So bright and early (and a little hungover) we left Auckland on Saturday morning for the Bay of Islands! We went even further north to the northern tip of New Zealand. We went with Stray and had a new driver named Bear. He was very informative and cool and within an hour of the trip talked us into signing up to skydive, smooth eh? More on that to come.
Anyway we made a few stops on the way- first stop was at a kaori tree. These trees are crazy cool and significant and were farmed down to 1% of the population :( they grow incredibly slow (the one we saw was 250,000 years old) and are very sturdy. They don't rot in water and are great for ships and piers, etc. So we hugged one due to Maori belief that if you don't hug one every 3 days it will die! It was huge!
Next we went to a bakery with the worst food on earth. I'm still thinking about it and not happy. Then we stopped in a town where a famous German artist designed a public restroom. It was all mosaics and very cool. Reminded me of an art museum in Philly which was the same thing- all mosaic made of different glass and plates and random objects. anyway the Germans all knew him and it was a happy moment for them (and us). Then we walked to a big waterfall called the Hatea waterfall which was very cool and pretty. I'm sorry I'm not good like Alexa and don't remember the names of anything or places. All I can tell you is everything was great!
We arrived in Paihia where we would stay the next 2 nights about a block from the beach. We stayed at Base Hostel and our room only had one wimpy light. But the town was so beautiful. Little sailboats all along the coast and pretty rock formations and a lot of islands in sight as the name suggests. It was a pretty sleepy town but had a few shops, pubs, free Internet and fudge tastings. What more could you need? We were going to walk along the coast but not surprisingly it rained.
That night we had a BBQ from the hostel with our new posse which consisted of us, 2 Germans and holland still. We had a great big meal (Alexa and Holland shared my steak and sausage!) and soon were off to bed to catch up on 3 nights of sleep.
The next day was great! We had a tour of the most northern tip of the country, Cape Reinga. First stop was a kaori gumtree farm/museum which showed how they used to dig for roots and there was a whole industry out of harvesting these trees. Then we kept driving to cape Reinga which was the most northern tip and we could see the Pacific Ocean meet the Tasman sea. Pretty awesome! They say the waves where the two meet can be up to 30ft high! There was a nice lighthouse there and beautiful scenery. Theres also a cave in the middle of the ocean where its believed that Maori souls swim through when they die to go back to their motherland. After we drove on the beach Fraser Island style called 90 mile beach. It's the only state highway in the world that's actually a beach! We were able to get out and walk around and if you stood on the sand while the tide went out all these little oysters popped up and appeared! There were heaps of them around and the water was cold so for the first time this trip the ocean reminded us of home. Gonna be hard to swim in ice cold water again...
Anyway from the beach we drove to some large dunes and were able to go sand boarding!! You use a boogie board and climb up the dune, lie on the board and you just go! It's so awesome and you use your feet to break at the end. Climbing the dunes was hard so we only did 2 runs but they were fun, sort of like sledding! By then it was time to come home and on the way we stopped at a "world famous" fish and chips place called the Mangonui Fish Shop for the best fish and chips "in the world." I have to say as a non-fish lover, I had a bite of Alexa's and even I could eat that and love it. It was good!! (Alexa here...out of this world!! Hands down best fish Ive ever had! It was called Hapuku fish and it was $6 and it was fannntastic). Too bad we don't live near them because it's prob the only time I would like them. They did something special that's for sure!
That night we lost one of the Germans in our crew so Netherlands offered to cook us a delicious dinner of mushroom pasta. I think Alexa would agree with me when I say we could get used to having someone else around to cook for us! We also had a free beer from the hostel and watched Anchorman. Life was good, which is important because we had the lingering fear of dying the next morning at our skydive.
Monday we were picked up early by Skydive Zone and taken to the airport. So nervous but also in that mindset where I just couldn't think about it. They had us fill out forms and sign away our lives and pay and then brought us out to get geared up. We wore these funny jumpsuits and got a hat and goggles.
Ok my turn!! Alexa here :-) So. We got all geared up in our sweet jumpsuits and were paired up with a skydiver. We thought we would have some type of lesson on how to jump or what to do if we suddenly find ourselves falling through the sky alone or the parachute doesn't open or something but nope. All we were told was keep your head back and legs bent backwards into me like a banana -- otherwise we'll both die. Great. We watched two people pack our chutes and our lives in a tiny backpack and next thing we knew we were sitting in a small plane ready to take off.
