I finally got to go skydiving today - yay! After two attempts, it finally happened and I'm so happy!
I was booked in for the 9am dive, and I got picked up in a stretch limo too! We picked up 4 other girls as well, and so we headed off to the airport. The weather looked a bit iffy outside, but they still picked us up and togged us up. The jumpsuits look ever so fetching, let alone the little caps and eye masks!! Oh well, I'm not there to look like a model, am I?

I meet Dale, who's going to be my buddy instructor. He's quite cute, very funny, joking around and all sorts - saying all sorts of daft stuff that is just making us all much more nervous!! One of the guys has a really bad hangover and is just getting the mick taken out of him. It gets even worse when he walks off to the plane without his parachute....Christ on a bike, talk about making you feel like chickening out and getting your stomach churning even more!! I was just glad I wasn't jumping with him!!

So, three of the girls went up first as there were five of us altogether and the tiny little pink plane can only hold four. However, after they'd been up there for a little bit, we heard on the radio that they weren't going to jump as they weren't happy with the weather conditions. The clouds did look a little too dark and grey :(
Back down they came, and we were re-booked for 1pm. We had to ring 20 minutes beforehand though, to check if the weather was going to be good to us. So, I shuffled back to the hostel to do some washing and go and have a wander around the town. Managed to buy another pair of shoes, as one of the pairs that I brought with me has just had it. The heels are wearing out, and because they got completely soaked in Darwin when I went to Litchfield National Park, they've just gotten completely battered.

Anyways, 12:45pm comes along and Patrick at the reception calls the skydive people. It's not good news unfortunately, as the weather is just not being nice. So, they re-book me in for 5pm. Good thing I'm spending two nights here, eh? Otherwise I'd have missed my chance and would have been really upset! I know there are more places that I can skydive in, but apparently Taupo is one of the cheapest places and the small company I've chosen to go with is meant to be one of the best because they're small and friendly and also offer a better dive package - t-shirt, dvd, etc.

I could go skydiving in the next town - Rotorua - but I've already more or less planned my two days there with all sorts of other stuff, so it would have been really annoying to not be able to do it here. I'd also come to Taupo half to go skydiving, and did have my heart set on doing it here, so I would have been really disappointed if I had to go on to the next place sans dive.

Inbetween the second waiting time, I decided to go to the Museum and Art Gallery in the town centre. I treated myself to a nice boysonberry gelato on the way as well :D Why not, I'm on holiday after all?!
The museum was actually really nice. It was quite small, but well laid out, and there was hardly anybody in there! They had some lovely Maori carvings in there, as well as some information about the volcanic eruptions that happened many, many moons ago. It was really quite interesting, and also just nice to be in an air conditioned building!! There was also a hilarious kind of tourist type video about Taupo, narrated by a fairly posh gentleman. For those of you that remember the film 'The Full Monty' with the opening bit that is 'advertising' Sheffield - 'Sheffield, city of steel.....' blah, blah, blah. Said by a very posh man, with all those lovely pictures of Sheffield. Imagine that, but done very recently, and about Taupo (for those of you that have actually been here). Well, I found it quite funny in any case. It just seemed so English and twee, and we're just the furthest away from England that you could be over here!!

As I walk out of the museum, the sun is shining and I can see plenty of blue sky and white fluffy clouds. I so hoped that they would last until 5pm, and not go all grey and horrid again!! So I wandered around town a bit more, found the boat cruise booking place (for tomorrow if the skydive went ahead today, or for tomorrow if the skydive didn't go ahead today and the weather was still too rubbish tomorrow), and then I hot footed it back to the hostel.

Imagine the grin on my face when Patrick said they would be picking me up in about 15 minutes!! I'd psyched myself up in the morning, but still felt terribly nervous. By the time 5pm came around, I was actually really looking forward to it and REALLY wanted to do it!! I would not have been happy if the weather hadn't cheered up!! The limo arrives, takes me off to the airport with a bunch of guys, and we also pick up 3 of the girls that I was with in the morning. One of the girls was missing - I guess she either had to catch a bus, or perhaps had booked something else.

