Sunday night I didn't sleep very well, having numerous dreams about falling out of the sky, and so it wasn't a problem getting up early on Monday and heading to the airport. There I was shown a DVD about what was going to happen that morning as I prepared to do my skydive. It was a really cloudy day and the skydive staff advised us to go off and get some breakfast and come back in an hour to wait for the cloud to clear. I really just wanted to get it over with, but meeting all the staff at the airport had made me feel pretty excited about the jump so what harm would another hours wait do. We had our breakfast and headed back, only to be told that the cloud cover wasn't clearing and we'd need to come back at 2pm. That was 4 hours away!!
We went back into Motueka town and got some housekeeping done, got the waterproof camera shots of dolphin swimming developed, uploaded some stuff to the blog etc..., but about half 12 it got to the stage where we had nothing to do but sit and think about what I was about to do. The waiting was by far the worst bit. I just wanted to do it, land safely on the ground and be thankful that I was still alive!
At half one we headed back to the airport and there it was all systems go. I watched as some other fools got into a plane, headed up to the sky out of sight, and then came floating back down to earth on a bit of canvas. Then it was my turn. Before I knew it I was being suited up and introduced to the man I would entrust with my life. Once the harness was attached, my designated cameraman summoned me out of the hanger to ask me for a few last words before I got into the plane. I had so many things in my head that me and Kev had joked about the night before – the things I was meant to say on camera to make me look really cool – things like: 'hey everyone, come and see how good I look!' (lines from my favourite film in case you're wondering why I'm suddenly so uncharacteristically vain!). But all those things went out of my head and when my cameraman asked me if I had a message for my family back in Wales, all I could think to say was something along the lines of: 'tell them I love them if I don't make it down alive!!'.
Next we were quickly shoved in a tiny tiny plane before we even had time to think twice (probably just as well). I went in last, which I instantly knew meant I was jumping first (again, probably just as well). Amazingly, I wasn't nervous, just excited, although I did repeatedly ask every single member of staff whether it was possible to breath while you were falling out of the sky! Inside the tiny plane another two girls were squished up between the legs of their tandem jumpers and in front of them were two cameramen. Then there was me, squished between the legs of my jumper, Mike. As the door closed and we waved the ground goodbye, the only thing I could think was 'hurry up and get me up there so I can jump out of this tiny space', for a claustrophobic person, the tiny plane was the worst bit! I had a good position, right by the big glass door and so I could see everything as we shot up into the sky – the mountains, the beaches, everything. There was a moment when Mike pointed to his watch thing and told me we were at 5000ft and there was a long way to go. I looked out the window and thought, blinking heck, that is a long way up, I've got to jump out of here – for a split second I got nervous but I just blocked that out of my head and enjoyed the view. The staff were great anyway as they just kept talking to keep you calm. I think Mike ran out of things to say at one point and started talking about liking mud cake. I was thinking, yeah, that's great, but what has liking mud cake got to do with the fact that whether I live or die is completely in your hands right now!! I really wanted him to stop sounding like a totally rad hippy and to start sounding like a sensible professional who knew exactly what he was doing – but no, him and his mate just proceeded to make crazy hand signals at each other while shouting 'totally rad man' and 'extreeeeeme dude!'.
I could feel Mike beginning to snap various clips onto me which meant he was securing himself to my harness. He asked me to put my hat on and then told me that from that point on, wherever I go, he goes. What was more worrying for me was that wherever he goes, I go – no turning back now. I put on my goggles which immediately steamed up, but Mike assured me that as soon as the door opened my goggles would clear in a second. And with that everything started to happen pretty quickly. The door snapped open, my goggles cleared and my cameraman climbed out to the side of the plane. Then Mike started shifting me towards the door and before I knew it I was hanging over the edge of the plane. Mike had told me that to get into starting position I would need to curl my legs up under the plane and put my head right back. I had expected that to mean that I would be sitting on the edge of the plane with my legs under it – but no, what that means is, you're hanging out of the plane with your legs back while Mike sits comfortably on the edge – at that moment in time I was entrusting my life to some sturdy straps and a harness. Everything happened so quickly and Mike asked me if I was good to go, I nodded, time for one pose for the camera and then it was brace brace brace position as Mike flung us out of the plane. For a few seconds your just spinning around in the sky and you've no idea what's going on, it's like your mind is in overload and then you catch a glimpse of your cameraman and you're eyes can begin to focus. Thumbs up for the camera and then I realised we were hurtling towards the ground at 120mph from 13000ft. It was awesome and yes I could breath, although I didn't open my mouth once in case the force of the wind stopped my ability to breath!! I had also been told that this was a good way of preventing that wobbly mouth and saliva all over your face look that some people get on their DVD - I really didn't want that! So while other people scream and yell in their DVD's, I'm just falling with a devils horn pose in silence. Again, I was meant to be screaming 'Scotchy scotch, scotch, down into my belly!' or 'power, power, power!', but none of that made it on the DVD!
