On December 16th 2011 after a week of cloudy skies, the sun chose to come out so that two of us crazy Base Backpackers Auckland staff could experience Skydive Taupo. This was my second jump and I was 1000 times more nervous than the first.
The team at Skydive Taupo are simply awesome – helped me to calm down, answered all my “how many times do you need to pull the reserve?” and similar questions and then had a few laughs before we got into Pinky, the infamous pink skydive plane.
On our way up to 15,000 feet we laughed, took deep breaths and casually dropped off another 2 jumpers at 12,000 feet (very weird sensation to see people open the plane door and just drop out below you). At 15,000 feet as we edged to the plane door my jump master was encouraging, calm and basically just told me to act like a banana and chill out! Within seconds I was watching the plane get smaller and freefalling for 60 seconds over Lake Taupo.
There is not a photo with my mouth closed as I was screaming with excitement the entire time. Stunning views over the lake and the feeling of flying = simply an amazing experience. I was almost disappointed when the chute opened but had a good few minutes to take in the epic scenery, digest what I’d just done and cruise in for landing. It was smiles, hugs and a whole lot of energy back on the ground.
I can’t rate Skydive Taupo enough!!
Sheridan Hancock – Base Backpackers Auckland
Tags:
skydive
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New Zealand
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Adventure