great adventures down under this side of the world is a reputation well-earned.
if there is one single superpower i could have, i wouldn’t think twice about getting the ability to fly, and so during a day of break from the apples and grapes in hastings, daniel and john were convincing me to do the skydive, and in matters like these, i am not a very very hard person to convince. 
the truth is, the first thing that comes to my mind is that i hope they have video and photo services so i can have a look of my skydive, and souvenir too. hastings is not very big when it comes to skydiving industry. a further up north, taupo, is more popular being the skydiving capital of the world, or down to adventureland queenstown in the south island.
a couple of minutes driving from hostel, we arrived at the diving site. it’s in a sidestrip of a small local airport, operated by a small team. we watched skydive dvd videos to get more of an idea how is the sports like, and a few minutes later, i was holding the waiver form in my very hands. i didn’t even have to read the whole legal verbosity because i know there is only one important thing, that in case something happens, which could even result to my death, well, there’s really nothing we can do about it. in some ways, it is like signing your own death certificate. good thing my insurance policy is still premium paying.
if you think about it, this is a good way to die. diving out of the open air at plane-cruising altitude, susceptible to gusty strong winds, tandem master faults, malfunctioning chutes, bad landing, pilor error, or even plane technical problems! who knows? i might be hidden in clouds and nowhere to be found again. but more than that, they don’t have photo equipment during that day. so, i didn’t sign the waiver. 
so during that day, i was just the photographer.
leaving hastings with taupo as my first stop, i have to admit that i’m still unsure if i’ll do the dive or not, but being certain that i’ll do it sometime in the future, i decided to do it just right then, to finish this diving ordeal. plus the fact that the hike to tongariro wasn’t possible for the first few days i was in taupo, doing the skydive would at least mark a check on my things-to-do-list, and so not waste time.
march 12, 2009 was the biggest jump of my life. actually, i was suppose to do it the day before, but due to bad weather and strong winds, it was cancelled. taupo tandem picked me up in the morning, just in time after a late breakfast. after picking up a couple of divers along the way, and 20 minutes later, we were at the venue. the weather was cold being less than 10C outside, which of course, made us a bit shiver. i checked in my backpack in the locker, went to the toilet, and used their free internet to write something on facebook. like i even cared what would be my last status be in case i don’t return back on land safe! now, suiting up. the temperature up in the sky could be unbearably cold that i was in my jacket inside the overall. more video instructions, and some waiting as they have only one plane, then it was our turn. the plane was packed full of jumpers, and cameramen. spluttering sounds of the engine, passed along the short runway, and then we were up in the air.
getting to 15,000 feet took more than 20 minutes, and jumpers are positioned in such a way that the person close to the door jumps first. i was the second to the last. i don’t know if that’s good or bad, but i can hear people screaming seconds after they left the plane. then it was my turn, i don’t know how to explain this, but i was honestly not scared. maybe a bit nervous, but not frantically in panic or alarmed. i was in more frightening situations, and playing resident evil and silent hill alone in the middle of the night is one of them. i don’t mean to be arrogant, but when i was there, i just felt..well, normal, a bit strange, but normal in more sense. ;D
the pictures say otherwise.
the jump. it was all of a sudden. for a brief review in physics, the acceleration due to gravity on the earth is 9.81 m/s2. all objects will accelerate downwards at this rate, regardless of mass. well, there’s air resistance i’m sure, but plummeting down the earth at freefall speed for about a minute, and reaching speed minimum of 200kph, it was more than thrilling. in the few seconds of being exposed, it was hard to breathe. i was unsure if i’ll breathe from my mouth or my nose, and i was unsure where i breathed from.
we even had some spins, the fall was vigorously fast, and then in the middle of it, we gained more balance, and it just feels like flying in the air, like floating with strong winds against my torso. i can’t put the experience into words, but this is something really worth trying. it’s worth the money, it’s worth the hassle of being nervous (a bit hehe), and i can say, it’s worth the risk! (only because i survived with no injury, haha)
so why did i skydove? well, i can’t do proper dive in the water, and i just thought it could be any better in the air. =D
PS
i’m trying to make the video work, and upload here. be back soon!
tired of the same very jobs (if not zero) when finding cobol jobs, i thought of maybe searching ingenium. the software that my previous company uses, and voila!!
Sorry - we couldn’t find any jobs for ingenium
Did you mean ingenious?
anak ng pusa, sobrang rare ata ng talent ko!?!?