Once we get there, some people before us have already jumped so we know it's definitely on!! EXCITED!!
Dale is still there, so we team up again, go through all the safety stuff, take some piccies, do some footage for the DVD, etc.
He first asks me if I've got a cold and he's thanking his lucky stars that I don't. The guy he just jumped with said he didn't have a cold, but then started coughing and spluttering in front of him. Whilst Dale is filming his jump, this great big green bogey flies out of this guys nose and just gets stuck to his face. ~Christina makes retching noise~ He tells me all this, but then calls me in secretly to watch this poor guys jump film. OHMYGOD, it was sooooo gross. ~Christina makes more retching noises~ He made me really, really paranoid but nothing flew out of my nose, my mouth or anything - yay!!
The little pink plane is very little and one of the girls is even scared of flying!! We find out later that she and her friend are doing a round the world trip (how they're affording it as they've only just graduated is anyone's guess) so she'll either be more scared of flying by the time she gets home, or she'll be completely cured! She's also going to be going out of the plane first!!
It's pretty scary up in the plane, but the guys we're all strapped to have done this thousands of times before, so we're all in good hands.
The guys also start joking around, with the banter that they've probably been practising on people for months and months!! However, Dale starts fiddling about with my harness and it seems a bit loose.

'XL - I thought that stood for xtra little - did I get it wrong?'
One of the other guys says, 'Yeah mate, it stands for xtra large.' He then looks at me and says 'You'll just have to hold on really tight' with a bit of a glint in his eye.
Great, shall I pee my pants now or when we jump out of the plane?
Thankfully, some straps are pulled and my harness gets tightened. I mean, it's not like I thought I would fall out or whatever, but my heart did do a small cardiac arrest in any case!!

I got really scared when Johanna went out of the plane first as well. There's a little plastic-y looking door that opens up, and then she's shuffling to the front, and it all just seems like a mistake!! Marleena goes next, then me, and Josephine is the last one! There's not really enough time to realise what you're doing as you shuffle to the edge of the plane, because as soon as you've shuffled there, you're out the door!
The view from 15,000 feet is absolutely amazing though. The weather seemed absolutely perfect - some lovely clouds to look at, and as we were flying over Lake Taupo, it was gently shimmering from the sun. It was just gorgeous! I wanted to stay in the plane and just fly around!! :D

It's just an indescribe-able feeling as you hurl yourself out of that plane, as I'm sure some of you well know having done it before me!! It is so terrifying, but also amazing. I wondered if I would scream my head off all the way down, or whether I'd be completely gob-smacked and wouldn't be able to do or say anything!! Yes, there were a few screams as you can imagine but I still managed quite a few smiles and some waving at the camera, so I can't have done too badly!! I can also re-live the moment on the DVD that I got with the overall package, I can wear my t-shirt every day if I so wish, got some great photos from their photographer obviously, and we even got blue wrist bands (they must have got gazillions of these made when the wrist band craze was on)!!
It felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head as the scenery around is just so amazing, and even though they said you got 60 seconds of freefall, it felt like about 2!! It was over so quickly, but it also felt like it went on for more than 5 minutes which is the time it takes for us to get to the ground from jumping out of the plane.

I think I would definitely do it again, but I think I'll have to wait until I get back to Australia, and also see how my bank account is doing by the time I get back there! It is certainly an experience, and it was definitely worth the whole day of waiting! I got to do other stuff whilst waiting in any case, so the day wasn't completely bummed out thankfully.

I'm so glad I did it!!

ps - I'm also in this huge room all by myself as things seem to be rather quiet here now! There are other guests, but all in other rooms. I guess I don't mind, but just feels a bit eerie! Anyone want to join me?
pps - I'll be boring you all with the dvd when I get home as well :D