Skydive pictures! :: globaltour.co.uk

globaltour.co.uk :: Lee and Julie's trip round the world 2004

Skydive pictures!
Date: Sep 30, 2004 - 01:30 AM

Thursday 9th September - Lake Taupo

There's only one thing Kiwis love more than rugby and sheep - and that's scaring the crap out of themselves!
So we decided to join them and both do a skydive - after a lot of chickening out mind.

[ Click on the 'Read More...' link for more and the pictures. ]
Vixx and Craig (who we met in Santa Monica), were also keen on the idea so we planned to do one whilst we were in Taupo.
We all went up to the airport to see what we were letting ourselves in for and to get it booked.
So the next day - Thursday 9th September - we were gonna do a skydive from 12,000 feet!

We hardly slept the night before and decided on just having the one slice of toast, just in case we'd be seeing it again!
We then made our way up to the airport - steering clear of black cats and ladders - to get suited up for the jump. We were all very quiet up at the airport, me and Vixx were pretty calm about it.
Craig was getting paler every second and Joo couldn't keep out of the loo! We did think she'd climbed out of the toilet window and scarpered!

Once we were all suited and briefed, we climbed into the plane and off we went. It took 20 minutes to reach altitude and 20 minutes for us all to contemplate what we were about to do.

We were going to jump out of a perfectly safe plane, totally trusting someone we'd only just met and in a bright orange shellsuit!
I was chatting to my skydiver, or at least trying to over the noise of the plane, and asked him 'Is it the wind on the way down that makes you spin?'. He replied - 'Yeah! We do can some spins if you want. No worries.'
He'd obviously misheard me. Not only were we going to be falling to the ground at high speed, this guy now thinks I want to do it in a stunt stylee!

Joo very bravely decided that she would go first - we think she needed the loo again.
I was next up and was shuffled forward to the open door and before I knew it, we were both falling through the air at 150 miles per hour.

Nothing can prepare you for that first 45 seconds of freefall. We both had a photographer, who was also videoing our freefall and asked us to wave and smile for him.
Not an easy task, when all you're thinking about is whether the 'chutes gonna open or not!
We both said afterwards that those 45 seconds were totally unreal and a proper adrenaline rush. It was hard to breathe up there - I think that was through sheer panic though.

After that, the 'chute opened and we were then slowly heading back down to Earth. We both know what it's like to be a bird. It was so peaceful up there and you could see for miles around.
You just had to remember to open your eyes and look!

All that was left to do now was land, which we all managed to do safely.

We were all so hyped up afterwards, we felt like we could take on the world.

A massive thanks to Great Lakes Skydiving for an experience we're not gonna forget in a hurry.

{You'll notice on Lee's pictures, that there's a black ring round them. We think the shutter wasn't fully open on the camera.
It does make a nice effect though, don't you think?
UPDATE - We now believe that a 'fish eye' lens was used on the camera.}