SKYDIVING OVER LAKE WANAKA

Ye-ha! I went skydiving! It was so good, a really amazing experience....

On the ground I was actually more worried about the parents permission (that I didn' have) than about the jump itself. I was about to use this as an excuse to run away from the airport (I mean, what if they find out I'm doing something illegal and shoot the plane down??) but I knew I would hate myself forever if I'd do that. I got introduced to my jumpmaster and was requested to put on a flight suit which made me look very interesting. There's a video of the minutes before the plane went up and I have never ever said so much crap.

We got a short briefing and the opportunity to ask questions (little cora: "what happens if our jumpmaster falls to sleep in the middle of the free fall?"). The plane in which we went up was incredibly small and we had to squash in (this doesn't belong here but have I mentioned that our bus driver squashed three possums today? I found it's a pretty disgusting sight even for a non vegetarian. basically everything just splashed out and sometimes the possums keeps runnign around for a second or two and it's just not nice to look at. Apparently they've eaten the native birds since they've been imported but i still feel sorry for them and after having seen them rolled over by a 50 people bus a few times I have decided to like the possums).

The jumpmasters strapped us together pretty tightly and the plane seemed to climb up the 12 000 ft incredibly slowly. When the first couple actually jumped I found this small plane a perfectly good place to stay but with a stranger tied to your back who obviously wants you to
jump there's not much choice. The jumpmaster moves you towards the exit on the side of the plane, you have to put your feet and your head back and then you just fall out. I totally didn't expect the huge adrenaline rush, maybe also because I thought you'd just lie in the air but we turned over a few times before we got into the right position.

On 12,000 ft you have 30 seconds of freefall but actually they are not the longest 30 seconds of your life but really short. I was so confused because could feel I was falling very fast (at 200kph!!) but the ground didn't seem to move towards us because it's just so high.
the jumpmaster tried to get me to open my arms but I kept holding on to my suit as I could hear him but I simply didn't get it.

It's such a weird feeling if there is one person really close to you but around there's nothing but air for kilometres. It's absolutely undescribable.
Finally the parachute opened and we were floating down slowly with an unbelievable view of snow capped mountains, lakes and forests. It is so beautiful.

The whole thing feels so unreal. I still can't believe i've done it and you probably don't either but there's a highly embarrassing video which I will force you all to watch when I'm back!

Ten days to go!

Lots of love
Cora