TRAVEL & ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND



I love NZ!

My first visit (apart from the transit lounge at Auckland airport) was from March-June 1996. I travelled all around the country and found a special energy there that made me do crazy things.

First, I jumped out of an airplane. Naturally I was attached to a jump-master, who was attached to the parachute. I hadn't planned this. It wasn't on my list of "things I want to do before I die". I was in the small seaside town of Hokitika on the "Wild West Coast", looking for something to do besides shop for jade. The hostel owner called the skydiving school and Rob, the jump-master, dropped by to chat. I was never entirely sure how the conversation went from the general ("How much is it?") to the specific ("I'll pick you up tomorrow at 3."), but I suppose it was a turning point on my road to a more adventurous life than the one I'd left behind in Canada.

In learning all the technical information about how a tandem skydive would be accomplished, I forgot to be scared. A Danish woman who was taking a skydiving licence there also encouraged me. When Rob told me to sit on the edge of the open door of the plane, the ground below was so far away that it seemed of irrelevant. From 8000 feet (at sea level) we jumped.

Ahhh, freefall! Like the g-force on a rollercoaster, only much, much more than that. For 30 seconds we plummeted through the air (don't ask how fast), until Rob opened the canopy and we floated above the land & sea, Mt Cook rising above the clouds in the distance. His wife had been with us and she jumped from 10000 feet. Being alone, she could open her parachute much lower than us. I watched as she fell past us through the blue sky

After this, I jumped off a bridge. Not once, but three times! A few years before, a friend had bungy-jumped in NZ. She was crazy, I thought. Then a Kiwi friend did it twice in Australia and he challenged me: "You have to do it!" Even after the skydiving, I wasn't sure, but I set myself a deadline of the first commercial bungy site, AJ Hackett's Karawau River 43 metre jump.

I used to be the kind of person who made many false starts and I was afraid I'd stand on the bridge hesitating for ages. Especially because the ground is so close, it's definitely not irrelevant. What got into me that day? With Denis Leary's "Asshole" playing in the background, there was a countdown: "5...4...3...2...1...BUNGY!!!" and I was gone, falling through the air, laughing and screaming at the same time. I was dunked into the river halfway up (or down) my body, and flung around crazily at the end of the bungy cord a couple of more times before coming to a stop, hanging ridiculously upside-down.

When I was pulled into the dinghy, I was still giggling. I climbed the steps back up the gorge to join my friends (all cowards, but they took photos for me), who asked me how it was.

"NEED MORE FREEFALL!"

So I went to Skipper's Canyon (71 metres) a week later. I don't know how it is now, but back then the 4WD only, rental-cars-not-insured, one-and-a-half lane, unsealed road to the jump site was probably almost as scary as the jump itself. After the first jump, we were offered a second jump at a bargain price. The catch was, we had to climb back up out of the canyon for it!

By this time I was addicted so of course, I said yes. The staff member tying my harness suggested doing something "a bit sexy"...no, not jumping naked, but a different kind of jump that turned out to be somehow even scarier. It was called a "backwards elevator" and required me to begin by standing on the edge of the platform facing the bridge. The staff member held the front of my sweater until the time came for him to, well, let go. At which point I simply hopped off feet first with my hands behind my head, looking up at the bridge as it apparently fell away from me.

To be continued...



3km into the Levene Half-Marathon in Taupo, New Zealand.
It was my first event EVER and I finished it in 2 1/2 hours.
Too late to get a photo crossing the finish line but I did it!



In Taupo again, learning to ride motocross.
No fancy tricks or jumps... yet!
(Sorry, this photo has become corrupted. I hope to fix it and add others soon.)