Just as I was beginning to think, OK, I've had enough of this now, we've been free-falling for a pretty long time (50 seconds in fact), Mike tapped me on the shoulders and the parachute opened. We shot back upwards into the air with a jolt and my cameraman shot straight down to earth to get there in time to catch me landing. Once the parachute had opened everything slowed down and it felt like we had actually stopped moving and we were in fact just suspended in mid air. It was all very peaceful and fr the next five minutes or so me and Mike made small talk about work and the like while we floated down. I had a go at steering and with every turn my stomach churned. I liked the feeling but did it a little too much, to the point where I made myself pretty motion sick and Mike had to take over control. We had a really good landing, no undignified falling on the floor, just a graceful walk onto land. It was great and I would totally do it again. It's just a shame it's over so quickly, but it's really not scary – there's no time to get scared!
Once I'd collected my photos and DVD (and free T-shirt) we headed back to the internet cafe to watch the DVD. It's pretty funny and I'm looking forward to showing you guys when we get back. Then it was time to drive towards Picton. It was the windiest road we've ever driven along but it didn't take too long and we arrived at a camp-site just outside of Picton, in a beautiful bay pretty early, The weather was amazing now and this was the perfect place to end the day. We sat by our van, on the shoreline, with a cold beer and fed the ducks – it was great.
The next morning, after we had fed our friends the ducks, we had to leave and drove to Picton itself where we were to get the ferry across to the north island. Picton doesn't really have much to offer other than the ferry but we had time for a quick coffee and a look around the shops. We checked in to get on the ferry and sat and waited until we could board and eventually we drove on to the ferry. We had gone with Blue bridge because our van rental place had a deal which meant we could get through for the price of a car rather than a camper van. Unfortunately, Blue bridge, it appears. Also have a deal with every farmer in New Zealand and so we had to share our journey to the north island with two huge truck loads of sheep and cows – all crammed into tiny little cages in the vans and all smelling really really bad!! The smell meant that you couldn't really venture outside while you were on this hip – although Kev did. I was confined to inside, which was pretty bleak too. The Blue Bridge ferries are ex-freighters so they're pretty basic inside. I can't say it was the most pleasurable cruise across the sea I've ever done (even though it's the only cruise across the sea I've ever done) and I suspect Blue Bridge is the cheaper option for everyone anyway because the class of people we shared the trip with were far below my desired standards shall we say! 4 hours later I was glad to get off that boat.
As the ferry approached Wellington we could already see why everyone says the north island is like a different country to the south. In the Wellington skyline we saw buildings of more than one two storeys high for the first time in two weeks – on the south island, you're lucky if you see anything other than a bungalow! Once we drove off the ferry, the road systems immediately confused us, well confused me, the navigator, anyway. In the south island it was impossible to get lost – there was mainly one road and everything was along that road, with a few exceptions. Here we were in a normal city and I managed to get us lost pretty quickly. Despite a few heated words between Kevin and myself we eventually found our way onto the highway and drove out to the camp-site. Unfortunately, an inevitability of being back in a normal size city, all the camp-sites were on the outskirts of town. It didn't matter too much that night as by the time we got to the camp-site we were pretty tired and had a quiet night.
The next morning we had a long lie and then caught the bus into Wellington centre. They say this is one of the windiest cities on earth and that is no lie. The wind actually tires you out here because it's like being constantly rocked by a hurricane and not in a good 'Scorpions' kind of way. Seriously though, it;s unbelievable how much you get blown around here. We got off the bus just by the parliament buildings and stopped pretty much just long enough to take a photos before we were blown further down into the town centre. We stopped off for a really good lunch and then headed off to find The Welsh Pub. When we found it, as I should have expected, it looked like a total dive and it was closed. So we spent the afternoon wandering around Wellington, getting a little bit bored if we're honest. It's a nice city, don;t get me wrong, but there's not that much going on here that you can't get back home. Eventually we found the Welsh Bar to be open and we went inside. To our surprise, inside was really nice, although it did smell exactly like Metros (must be a Welsh smell!) and we had a few drinks and played a bit of pool before meeting my friend Hannah, who I used to work with in Cardiff and who now lives here in Wellington. We had a drink with her but then had to leave to catch our bus back to the camp-site.
