A 120mph Day

Jenna:  It is December 9, 2009 at 3:07pm and Rob and I just successfully threw ourselves out of a plane and made it to the ground safely.  We have today and tomorrow off so we drove to Motueka (near Nelson) for a jump with Abel Tasman Skydiving. 

After a quick psych up video, we were outfitted with jump suits, bomber hats, and goggles and climbed into a plane with our jump partners.  Rob looked pretty cute sitting on Scruffy's lap.  On the 20 minute flight we got some great pics of the surrounding area - Nelson, Motueka, Abel Tasman National Park, Kahurangi National Park, Golden Bay, and even Mount Taranaki in the far distance on the North Island (that's Mount Doom for Lord of the Rings fans!).  There was a girl from Holland in the plane and she jumped first with her tandem partner and a photographer.  Rob and Scruffy went next, and about the time Kevin and I were scooting to the back of the plane at 13,000 feet I got a little scared.  Thinking about the 'what ifs' for a brief moment was enough, and once I had my legs out of the plane all worry was forgotten. 

The free fall was absolutely amazing - the huge rushing sensation lasted almost a minute before our chute was pulled at 4,000 feet.  I had some trouble breathing during the free fall, but was instructed ahead of time to put my head back and breathe through my nose, which helped a lot.  We had a nice glide down and even enjoyed a few spin maneuvers.  They were fun, but made our stomachs lurch.  As we came in for a nice smooth landing all I could think was 'let's do it again!'  Absolutely fantastic experience.

Oh, and we worked the last seven days in a row.  We also saw a huge sting ray swimming in the bay at the resort, and ate a weka, which is a wild flightless bird that looks (and tastes) like a brown chicken.