The day we jumped out of a plane!...

Today we woke up nice and early in the spare room at Aunty Kathy’s. After peering out of the window and seeing the clear blue sky, we decided it was the perfect day to jump out of a plane and what a better place to do it than over Abel Tasman national park and the golden bay.

We booked our skydives for 1 o’clock and got dressed and ready quickly and began our windy drive over the huge Tataka hill towards Motueka. On the way we stopped off at the fresh water springs to have a walk around and psyched ourselves up for our skydive. The waters were so still and clear and it was a really lovely little walk.

We jumped in the car and cruised down to Motueka and parked up in the skydive car park ready for our jump. Firstly we sat in the tv lounge and watched a sample of dvd’s to prepare us and went though a very brief safety brief!

Before we knew it we were getting kitted up and ready to go. We wore big blue suits and a tight body harness, a hat and some goggles. We met our tandem partners and our crazy camera men which would accompany us. After a short video interview we were taken over to the tiny aircraft and pulled ourseves in. Me and Matt sat opposite each other on the floor all cramped up inside the wobbly plane We were terrified as the rickety plane swiftly took off and climbed up to 13000 feet! The views were stunning and our nerves grew as we passed through the few clouds.

All clipped on and ready to go, matt was the first to jump. The door opened and the freezing cold air blew in with force. After watching him dangle on the edge and finally make the jump it was my turn. We shuffled towards the door and peered out. We dangled there for what seemed like forever and then finally made the jump. Freefalling for 50 seconds at 200km per hour was totally insane! We somersaulted through the air as the adrenelin flipped around in our tummies before the parachute caught our fall and we softly glided around in the sky like birds, looking down over abel tasman national park, the golden bay beaches, the snowy mountains and Motueka town.

Landing was pretty painful due to the harnesses being so tight, and it was a bit of a relief to finally find two feet back on solid ground. What an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience!

After our skydive we were feeling quite tired so we sat back in the tv lounge and watched our experiences on dvd and checked out the photos. We also chose a t-shirt and hoodie each as part of the $499 skydive package deal. It was a brilliant day. And we can’t wait to show you all the dvd’s and photos.

On the drive back to Aunty Kath’s we stopped off at one of the golden beaches to relax in the sun. We then ventured down to Split Apple rock which was just one of the beautiful, secluded bays in the area. We paddled around in the sea and wrote our names in the sand before hopping back in the car and driving back over tataka hill towards matt’s anties house. There we met their daughter Tullia and all went down to the Mussel Inn (a local pub) for dinner. There we tasted the local home brews; The Golden Goose and the Freckled Frog and ate mussels. What a lovely evening after an action packed day...