When I booked my travel
plans last year, there came a point where my sister and I were sitting down in
front of a travel agent and deciding what to do when we got to New Zealand. I
don't know whether I felt invincible at this point, or I just decided that the
pull of freedom and zero responsibility was too great, but I decided to shorten
my expectancy of living by signing up for just about every daredevil experience
under the sun including abseiling down into a dark cave, skydiving and throwing
myself of a cable car and plummeting 134 meters attached only to a
rope...
The thought of having the
time of my life crossed my mind and I signed up for everything under the sun.
It wasn't soon until I was abseiling down into a deep, dark cave with no light
whatsoever. We arrived at the Waitomo caves in the North Island of New Zealand,
underwent a quick safety briefing and were off - into the dark. What happened
next was a combination of zip-wiring, swimming, free climbing and exploring the
famous glow worm caves.
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| In the deepest darkest caves |
Next on the list of
becoming an adrenaline junkie was taking to the skies for a spot of light Skydiving.
A completely new and terrifying experience for me - I mean who doesn't want to
jump out of a plane 15,000ft attached to one man? Me - that's who! I did everything
I could not to look at my sister, who was jumping first, and then she was at
the back of the plane and then she was gone. It was my turn next, I was out...
and I lost my stomach. The freefall was one minute; one minute of falling
through clouds, petrified but also suddenly loving life. There isn't really
anything like falling through the sky so fast you can hardly breath. At some
point my guy thought we had had enough fun for one day and pulled the rope,
released the parachute and we stared our descent. We skydived over Lake Taupo -
one of the most scenic places to skydive in the world, and I for one definitely
wasn't disappointed by the views. It took about 10 minutes to get back down to
the ground, and I even had my chance at steering a little bit too, although I
did pull the wrong rope and we headed off towards the lake instead of land...
but never mind.
Finally came the one thing
that I had been half dreading and half looking forward to - the bungee jump!
Being the third highest in the world and not off a little bridge but rather a
cable care above a canyon, to say I was nervous is the understatement of the
century. Unfortunately I wasn't first... I was fifth, so I got to hear
the screams of people as they threw themselves off the ledge and plummeted for
about 9 seconds before bouncing up and doing it again, before finally being
hoisted back up to the cable car. I was terrified, not because I didn't have
faith in the equipment but more because jumping off a ledge tends to go against
every single instinct in your body. Nevertheless, I got harnessed up, wobbled
to the edge not unlike a penguin, and when I heard the worlds three, two, one,
BUNGY I jumped! It felt not as if I was plummeting but rather falling in slow
motion, and when I started to bounce up again over and over I was
laughing.
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| eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! |
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