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.

Queenstown

We arrived in Queenstown this morning, it was roughly an 80km drive on from the rest stop that we camped in last night. I think both me and Izzy agree that Queenstown is the nicest town we have visited so far in New Zealand; it feels like we are in a town set in the middle of the Alps. The snowcapped mountains surround the town in all directions and most of the buildings are very modern and made from materials like slate and wood.

The main tourist attractions in the area are bungy jumps, sky dives, and jet boat rides. We took the Skyline Gondola cable car to the top of Coronet Peak for a view over the town. I was really considering on paragliding down from the top of the mountain, but I think seeing as how I have come so far I may as well go the whole hog and do a sky dive from 12,000ft. It's about $550 (£275) with a DVD of video and photos, so although it's a lot cheaper than doing this sort of thing in England it's going to be a fair dent in my travel money; oh well, you only live once. Fingers crossed that the weather will be as nice tomorrow as it has been today, otherwise I might wait until we get back to Lake Taupo and sky dive there instead.

The plan is to stay here for another day or so then start heading north to Fox Glacier.