My Skydive over Queenstown

Today I did one of the scariest things I have ever done, jumped out of a plane at 12,000ft over Queenstown. I was really considering doing something different like paragliding off a mountain, but I have come all this way and to not do it would just be silly! Nzone, the company I did the jump with, were brilliant too - nice facilities, good equipment and friendly people, all of which gave me confindence to trust them with my life!

It all happened so quickly. We drove up there at around 10am and asked when they could fit me in and within 20 minutes I was in the harness and being briefed on what to do. Another 15 minutes later we were 12,000ft in the air with the door open. I was strapped to the front of Ralph (the guy pulling the parachute for me and in charge of making sure I don't die), who edged forwards to the door. He sat on the edge of the plane, meaning I was dangling outside in the 'banana position' as they call it with my head and legs back. After three he jumped out and we were facing the earth travelling at 130mph. The force on your body is incredible!

After about 45 seconds Ralph pulled the parachute and we slowed down enough that we could talk. It was quite chilled out at this point after the intense free fall, although I was still hanging off the front of another guy at about 6,000ft. As we got closer to the ground he pulled the cords on the parachute to spin us round from left to right, which again puts a lot of g-force on your body, but by this point it was awesome fun.

Tonight we're driving further north up the west coast, not sure where exactly yet though.