Backpacking

Day 266: 24th October The man who fell to Earth

Taupo, New Zealand

Today I thought it would be a good idea if I paid someone to fly me up to 12,000 feet and throw me out of a plane. Willingly. Luckily with instructor and parachute attached.

I drove forty minutes northwards to Lake Taupo, which is apparently the cheapest place in the world to skydive, at only NZ$149 to fall screaming from 12,000 feet.

So with some trepidation I was suited up and, ahem, asked to dance for the Ground Video. Luckily I saw the same uncertainty I was feeling mirrored in the nervous, pallid faces of my fellow jumpers: a kiwi guy (who'd been given this as a birthday present from his girlfriend. I enquired whether he knew of any reason why she would want him dead), a German couple, a French girl and an American girl.

So we, the United Nations, marched as one to the plane, hooked up to our tandem masters. Mine, Andy, was a great chap, and his quips managed to put me more at ease as we soared high into the sky above Lake Taupo in a plane seemingly powered only by two wound-up rubber bands behind the propellers.

Then they opened the door.

The noise of the wind outside coupled with looking down 12,000 feet to Earth nearly made me soil my suit. Even worse was watching horrified as the first instructor positioned the French girl in a sitting position out the edge of the door with her feet dangling out of the plane. With one heave, they were out and tumbling to Earth behind the plane.

I was next for this exact treatment.

Thankfully, I had a trainee cameraman straddling the doorway in front of me, so I didn't have much of a chance for my eyes to linger on the huge drop. Suddenly he was off - and I was heaved out after him by Andy.

The feeling of tumbling helplessly out of a plane, sky and ground flipping before your instructor manages to right you both, is beyond words. It took my breath clean away. You'll only know the gut-wrenching adrenaline rush if you've done it yourself.

And I highly recommend doing so!

Then we were freefalling - plummeting to Earth at about 200 km/h, for a whole 45 seconds (although it went in a heartbeat and felt more like 10). I spent the time yelling elatedly and waving at the trainee cameraman grinning at