I flew!! Yes I sky dived!!!

On a sunny clearish blue skied day, icy cold in amongst the snow capped mountains of Queenstown New Zealand, on Thursday 10th June 2010, I, Catherine Donovan, sky dived from a teeny tiney plane 12,000ft high in the sky.
Heres my story...
So, as you may or may not know, I ve always wanted to sky dive, but never had the guts or been in such an incredible place to do it before, before now that is!

Id been thinking of doing such a thing for the last week, scenes as though I was in this incredible environment and on this amazing journey of mine, why the hell not, after all its good to do something that scares you every now and then, so I hear, but I think there is truth in that.

So, the day before on a day trip to Milford Sound, id met 2 girls and their mum who were all from Singapore, ill tell you about this great day on the next blog but for now, ill concentrate on my great story. The girls are lovely and had done this sky dive the day before and raved about it, so, I thjough, it was now or never. So, the next day, I oppted out o going skiing with them and booked myself on the 12:30 dive before I had a chance to think about it too much argh!!!

So, id booked it, just after breakfast and as soon as I did had about an hour of feeling really quite giddy with excitement and nerves. I just had to tell Age that I was doing this so we skyped and I think I was just laughing whilst sqeeling about what I was about to do, and with the time difference, he was just about to go to bed.

There we all were, our little group of about 12 people, all taking it in turns of 3 people to go suit up, have a quick breifing and disapear up up up high into the clouds in the tiny plane. I got chatting to a nice girl from America who was studying in NZ for 6months, it turned out we were to go in the plance and do our jump at the same time and we were the last to go up, so we waited & waited for about 1hr , on the ground watching all of the others go up, and sail down above us, untill finally it was our turn.

Jump suited up, tight harnesses on, pictures taken by fellow members of the group, quick intro with our tandem instructers it was time to board the plane. Still I was feeling calm, suprizilngly, excited but calm, not many nerves, cool as a cucumber, I was. We hoiked ourselves up into the teeny tiny plane, all sitting on the inside of our intructers legs, all v cosy indeed, 8 of us, sat on the floor in a tight row, no room to spare, the plastic clear door shuts and away we go. My goodness, the instucters are super cool (I mean this in a relaxed way, not cool cool) mine was called Caleb, easy breezy, making chit chat as we escalated higher and higher into QT sky. Stretching my neck to look out of the tiny porthole like windows, to catch glimpses of the Incredibles, this is the mountain range which runs down one side of Queenstown, they are so beautifl and picturesque, so this helped fill my mind and take it off this crazy thing I was about to throw myself into. All that I could see now was clouds,patches of crisp blue sky and these picture perfect snopw capped mountains. Oh my goodness. Still we hadnt buckled ourselves together, so I casually inquired, shall we get attached together now, get all buckled up so were ready, hmmm, yes yes, shall we do it now. Caleb just chuckled ¨yeah we´ll do it in a minute, dont you worry Cate¨ me, ¨ah ok, just making sure were all set, incase the flimsy door blows open, or you happen to forget were no attached to each other and everyone starts jumping and were not ready¨
But sure enough, 2min later, a bit of tugging on my harness, and awkward manouvering, half sitting on his lap while we get all strapped together, and were ready. Well, at this point, the nerves were starting to rise, and my breaths were pretty close together, and I was grinning a little too harshly.
The door slides open, cold Autumn air is now rushing into the cabin, 1st the japense girl is out, Ashley follows and then, bugger, were shifting the 2ft towards the open door of this tiny plane, im being shuffled along from behing by Caleb who is strapped to my back, and considerably larger, stronger and taller than little old me, I catch a glimpse, then a full on wide look of the huge expanse that is the world beneath us, a LONG long way down, OH MY GOODNESS, what the hell am I doing, what am I doing, nooooo, im being pushed, closer and closer to the door, I have no control now, (these thoughts are all in a matter of about 2 seconds only)
I dangling over the edge, about to fall 12000ft, OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! NOOOOOOO, im out! Im flying, my stomach is in my mouth, roller coaster style! the cold cold air is rushing towards me at record speed, its gushing inot my wide open mouth, which im having trouble closing, im desperatly trying to breath, but its so bloody hard, the mixture of excitement & force of the air are making it near impossible, the harness is tight agaist my throat and chest, my arms are outstretched, legs flung back, im taking everything in, the mountains are all around, everwhere I look, the turquise lake Whakatipu is shining brightly below, were still falling, falling, really fast, ive managed a breath and am concentrating hard on regulating this, tryiong to make sense of what is happening and enjoy this 45 second free fall. Then a small tug, time freezes for a second, feels like we pause mid air, then up we rise, and then the parachute is open, and were sailing, twisting and turning, everything is considerably slower, Caleb is in my ear asking if im ok, adjusting my tight harness, relesing some of the presure on my chest and neck, were now comfortable, my breaths are regular, it feels sooooo exhilerating, and So fresh and new, were sailing through the air, it feels really slow, almost like were not moving at all at some points, just suspended, hanging there amid this stunning back drop, drinking it all in, absorbing as much as I can before its all over and my feet are back on the ground. The view is spectacular, I feel slightly queesy, Caleb asks shall we do some twists & turns, Ok I say maybe just the 1, and we do, we spin in the air, like on a huge swing, around, spinning with the earth below us and my head in the clouds. Minutes later, the base & people below all take shape and start to get back top their regular size, were coming intop land, my legs are in the air, its happening fast and gently gently we touch down, im sat back on the grassy ground, safe and sound, smilig from ear to ear, in a daze, adrenelin running through my whole body and still, it all feels very sureal and like a dream. Amazing amazing amazing. I DIT IT WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!

P.S the pics dont do it justice at all but you get the general gist, me, sky diving company, quick prayer before we start, sexy jumpsuit (not) & me sailing down from the sky in a parachute