Oh! I almost forgot. The woman who checked us in was Armenian! So i knew i was in good hands :) She was from France but moved to NZ and didn't know much about the culture except that we have awesome food. She said she has been searching for local Armenians and is dying to get to Armenia so hopefully I convinced her to go!! She said I was her first Armenian jumper :)
Anyways. We were warned by our instructors not to walk in to the plane propeller so that was reassuring. However when i told my guy (can't believe I don't remember his name!! I trusted him with my life!!) that I wasn't scared because i figured he didn't want to die either he told me his dog died yesterday and his girlfriend walked out on him so he didn't have anything to live for. Real great thing to tell someone as they're about to jump 16,000 feet through the air!
Six of us got into the plane - 3 jumpers, 3 instructors and the pilot. We went for a twenty minute ride, climbing higher and higher until we reached our 16,000ft elevation. It was a beautiful day and you could see for miles and miles. Every 4,000ft or so they filmed us on our videotape asking how we felt and what we were thinking. I wasn't scared until the very last minute when the pilot gave the go ahead to open the door. Then I feared for my life!!! I didn't think I was going to die but I suddenly remembered I was going to be falling towards the ground at 200km/hr. that's about 120mph...holy crap!!!
Soooo my instructor (let's call him Steve) buckled my onto him and told me to scoot over and dangle my legs over the edge. OMG!!!! 16,000ft IS PRETTY FREAKING HIGH!!!! And then before I even had time to say no I was falling through the air. Incredible!!!! My stomach didn't drop and I didn't feel like I was going to puke or anything!!! My ears did make a squeaking sound and took a few seconds to pop but once they did i was golden! All I could feel was the wind blowing me around and like I was flying! Unreal!! We were surrounded by islands and ocean and beaches...gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky!!
We free fell for about 65 seconds -- fastest 65 seconds of my life! I swear it was more like 5 but it was awesome. When we got to 5,000ft, Steve pulled the parachute and we bounced around in the air for a few seconds and then silence. Floating. Absolutely amazing!! I did it!! I got to steer the parachute around for a bit and we floated for about five minutes, then had a quick lesson on how to land. Basically keep your legs up and stand when Steve says stand. Got it.
Steve landed and then...well I kind of tumbled to the ground and landed on my butt but oh we'll. Back on solid ground!!! I was high on life. Coolest feeling ever!! I was a little dizzy after the adrenaline wore off but otherwise great success!! Now that I've jumped once and know that it's not scary to fall I definitely want to do it again!! Thankfully Steve waited till we were back on solid ground to tell me his friend died last week in Spain because his parachute didn't open.
We landed just in time to see Karina and her guy land a little bit behind us. I'll let her tell you about her experience...can't wait to show you guys the video!!
A lot of what Alexa wrote applies to my experience. Basically I really wasn't as scared as I thought I would be! I kept telling myself that all the people we met who went loved it and said it was the best experience. They can't all be wrong, right? But then we got to the top and they opened the door and I immediately didn't want to do it. I saw Alexa go first, and basically get sucked out of the plane and I knew that would be me shortly and did not like that. Luckily you have no choice at that point and the guy just scoots you to the door (you are attached so as much as I didn't help he still just pushed me along) and he said "you ready?" and I
Said "no!!" and didnt look out or down i just leaned back on his shoulder like you are supposed to and braced for dear life. And then suddenly we were out and it's terrifying for a few seconds-almost takes your breath away when you see all the space below you between you and the ground. And it's a feeling unlike any other to just be alone and dropping from so high! So after a few seconds of panic you can process in your brain what is happening And have that moment of "I'm skydiving! I'm doing it! This is it!!!" and it's so great! Such a nice feeling to be doing it after all this anticipation and worry and you can think to yourself, I went through with it :) its great and so much fun! The dropping is awesome and goes by so quickly and you are so focused on the feeling you forget there is a parachute. Then suddenly you stop moving and it goes quiet (feels like time stops for a moment) and you think, what happened?!, then you realize he opened the parachute and you think, "oh yeah, forgot about that, glad its working!" so really you are so busy enjoying it you forget all the things you worried About before. Then the rest of the way down is amazing. You still have that rush of being in the air like a bird and not dying, but it goes slower so you can look around and enjoy the view and feeling. We did a spin once which was so cool. it was just awesome! I saw Alexa below me and. Then it was time to land which actually made me really sad. I didn't want it to end and knew I wouldn't be doing it again for a while, so I got pretty sad about it haha. After we landed I was still in the clouds mentally and thinking about it and taking it all in. I couldn't really talk and so my video is lame I didn't say anything cool or funny, oh well. It was worth every Penney, which is good cuz we spent a lot!
After it was over and we were no longer amped up or nervous we realized how hungry we were! We were too nervous to eat before so we won't back and made a nice lunch, took a little walk around and then caught the bus back to Auckland. We had a quiet night in Auckland and bought heaps of groceries in preparation for our... Road trip!! Woohoo!
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