Mental, Mental, Mental!

Yep so this was it! My last chance to do some of those famous NZ adrenalin pursuits. We signed up for Sky Dive and what with it being my birthday and all we decided to do the bungy jump as well!!!

So ya I couldn´t believe it, there I was on my way to the airport in a limo for the sole purpose of jumping out of a plane. Having first watched a little sample dvd, which I must admit made me a little nervous, I said what the heck and opted for the highest jump possible from 15000 feet. So after some harness strapping, 12 of us cramed into this tiny little plane and lucky me was second to jump. With your instructor guiding you out over the plane I must say the ´jump´ was easier than expected but then the force of the air just hits as you freefall for apparently 60 seconds but to be honest it felt more like 6 seconds! Once that was over the gently freefall for 5 mins was nice and relaxing and I enjoyed the feeling of flying and the beautiful views over Lake Taupo. Just as we were about to land I tried to remember were my instructions to land on my feet or my bum ( i think my brain was a little frazzled at this stage) and I opted incorrectly for my bum and almost yanked the instructor on top of me as he tried to stay standing. Haha but otherwise the whole Sky Dive went very smoothly and I cant wait for my next jump. Hopefully I can get a cheap one in South America where I´m sure the safety record is just as good. Interestingly Lake Taupo is where the NZ guy, whose 2 parachutes failed, miracoulsy landed pretty unharmed after having his fall broken by just a bush! Wow now thats some extreme base jumping!

So that was the Sky Dive over with, but up next the hardest activity by far. The Bungy Jump. And yes it was every bit as terrifiying as I expected. I was reasonably calm until my legs were loosely strapped onto the rather large rubber band and when asked to stand and walk to the ledge my legs were like jelly. I got to the edge and started some serious heavy breathing but thankfully the instructor got me to calm down and shouted 3,2,1 jump and off I fell. Oh my god I thought I was going to die as I saw the cliff face hurtling past and then the water rising quickly up towards but thankfully it all slowed down pretty quickly and I was soon just bouncing up and down pretty slowly. I was absolutely terrified but I´m really glad I did it, though I´m not sure I´d do it again.