Skydiving - Wanaka, New Zealand

Where We Be

Skydiving! -- Wanaka, New Zealand

We woke up to a perfect blue day without a cloud in
the sky and said, “This is it!” We signed up for the
ultimate adventure with Skydive Lake Wanaka, a
firm with a great safety record. We decided to do
the maximum allowable tandem jump from 15,000
feet. You can choose to jump from 9,000, 12,000, or
15,000 feet. A jump from 9,000 feet gives you 30
seconds of freefall, compared to 60 seconds at
15,000 feet. We figured, we’re only going to do this
once, so we might as well do it all the way.

We also decided to pay a professional cameraman
to take photos and videos of Robin during her
jump, which is why we have these great pictures to
share with you!

The Jump: Robin and I were about ten feet away
from each other, sitting on the floor in the open
plane berth, with each of our jump masters attached
behind us. We waved to each other, then my jump
master told me to scoot forward so my legs were
dangling outside the plane. This was definitely the
scariest and most surreal part of the adventure. It
just feels wrong to have your legs dangling outside
a plane at 15,000 feet.

The air outside felt very cold but the skies were
blue and you could see the whole world spread out
below you as if in miniature. The jump master pulled
my head back to rest against his shoulder. That was
the sign we were about to jump. I took a deep
breath. He pushed off and we hurtled down and out
of the plane.

That first five seconds is a rush. You fall forward
and your jump master rolls around so you’re staring
back up at the plane. You see it fly off and suddenly
feel very lonely! The next thing you know you’re
looking back down at the ground a ridiculous
distance below you. The cold wind is buffeting you.
Your jump master taps you hard on the shoulder,
and that’s the sign you can let go of the straps on
your jumpsuit and put your hands out in front of
you, palms downward, almost as if you were staring
through a window with your hands pressed against
the glass. You stop accelerating and reach terminal
velocity -- 120 mph, faster than most of us have
driven in a car. All this in the first five seconds.

You’re now falling at 180 feet per second and
continue falling at that rate until the jump master
pulls the cord and your parachute deploys.
Meanwhile, you’re staring straight down at the
Earth in all its glory. You whoop and holler and try
to take it all in. You start to feel like you’re
supported by the air rushing past you.

My jump master moved his hands and we started
spinning so that the whole world spun below us.
Wow! When his altimeter read 3,000, my jump master
pulled the cord and our parachute deployed. Up we
went, much to my relief. Everything slowed down
and the earth swam into clearer focus. My first
thought was that I might be able to catch a glimpse
of Robin. I saw her with her parachute already open
making the same gentle descent I was, but at a
higher altitude.

The memory etched deepest in my mind is of a black
dot -- the cameraman -- continuing to plummet
towards the earth, only deploying his chute once he
was much closer to the ground. He needed to go
faster than us in order to get set up to take the
video of our landings.