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Mai and I got ourselves up this morning to walk to Taupo Bungy. It was early, so I wasn't incredibly enthused yet. Mai opted out feeling she would do it at another destination, so she brought a camera to capture me diving 47m into a river. They strapped me in and asked if I wanted to touch the water today. I said, "I'd like to be completely in the water if possible." I wanted to be part of the "Sole Club" in which you must have your entire body in the water so that only the soles of your shoes are above water. As I shuffled my feet to the edge, like a prisoner walking the plank, the guy told me to just be sure to tuck my head into my chin when I hit the water to avoid face-planting. Easy enough.
In the process of all this, Mai stood along the cliff side looking for a good shot. She climbed the fence that said, "Do Not Climb Fence!" so she could get the whole of my jump on footage. Unfortunately, she was spotted and the guy yelled at her to go back. She still got a couple of great photos. When asked by the man if that was my friend, I so cleverly responded, "Where? I can't see." During the first few moments of falling, I felt like I was going to die. I let out a "Holy..." and when I found my voice, I cheered, quickly admired the world upside down, hit the water and went under. By the time I realized I was underwater, I was pulled out again. I started laughing and clapping as the bungee pulled me up and dropped me again. It was such a rush and I can't wait to do it again.
After a fairly tiring hike to the Huka Falls, we ventured back to the site of the bungee jump. A day earlier, we had seen some kids in the river below jumping off maybe a 25 foot rock into the river below. We decided we'd like to try that. Only problem was, we had to swim across the Waikato River to get there. It was only about 100 meters across, and the current didn't seem so bad. After about 10 minutes of weighing the pros and cons, we decided to ford the river, Oregon Trail style. We began swimming and felt we were doing quite well. We had made it more than halfway across. Suddenly, at the same time we realized the current had begun to drag us further downstream, and each stroke we took failed to bring us any further forward but instead, sideways. We looked at each other and said simultaneously, "Umm... go back!" So we literally swam for our lives back the way we came and, after a long struggle against the strong waters of the Waikato, we made it back to safety. Although we failed to ford the river, we felt we gave it our best shot and being dragged downstream was not in our best interests.
February 2nd, Tuesday morning, Brian and I woke up feeling weighted down, our feet too firmly planted on this earth. We craved a change, we needed to fly.
"Hey should we go skydiving today?" "It's looking a little cloudy"...
So we moseyed on over to the main office at the Rainbow Lodge (our hostel) and before we had a chance to put our lives in order, in case there was a travesty.. we were in a shuttle to Taupo Tandem Skydiving at the Taupo Airport-- the skydiving capital of the world.
After little convincing, our expected 12,000 ft drop was bumped to 15,000 feet and our decision to avoid paying the big bucks for a dvd & photos... well we needed pictures, right?!
So I thought we would watch a DVD with serious instructions about how to NOT die. According to Brian, there was a DVD but I guess in my nervous stupor I never saw it... HA They zipped, tied and strapped us into red jumpsuits and in order to pass the time we played rock paper scissors and sang (and danced) along to the radio.
Next thing we know, we were in a plane, taking off backwards.
How did it feel prior to falling?:
Brian: "I felt, anxious.. I wanted to get up in the air, stop waiting around, be over the edge and waiting to go. Usually taking off in a plane makes me nervous but it didn't even phase me, and we took off backwards!"
Mai: "I was sitting right next to the door that's clear and slides up.. I was thinking that what I was about to do was absolutely ridiculous but there was no way I wasn't going to hop out of the plane after spending all that money."
So what was it like to fly?
Mai: "exhilarating, insane, breathtaking, heart-pumping, jelly legs, eye tearing, adrenaline rush, flying, floating, fear"
Brian: "All i could do was laugh because i thought it was too ridiculous."
What about when the parachute was pulled?
Brian:"Very serene- cool. You could catch your breath and take in the views."
Mai: "Agreed."
How was landing?
Mai: "SUPER easy. We just plopped right down."
Brian: "I was just worried about not being able to stand up, and I couldn't.. my legs buckled for a second- and then I immediately wanted to lay on the ground"
Do it again?
Brain: "Absolutely, I wanna take a class so I can jump by myself."
Mai: "For sure, the next time I don't want to worry about smiling for a picture."