The next morning we had to leave Wellington, but although we had liked it there, we weren't sad to go. We got straight back onto the highway and headed towards Napier. It was a long drive and a windy and windy (two different words!) one. About 5 hours later we arrived in Napier, the Art Deco City. WE parked up and walked into town which was pretty impressive although not what I had expected. I had expected a town tat was lost in time, where everyone still lives in Art Deco style. That's not true though and instead it's just a normal town where all the buildings in the centre are from the Art Deco style as they were built in the 1930s. I think it's meant to be the best example of an Art Deco town in the world, I think. Basically the town was destroyed by an earthquake and so in the 1930s the centre got completely rebuilt in a beautiful Art Deco style. We had a bit of a wander around and then went back to the camp-site to chill out. There was an old person's party going on in a dinning hall just by our van so the OAPs kept us up later than we had wanted (think we must be getting old!) but we still managed to get a relatively early night.
The next morning we got up and went on our own self0guided tour of Napier. We had bought the little brochure and so we parked up at the start and worked our way around the city. It was interesting but by the end of the two hour tour we were getting a little tired of Art Deco. Sarita would have loved it more I'm sure!
We got back in the van and it was time to drive to Lake Taupo. This was a much shorter and much nicer drive and we arrived by later afternoon. It's a nice place in Taupo and the lake is massive, but we had a big dilemma on our hands. Kev wanted to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing Trek which is an 8 hour minimum hike across some amazing scenery and rising to up to 1900 feet above sea level. It's a serious expedition for which you need to be thoroughly prepared as the weather can change dramatically during the trek. We'd asked about weather conditions at the information site and we were told that the following day (today, Saturday) was looking like the best day to do the walk for the next few days. Now, ask me to jump out of a plane, fine. Ask me to raft down the scariest white water, fine. Ask me to abseil off the highest cliff, fine. But ask me to walk for 8 hours up a big hill in the middle of nowhere to complete seclusion, not fine! That is like my fears all in one, seclusion, endurance, challenging weather conditions – no it's not for me. I knew I would regret not doing the walk if I didn't go because it looks absolutely amazing and it's where they filmed the Mordor scenes in Lord of the Rings – it's big volcanic craters and beautiful turquoise lakes. I tried to psych myself up to say I would do it, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get it out of my head that, no, I just didn't fancy it!! So eventually we agreed that Kev would sign up for the shuttle bus to the beginning of the route and I would spend the day by the pool in the camp-site. Hundreds of people do the walk everyday, so Kev assured me that he would get chatting to some people on the bus and tag along with them. I was really worried about him doing the walk on his own, but he convinced me that he wouldn't be on his own, so he booked himself on for a pick up at 5.30am the next day (he could have gone an hour later but I wanted him to go on the earlier one to give him maximum time to get back to civilisation before night closed in!!) All that was left to do was to stock up on Mars bars, bottles of water and food and we were done for the evening.
So at 5am this morning, Kev got up and despite having second thoughts about whether I should go with him late last night, when that alarm went off, I knew I had made the right decision!! He got ready to go while I sneaked some water purification tablets and other emergency supplies into his bag – he'd insisted I was being silly when I'd suggested he take such things the night before, but I wouldn't be able to rest if he wasn't prepared – I really should have been a boy scout!! And then he headed off to catch his bus from the camp-site entrance. I went back to sleep!
I have now spent the day assessing our budget (which is looking a bit scary now!!) and doing this blog, while lazing by the side of the pool. It's a beautiful hot day and so I'm sure Kev will be doing fine. For the most part I've had the pool completely to myself which has been great. Don't think we'll do much tonight as I suspect Kev will be in pain when he returns.
However, Kev has just returned having completed the 8 hour hike in about 6 hours! For someone who never does any exercise I have no idea how he is so fit! He said it wasn't even that bad! I asked him to write this bit about his hike but he doesn't like writing so I shall try and summarise what he has told me. The bus dropped him off at half seven in the morning at the start of the hike and it was so foggy and dark that he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He headed off and the first two hours were really hard going – constant uphill trekking but it was all worth it when he got to the first crater and was above the clouds. He has shown me the photos of Mordor and it does look pretty cool. He said the worst bit was the hike down the other side because by then you'd already seen all the great views and the downward bit goes on for about 3 more hours and you just want to be at the end by then! Anyway, he'll tell you about it more and show you the photos which do look awesome, and yes, I am a wee bit gutted I didn't do it! Although Kev says I would have moaned...a lot! Good on him for doing it though, I said that people get sponsored to do less!
One final note for tonight – just got my phone bill and realised that I've been getting charged to use my email on my phone so email access will now be very limited and certainly don't expect any texts from us in the near future! Will still have phone if you need to get us in an emergency though of course! xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment