Journal #60: Auckland
4/30/16
Cover Photo: “We Fly High”
Sheep Spotted: ~100
Today I got into a a fully-functioning airplane, went up to 16,500 feet, and jumped out of it. Thus begins my first ever sky diving experience!
Before I get into the story of the dive itself, I think it’s worth mentioning something: Up until roughly 3 weeks ago, I have never in my life considered sky diving. I’ve heard friends say that “it’s on their bucket list,” but honestly it has never been on mine, primarily because I am afraid of heights.
The urge to do it predominantly came out of a desire to end the trip with the most authentic Kiwi experience possible, and given the Kiwis desire to constantly engage in adrenaline based activities, I figured Sky diving was the perfect thing!
Since this was my first dive, in New Zealand (also the US and Aus) the dive is done in “Tandem” with a guide. My guide today was Mick- here are we are getting ready to board the tiny plane:
As I mentioned the plane was tiny and we were sharing it with 12 other people: 2 other Tandem pairs (two Chinese tourists who came with me from Auckland) and 8 students. The Students were “studying” for their sky diving certification- which as far as I can see, involves making dozens of unassisted jumps from planes (I wish real school was that simple). They actually jumped at a much lower altitude than us- evidently the height doesn’t matter, so they are trying to maximize the number of dives per day they take by reaching the ground faster.
Anyways- pretty soon we got under way in the tiny propeller plane. Inside the plane, in order to maximize space, everyone sits “Shish Kebab style” (my term, not theirs) on the bench. Here’s a quick photo from inside the plane (that’s the guy in front of me’s backpack):
This company- “Sky Dive Auckland”- let’s divers choose from three different altitudes: 13,000, 15,000, and 16,500 feet. Since the parachute is always pulled at 5000 feet, jumping higher means more time in free fall (which is the fun part). Naturally, I chose 16,500, because it was the highest altitude available and meant I could free fall for 75 seconds (also- I figured if I decided I hated sky diving, at least I went big on my only attempt).
Getting to 16,500 feet takes about 20 minutes (plus an additional 5 if you have students- as mentioned before, they jumped out at 13,000 to maximize their jumps). Luckily today was an absolutely gorgeous day, so the plane handled like a dream- no turbulence or anything. In fact- I found the plane ride part quite pleasant- this part of New Zealand (North West on the peninsula) is quite beautiful and the views are epic.
Getting ready to jump is actually pretty easy as well- primarily because your guide (Mick in my case) shoves you towards the door (not much choice involved in Tandem skydiving :)). To get in position, you sit on the edge with your legs dangling in the air. I don’t have a great photo of me in this position, but here you can see my fellow first-time diver- who we’ll call Ai Weiwei (he only said three words in the 4 hours I was with him, but he looked like Ai Weiwei)- hanging out the door with his guide behind him. (The intense Judge Dredd like guy behind him in the orange is one of the senior students who closed the door after we jumped):
As soon as Ai Weiwei jumped, it was my finally my turn! Dangling over the side is actually not too bad- although I should mention that at Mick’s instruction, my head was tilted back, so I wasn’t actually looking down.
The most terrifying part is hands down the initial drop and in this case it came completely without warning, as Mick shoved us out very quickly! The acceleration is quite rapid and there’s absolutely nothing below except clouds and sky- in fact, this probably is the quickest I’ve ever fallen from anywhere ever (roller coasters included). You can see how I’m feeling during this part in this photo:
Once we fell for about 5 or 6 seconds, we hit our terminal velocity and from there, skydiving becomes awesome. You can see the immediate change in my disposition:
For me, the highlight of skydiving is being able to see the land below you for miles and miles. Free falling is fun- but nothing beats seeing the world from a bird’s eye view:
Finally, after our 75 seconds were up and we hit 5000 feet, Mick pulled the parachute cord and we began our final descent. Hands down the most uncomfortable part of the entire dive is the parachute portion- the chute pulled me upwards and since I was wearing a leg harness, I got a nice tight pull into my crotch. Not to mention, I had to decompress during this part (release the air from my ears) and Mick decided we were going too fast, so he started spinning us around in circles, which made the straps dig even tighter in my legs. Luckily this part only lasts for a couple minutes!
Finally after our brief descent, we reached our target area and came in for graceful landing:
Overall, the entire experience was great. I have absolutely nothing to compare it to, so I’ll just say it’s definitely something worth trying. I would absolutely do it again- although next time I would make two changes:
1) I would wear gloves- at 16,500 it is freezing and my hands were extremely cold during free fall.
2) I would wear better pants- I noticed all of the students had specialized parachuting pants- I would assume these pants have padding to help with the crotch stress during parachuting (similar to biking shorts helping with saddle soreness).
My only regret is that I waited until now to do the dive: although the North island of New Zealand is gorgeous, I would bet that nothing beats the views over the mountains in the Southwest of New Zealand.
Tomorrow is my last fully day in New Zealand and also likely be my last blog post. Stay tuned until then!
Cheers,
MB
