know me and my detail - I didn't want to have to describe it all in depth or I would have fallen asleep, never mind you!

Anyway, basically, I left Kaikoura and headed to Picton. Unfortunately, the Magic Bus driver that day was the *%$^$## who didn't stop long enough at Lake Matheson so he was the last person I wanted to see. I think I might complain about him when I get to Auckland as we were faffing around on the bus for ages before we even left Kaikoura, and I think it was his fault we were short on time on Lake Matheson day. Also, he had told the people on the bus the previous day that he wouldn't be picking us up outside our hostel. This is a selling point of the Magic Bus, but no, we had to walk a bit up the road, not too far admittedly, but I was peeved nonetheless - I was lucky enough to get wind of this change in the hostel, but as I'd not been on the bus that day, I could have technically ended up stranded. They seem to forget that not all of us out here are only spending one night at each stop!

Damn, look, I am complaining again! I've been like this quite a bit this week. Moving on... The hostel in Picton was lovely, I took a free bike out for a spot of geocaching and after only an hour, I decided to return as the gears were very dodgy, as was my road sense and I thought it best to quit while I was behind! The highlight of Monday was the free hot chocolate pudding and ice-cream at 8pm, it was absolutely delicious! On Tuesday, it was overcast and drizzly and so I just read books until it was time to catch the ferry to Wellington. That went smoothly and luckily the rain had stopped by then. Once in Wellington, in my stubbornness, I walked to my hostel instead of paying a few dollars for a local bus. It was a good 20 minutes walk there, and with a heavy bag across my chest, in addition to the backpack of doom (no, I love it really!), I was in excruciating pain by the time I arrived!

On Wednesday, I wandered around Wellington with Laurence (France) and we walked up to the top of Mount Victoria and took the cable car to the Botanical Gardens. the weather had perked up too, so it was good to be out in the fresh air. On Thursday, I spent 3½ hours in Te Papa, which means 'Our Place' in Maori. It is a really impressive museum, although I would like to suggest that the next time they catch a giant squid, they put it straight in formaldehyde rather than studying and dissecting it. Yes, I know it was important to have a good look at it, but as a display, it's all manky and dissolving!

Yesterday, I arrived in Napier, a pretty Art Deco town. Again, I had a really cool hostel, but I was only able to spend one night there - because of the awkward scheduling of the Magic Bus, I couldn't spend a convenient two nights there, only one or three. I think the Magic Bus is the main contributor to my recent loss of form. It's really hard to let it go as well, as every time I get on it, I'm reminded of how I made the wrong decision to buy the ticket! Plus, I have this underlying feeling of guilt, or maybe slight failure, that I don't love NZ as much as everyone else does. It's a great country, beautiful with really friendly people, but I can't get all that excited about it. Shame really, but I'm honestly still glad to be here.

However, read on dear reader, it gets interesting from here on in! When I boarded the bus this morning in Napier, the activity sheets went around and rather than not book anything, I took the plunge and let the driver organise today's activities in Taupo. I did a bit of research in Napier to make sure I'd be getting the best deal and I'd spent a fair bit of last night thinking it over in my sleep. I took the clipboard, signed my name, and ticked the appropriate boxes. Done - well, the weather was glorious this morning and ideal for outdoor pursuits. I then spent the rest of the journey listening to my iPod, my heart beating steadily within my chest. Check-in at Taupo YHA went smoothly, and I had plenty of time to drop off my bags and grab a bit of toast before the shuttle bus came to collect me. Oh yeah, sorry, I haven't told you what activity I booked yet, have I?

SKYDIVING.

Yep, you read that right - S.K.Y.D.I.V.I.N.G. Not scuba, SKY. As in plane, parachute, jump out, don't die!!! I'd been considering it for a long time, and Taupo was always going to be the place I'd do it. So, the day had arrived and the conditions perfect, so rather than hang around today and do it tomorrow, I seized the day and booked straight on! So, we were taken to the airfield, signed our lives away and had a briefing about the photo and DVD packages available. Now I hate to spend money (no, really?) but I decided that this was a biggie, so I bought all the bells and whistles and spent way more than I'd budgeted, whoops!!! I think I'll be spending as much time as possible in Bolivia to recoup! I also decided that if I was going to do it, I might as well do it properly and go for a 15,000 feet drop, not just a piddly 12,000!!! That's a minute of freefall, not just 45 measly seconds!

