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Letter from 12,000 feet above New Zealand

Travel // Vanessa // 11th January 2004

New Zealand. Lord of the Rings country and home of a whole range of inane adrenalin-fueled activities. While it is tempting to spend all your life savings on sea kayaking at every town, white water rafting, the canyon swing, zorbing and goodness knows what else, I managed to steer well clear of most of the Ibiza-style holiday activities. That is until this week.

After thinking about it for quite some time, my mind was resolved. I would do a skydive. By the time the tiny plane was in the air and I was (rather tightly) strapped to my skydive buddy, there was no choice but to be thrown out of a plane at 12,000ft. The views from the plane were fantastic. Lake Taupo, still a live volcano and the size of a small country, stretched out beneath us with mountains surrounding us as far as the eye could see. But the realisation that the only way I was going to have my feet firmly on the ground was to freefall for 7,000ft first, didn't hit me until the cameraman had clambered out of the plane and my own legs were dangling outside with the clouds waaaay below.

I can only be thankful that I wasn't alone and that I didn't have to throw myself off. It was all done for me by the guy strapped to my back. The shock to the system, as you can imagine, was such that I didn't even have the nouce to utter any obscenities.

Once my stomach rejoined the rest of my body, the rest of the jump was the best thing since sliced bread (apart from my wedding day and my not-so-frustrated-husband).

I did nearly become very hysterical as shrieks of joy turned into a maniacal laughter at what I was doing. But I had to be composed as the cameraman, poor thing, was trying to do what he was paid for but wasn't succeeding in getting my attention. Well I was too busy taking in the view!

After 45 seconds of waving to the camera, thumbs up signs and blowing numerous kisses his way, the parachute opened and my camera man fell away into the distance. Although the gentle sailing to the ground was very pleasant, I have to say, the best thing about the skydive was the freefall. Falling through the sky has to be THE adrenalin rush of all adrenalin rushes.

Even not-so-frustrated-husband agrees. He was a few dives behind me and he speaks from experience. While in Queenstown, full of cockneys and home of the bungy, he decided to brave the Nevis. A 134 metre bungy from a cable car over a river in a canyon. It's the highest fixed bungy apparently. And while he said he nearly had a heart attack when he stepped off the platform, it was nothing compared to the flippin' good fun to be had when throwing yourself out of a plane.

What a way to end our journey down under. Sadly, we leave this side of the world in a few days. We don't go far. Fiji is the next stop for two weeks. It's a hard life eh? But I can't say we didn't make the most of it. Since being in New Zealand - yes it really is that goddamned beautiful - we have managed to climb a glacier (on my birthday of all days) walked until our feet nearly fell off and partook in a white water rafting adventure which took us over a 7 metre waterfall. Apparently the highest commercial rafting waterfall in the world. Yes, I was soaked, but no, I didn't fall out of the rubber dingy. Husband learned the Haka (I have pictures to prove it) and I kept my head and was not tempted in any way to throw myself off a bridge attached by a piece of elastic. if that's not an achievement, then I don't know what is!