Today was one of those days that you will never forget. It was my very first sky dive! We woke up in the morning and to be honest, I was pretty nervous knowing we were jumping out of a plane later in the day. Then after taking one of the guy’s bungee jumping and walking around the town it was time for us to check in at the sky diving shop NZONE. Once we signed two waivers we were loaded onto a bus and driven about 20 min to the dive site.
Here there was a coffee shop, reception area, and of course the planes and gear. We waited for a bit and then it was time to gear up and meet our dive masters. My dive masters name was Boris Adamov. He was originally from Russia and did a great job at making me feel comfortable. After I suited up in my jump suit and harness we waited. By now I had forgotten all about being nervous and was running on pure excitement! I met my photographer and watched as people fell from the sky.
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| Dive Site |
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| Loved this! |
Then it was our turn! We loaded the plane by sitting in between our dive masters legs and then our photographer sat in between our legs and so on. The plane was packed full of people and we were all getting ready to jump. The plane ride was surprisingly smooth considering how tiny the plane was. It had a door that lifted straight up (like a garage door) that opened whenever we reached the altitude that the next person was jumping from. I jumped at 15,000ft which was the highest you could jump.
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| Plane ride up to the dive site |
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| There is no turning back now! |
I had 60 sec in free fall and then parachuted to the ground. I was the second to last person out of the plane but the last person to land. My dive master and I had a lot of fun in the air. He even let me pilot the parachute for a bit! He handed me the handles and told me to pull down hard to the right . . . not knowing what this would do I listened. Soon we were spinning in circles quite fast! I LOVED IT!!! He pointed out that we were flying over the remarkable ranges (the only mountain range that runs true north and south the whole length of the range), and lake Wakatipu (399m at its deepest point).
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| One of the Greatest Feelings I have ever had! |
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| Words cannot describe the feeling you get |
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| when your free falling! |
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| Landing |
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| Me and my dive master :) |
It was definitely one of those experiences that you just have to do for yourself. Put all of yours fears behind you and go for it! Embrace the Fear. There was a quote at the NZONE place that I really like…
I must not fear,
Fear is the mind killer
Fear is the little death that brings
Total obliteration
I will face my fear
I will permit it to pass over
And through me
And when it has gone past
I will turn the inner eye to see its path
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing
Only I will remain
~Frank Herbert
I kept this quote in my mind as we were flying up to the dive site and I truly believe that I was fearless on this trip and I conquered my fears and made my dreams come true!
Tonight we are staying in a hostel in Queenstown called the Base. It has it's own bar, lounge area, wifi, and lots of activities. We are ready for a good nights sleep and are getting ready to fly back to Auckland for our last night in New Zealand before heading back to the States.
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| Our group! |
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| I had the time of my life on this adrenaline packed adventure...I wouldn't change my experiences the past three months for the world! |
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| My Traveling Family! |