It was time to jumpsuit up, but somehow I was the only person who couldn't go on the next plane, so that meant I had to wait around longer before take off. As you can imagine, my heart's going quite fast at this point, especially as I'm terrified of heights and I had the time to watch the previous plane load jump out. Well, there was a tiny plane-shaped speck in the sky, SERIOUSLY high up, and minuscule white dot emerged from it... it seemed way longer than a minute before the white dot had a minuscule parachute attached to it! "Yeah, but, it'll be all over so quickly when we do it!" I reassured my fellow jumpees! I met my tandem diver, Andy, who was hilarious and would be operating my HandyCam - a video strapped to his left wrist that would capture the entire jump. We did a little pre-jump interview and then off we walked towards the little yellow plane that would spit us out at 2.85 miles high!!!

I'd been keeping myself as calm as possible the whole time and although I was incredibly nervous, i was also really surprised how calm I was. I mean, i can still remember how scared I'd been as a seven year old in Scotland, stood on a mesh floor above a vat of whisky; how Mrs. Hemmingway spent way too long making me go over the scrambling net at primary school! Andy kept asking me how I was and I could honestly reply that I was fine, given that I was about to jump out of a plane. I just thought to myself that it was too late to turn back, and there was no point in getting too worked up about it as it would all be over soon, plus I knew it would be great fun... it was just the exit that frightened me! Soon, I was buckled, strapped and clipped onto Andy, my hat and goggles in position and the door opened. Don't look out, just go with it, remember to keep your legs in, your head back and smile at the camera. Don't think too much, Andy will jump, you are attached to him, you have no control.

No Turning Back Now!

And then I was out. Freefall, 15,000 feet high, nothing but down! Now, I guess you would like to know how that felt, but I can't really tell you! I remember being on my back, then on my front, then thinking Oh my God, I'm out, this is scary, this is happening, crikey the wind is fast and screaming "AAAARRRRRRGGGHHH!!!" and "WWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a lot! I forgot about the fact that I had a personal cameraman with me as well, although I think I looked at him a bit and shook his hand at least twice! It was fast, I remembered to breath normally as the air was thick and my mouth dry. And then it was over, Andy pulled the parachute strap and I had chance to pause and reflect on what had just happened!

So I screamed a bit more, looked into the HandyCam and addressed all my relatives individually to state that I was indeed still alive and then shouted "Space! Next time space!" The parachute ride was great fun too and the scenery was stunning. It has been an amazingly clear day today, which makes 4 out of 4 of the "I hope I get good weather" activities! Andy let me operate the chute a little bit left, and a lot to the right, which meant we did a huge spiral and my stomach spun for the first time. I could see all of the lake and really clearly over to Tongariro National Park. A perfect view! Then Andy told me to get ready to hold my legs up for landing. I thought that was odd, as the ground was still a good way away yet. Nevertheless, in no time at all, I could see blades of grass and thought don't break your legs! It was a smooth landing, although once my feet were on the ground, I found it quite difficult to stand up straight and it must have looked as if I'd been on the sauce for a few hours!

Just in case you needed further proof!

So there you go, I'm a member of the 2.85 mile high club! I spent the next few hours babbling incoherently, more than usual, and feeling damn brilliant! If it was a lot cheaper, I would have been up again, no word of a lie! However, even though it was utterly amazing and worth every cent including all the extras I bought, it's not something I'll be doing too often. Got to watch the pennies if I'm to save enough to get into space! So, I'm still on a complete high several hours later and should probably not go wandering into any tattoo parlours or goodness knows what I would come out with! I got a t-shirt included in my skydiving package, and rather than choose one that was really stylish and subtle, mine is quite bold with "200 km/h HEALTH DEPARTMENT WARNING: SKYDIVING CAUSES SERIOUS LOSS OF REALITY" emblazoned in yellow across the back! Well, there's no point skydiving if random people on the street can't read about it clearly, is there???

So, I'm back down to Earth, but NZ is now rather damn cool! Two weeks to go and I'm determined to make the most of it and leave on a high! I've just been to the supermarket to buy some decent provisions for tomorrow as another challenge awaits - the Tongariro Crossing! It's a big one, allegedly one of the world's Top Ten hikes, over 15km through Mordor and Mount Doom (in Lord of the Rings anyway) and the weather forecast looks good. Fingers crossed and that will be 5 out of 5! I'll be a complete wreck by this time tomorrow no doubt, but no pain, no gain! Plus, I've jumped out of a plane - what can't I do now?