My Kiwi Experience Part 1: The bit with the Plane

"DAMN it's freezing" was my first thought off of the plane in Auckland. I know I just flew from the tropics but this is out of hand. My flight was delayed coming in, so I got in much later than I intended, missing my dinner date with my New Zealand contact Georgie. Quickly after arriving at my hostel, I called and was scooped up by Georgie and her fiancee, Luke, and taken off to her parents house for my dinner plate, which they had saved for me. Sitting around with her comfortable family, having a nice homecooked meal was just what I needed after spending what felt like a whole day in the Sydney Airport. The next day, I braved the brisk weather and took a harbor cruise, which seemed mostly to be focused on yaughts and sailing, rather than on the city. But we did stop off at a newly made volcanic island, only 600 years old! The geology nerd in me was thrilled. After that I walked to the top of another (more extinct) volcano that had some spectactular vistas of the city. After a million photos, I walked down through the charming neighborhood. I was exhausted and pretty much could only muster watching a movie in my hostel after that. Cape Fear, if you were wondering
The next day, bright and early I hopped on a bus to Taupo, the town that sits on the biggest lake in the southern hemishpere and all the skydiving captial of New Zealand, which is the extreme sports mecca of the world, so yeah, I was pretty ready to jump out a plane. In my hostel I met a Candanian, Sharon, who had been skydiving a few days before, and was doing it again that day. With me, as it turned out. Sharon and I somehow gradually over the course of a few hours became best friends, and so I was pretty stoked that she was jumping out of the plane with me. I got in this little propeller plane, with two narrow benches and oxygen tanks hanging from the walls, and somehow, I didn't feel nervous. As we climbed higher and higher, and as my tandem master, John, started to strap me in, I just felt more and more calm. Finally, the moment came: 15,000ft the highest skydive in the world, a full minute of free fall. I was right there at the door, it was surreal. I felt myself fall out over a satallite image, a map. It was freezing, I could help laughing. Here I was, falling with nothting to stop me, the only thing between me and the ground was air. How insane. Then the parachute deployed, and things slowed down, and it hit me how totally fun this was. I steered the parachute in big sweeping sprials and my tandem master pointed out the landscape- oh that mountain over there was the location for Mt. Doom, if you are into that sort of thing. (HECK YES I AM). After sliding to the ground, collapsing into a fit of giggles, it was over. Sharon and I celebrated appropriately- a big thai dinner and a night on the town. Life goal- Sky Diving, accomplished.