Queenstown (part ii)

So today was just another regular day. Oh wait, I WENT SKYDIVING!

The day just seemed to be a dream. I was hopped up on adrenaline for the majority of it. Queenstown is the adventure capital in the world, so what better way to honor its reputation than by jumping out of a plane?! Sorry, mom.

The people at the skydiving place drove us to a drop site in between two mountain ranges called the Remarkables. I was surprisingly calm and very excited. I was jumping with a man named Sasha, who is from Serbia. He asked if I was from there because apparently Marina is a common name where he's from. It was only fitting that short little me had the tallest man there.

I decided to jump from 12,000 feet. That means I free-falled for 50 seconds. To get an idea of how high I was, the mountains around me were 6,000 feet. Sasha was really nice and well-trained but he had fun trying to make me nervous. I tried asking him how long he's been skydiving and he sassily answered "yesterday morning." But in reality, I felt really safe. The plane was different than I expected. All tandem pairs sat on the floor, facing the back of the plane. The door to jump out of was a hole in the side of the plane that had a garage-door contraption over it. Crazy.

How you're suppose to jump out of a plane is "banana style" meaning that your head should be up, feet and legs back, and arms holding the shoulder straps. I flailed a little coming out of the plane because my stomach dropped. But once the air created a little resistence it was the most amazing thing ever. For 50 seconds I literally had cold wind blowing past me and the most incredible view underneath me. It seemed so nonchalant that this was happening. Some of the faces I made actually crack me up. This particular one I call "frog in the air."

Although I looked like a silly Q-tip in the sky, I did not care because it was such a thrill. Once the parachute was let out, I was able to really see how high up we were! One of the coolest parts was that Sasha let me steer. By pulling down on the yellow straps of the parachute, I was able to turn right/left. However, he played a joke and pulled one side of the parachute down really hard causing us to spin in a circle super fast.

The landing was a bit rough. I was instructed to keep my legs up and then when he touched the ground I do the same. But he was too tall and my legs didn't reach so we fumbled a bit. Once I landed I could not believe what I had just done! It still feels like a dream. Since I've landed, I cannot stop saying "can you believe we jumped out of a plane?!"

The whole journey is on video so take a look! (plus pictures in the gallery)

*I suggest skipping the NZONE promotion in the middle, but to each is own.