Day 44

Sunday 4^th March

Waking up with the sun beating down on us we managed to emerge at around11:00, another lie and as The Bay of Islands is basically the Sub Topics, that’s no mean feat, the sun was HOT, we got up showered breakfasted lightly, played a couple of games of highly competitive Snap and then walked up to the top of the main road and waited for our pickup to arrive, we saw the People carrier sprayed up with NZ sky dive approach, and I literally felt Caz Tense up with Fear, I should explain, there is nothing at all on earth apart from Drowning Caz would least like to do, so managing to persuade her was not mean feat for me, the tension and fear passed however when the car sailed passed us..

Caz’s came first and a whole group of people sat round to witness the rather rude word she used as she got to the door

We sat on the side of the road as the time ticked away and it was nearly twenty past 1 when it re-appeared, we jumped in only to hear a Scottish Accent greet us. Kirsten originally from Edinburgh was in the Second year of her Two year working Visa and had spent the past few months working to the Sky Dive Company, we soon jumped into too a strange Hybrid of Taxi /Travellers Tourettes i.e. asking if they were busy, do they expect it to pick up, then the where have you been, where do you recommend kind of questions, they are fairly standard and everybody asks them to break the ice.

We eventually arrive at the airfield and sign our lives away on the disclaimer, after that it’s a waiting game, as we are waiting round, Caz decides she needs the toilet and goes into the office to ask if they have one

“There’s a portable toilet outside but you REALLY don’t want to use it, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone”

Kirsten says

“I actually need to pop home for a minute, you can use the toilet there if you want, I only leave 10 minutes away and you will be waiting for at least a half hour”

A slightly relived Caz jumps in the car and disappears just as we watch the guy ahead of us jump in the plane to take off.

It’s a really small plane so you go up one at a time. We had already decided that Caz would go first, firstly to get it over with, and secondly, to get it over with.

As that guy went up, one of the Staff came round to a chap waiting in the office with his DVD of the Jump, Asking him if he wanted to watch the DVD.. So about 5 of us did- its actually really well made, and I’m glad we both opted for them.

Caz returned as the jump instructor walked over for his next victim, if Caz was nervous about the Zorbing, she was scared of The Fly by Wire, she was absolutely petrified of this, on the verge of tears she followed the Tandem Master into the plane and set off on her 20 minute ascent to 12000ft above the Bay if Islands, whilst I stayed on the ground, and then actually allowed myself to feel a little nervous, after taking bets with a few guy who were waiting to see if she cried, we turned our heads to the sky just in time to see her freefalling just before her shoot opened, as she got closer to the ground, I heard her laughing an I knew she was alright.

Caz on the ground it was my turn. Strapped into my harness we walked toward the plane and as we got there he ran me though the exit procedure, I got in with my back to the pilots chair Tandem instructor in front of me and the camera in line with pilot on my left.

As we got in the Instructor turned to me:

“Your girlfriends got a filthy mouth on her for such a pretty little thing”

“Take it she swore a lot then?”

“A fair bit yeah”

“At you?”

“Nah mate just in general”

“Hmm, I’m surprised”

We Rumbled across the grass runway and the noisy little plane soared into the sky, the ground got further and further and further away, the view was spectacular hundreds of little island scattered around 100’s of beaches and coves.

I guestimated we were at about 12000ft when the camera man asked me how I was feeling, and I told him a little nervous but ok, at that point I was, 5 minutes later were still climbing.

I shuffled round in my seat so I sat in front of the tandem master and he clipped me on and checked all the harness was tight.

The camera man had put his helmet on as well as his goggles, I was told to put on the stupid ass hat you wear and the goggles, and I knew it was about to happen.

The camera man started to stare at me, hard, with a deranged look in his eye and after a few seconds, popped the door, the cold air rushed in nearly as fast as my pulse went up, and we moved out to the door, I got in position hanging out of the plane and looked up as I was supposed to,

The Jump master screams over the noise

“Ready?

One……

Two…”

And we were out of plane and screaming toward the ground, the footage and the exit photo show that I wasn’t quite expecting it and just as I was taking a deep breath in we jumped…. The fear on my face is obvious and I had debated about whether to put this photo on the blog, but in my defence I was 12000ft above the ground falling.

As soon as we were out the plane though my hold persona changed, I did a Static line jump at 2000ft when I was sixteen, which up to that point had been really cool, but this blew me away the feeling is incredible, and as they saw I was enjoying it, he threw us into a spin and the camera man came right up close.

After 40-45 seconds that felt like 5, he pulled the rip cord and the parachute deployed. The camera man however did not and carried on freefalling at an alarmingly fast rate,

But we had hit terminal Velocity which is about 125mph.

We floated down and I took over the steering pulling on the toggles, sending us into spins and turns, it was great fun.

We landed on the ground and the camera man walked over to ask you how it was, struggling for words I think I said it was pretty cool, asked if id do it again, I said yes, and I still would- its something I would definitely like to look into doing as a hobby.

Having landed we waited round for the DVD’s to be edited and the photos to be added to disc.

Caz’s came first and a whole group of people sat round to witness the rather rude word she used as she got to the door, and then they stayed to piss themselves laughing at my face when I exited the plane.

DVD’d and Photo Disc’d up we got a lift pack into town, where we bought some Essential food items we had none of and some Pop and Beer.

We got back to the campsite and had dinner, followed by cards, Chilling out and then another wonder around the harbour.

Then it’s back to the Van to sleep.