Last few days: Living Life on the Edge, LITERALLY.

Franz Josef Glaciers

I seriously don't know where to begin. My last few days have been the best days thus far. We were in Franz Josef a few nights ago, where there is the famous Mt. Cook and the Franz Josef Glaciers. This town is unbelievably picturesque. I feel like I'm in Vancouver: even though I've never been.... lol. I am surrounded by mountains and snowy peaks, yet it's not cold.
The room situation at this place was a bit crammed... four of us on bunk beds, but we were only there for one night. The next morning I did a 4 hour hike to the glaciers, where I learned that one square meter of the glacier weighs one tonne!

We were well equipped with hiking shoes, warm socks, a rain/wind coat and a pack, as well as a walking stick. The first hour and a half we walked though a rain forest where I was able to see waterfalls, and the views were amazing. Off came the rain coat and my sweater, and I was hiking in a tank top. The boots sucked and I ended up with big blisters, but well worth it. What was amazing to me was that as we hiked though this rainforest we were looking at the glacier to our right. We finally made it onto the glacier and I had to bundle up again as it was now chilly! We hiked for about another hour up the glacier and I got some amazing pics!
I would say that I must have climbed about 1000 stairs today. Two days later, my legs are still a little achy. This area of New Zealand is phenomenal, and Barnaby our tour manager has told us that the rest of the south island is even nicer. Can that even be possible?

Queenstown for 3 nights!

This town is the ultimate adrenaline junky town, but by far my most favourite! Our hotel is situated up a hill and it's about a 5 minute walk down to the main town. The town/village seems to be in this little valley, again surrounded by mountains, canyons, the lake. You can pretty much go crazy in this town with thrill seeking adventures. Choose from bungy jumping, jetboating, skydiving, canyon jumping, rafting, funyaks... I could go on! Some people have spent $1000+ on just excursions!

Our first night the majority of us went to the Gondola restaurant, which is at the top of a hill overlooking the whole city. Kind of reminded me of the CN tower restaurant, only it didn't rotate and the dinner was buffet! Yum.
After dinner we all made our way down to the pub for some "specials" and had a memorable night. Unfortunately, I had 3 glasses of wine, which for me is a lot, and felt absolutely horrible in the morning, where I had to get up and go sky dive. I honestly did not think I was even going to make it into the car for the company to drive us. So I said a little prayer to God and asked for the weather to be unsuitable for me today. Well, God surely answered my prayers as the winds were too strong. LOL. I had to re-schedule for the next day. Shucks.

Shotover Canyon Swing

My next excursion "Canyon Swinging" was scheduled for 1:50 p.m. and honestly, God was really taking care of me, because another guy on my tour was looking to switch times with someone and his swing wasn't till 4:00. So I happily gave up my earlier time to crawl back into bed and start to feel better.

There were 4 of us from our tour that had that time slot and as I signed my life away stating that there was a possibility I may die and couldn't sue. I thought to myself, "WTF have I gotten myself into?" I honestly would have backed out at this point, as my heart was racing faster and faster during the drive to the Canyon Swing. I will add more details about the actual dynamics of the swing but you had 11 different types of swings to choose from... they were all given a star based on the "scare" factor from 1-5, 1 being the easiest.

I decided to do the "Forward Jump"... a 2 on the "Scale of Scariness." Here is what the description said: "Standing on the edge looking down if you dare, then step, jump, fall, dive or leap any which way to begin your spectacular descent. You're free to scream, flap your arms and kick your legs as you accelerate into the canyon. Jumping off yourself is an amazing achievement."

Some other info about the Swing: 109 m high, 60 m free fall, 150kph, and a 200 m arc!

When I got there I seriously thought I was going to shit my pants and I don't think that my blood pressure medication worked very well that day. My poor heart. The crew got us harnessed in an then I had to wait for my turn. Jason jumped first. No problem. I was next. I truly could not feel my legs and the part of this thing that's the worst is the crew shits with you and scares you even more. So they started chatting to me about Canadian geography, I think maybe to calm me down, but honestly after the first 30 seconds I didn't hear a word they were saying. All I remember hearing was the guy say, "okay now take a few steps forward so that your toes are on the edge." I took the smallest possible baby steps forward and looking down was my biggest mistake. My heart was on fire and I think it jumped out of my body before I did. The next thing I heard was, "you can't look down anymore, just look straight ahead at that bird."
"Ok."
"Now, all you have to do is take a step forward."
"A step forward, where?" I replied.
From there the guy said, "take a deep breath..... and step forward."

The first few seconds of that jump.... I have never felt that feeling before. I guess the only thing I can remotely compare it to is The Drop Zone.... that moment when you are at the top and you're waiting, and you finally drop. MULTIPLY THAT MOMENT, BY 1000!! After the first few seconds, when my stomach and all my other internal organs settled back in place, the swing part was actually great. Again, the view was AMAZING. They then cranked be back up the 109 meters, and that was it!!! My legs literally felt like jello, and the adrenaline rush on this kind of stuff is unreal. Of course, I got suckered into buying the whole package...pics, DVD, so I can share with everyone when I get home--unless you saw it on Crackbook. Could you imagine if I had to have done my skydive today too? I seriously don't think I could have handled both on the same day.

Evening
Tonight we had dinner at the hotel and then the majority of us went to this bar called "5 Degrees"--it was an ice bar so we got all suited up in booties and long winter jackets... I felt like I was momentarily at home. It was -7.8 degrees when we walked in. Our drinks were served in glasses made of ice. So cool to be in there and then take everything off and be back in a skirt and t-shirt!

Skydiving

I was much smarter last night and only had one drink. Lesson learned. I woke up this morning pumped! Not nervous at all. After that canyon swing, there was no way I was going to shit my pants sky diving. For some reason I didn't find this jump as scary as the other one. Maybe it's because I didn't really have to jump out of the plane alone, but had a professional harnessed to my back--which made me feel much safer.

So we got all suited up--Skydiving suit, hat, goggles, mitts. My Tandem Master's name was Marius and he was from South Africa. We got the lowdown about what was going to happen. There were two other people jumping with us --so 3 jumpers, 3 instructors and 2 camera men... in this tiny little plane.

The instructions were pretty basic. Once we reached a flying altitude of 12,000 feet we would edge ourselves one at a time to the open aircraft.... seriously, what the hell was I thinking??????
We had to curve our bodies "like a banana" and look up when jumping out to smile to the camera man! I had to hold onto my harness "like a backpack" until I got a tap on the shoulders, which would be my indication that I could free my hands and FLY LIKE A BIRD.

When we reached the 12,000 meter mark we got word that we had to go higher because of another plane, and I actually ended up jumping from 15,000 feet. We had to circle around for about 5 minutes to let this other plane pass, which is when I started to get nervous. But Marius kept tapping my shoulder and telling me to relax!

I apparently was jumping first. I put my goggles on, and tried to remember that I had to breathe through my nose. So much to remember during this scary time! Again, the view was something out of a magazine. We flew over the mountains, which at the highest peak, were 6,000 feet. We flew over clouds and were really in a range where all I kept thinking was, "get over the first few seconds and you'll be good!"

Again, the initial few seconds was crazy as Marius kind of rocked me back and forth a few times before actually jumping out of the plane. My organs again moved around for a few seconds, but it was very different. We dropping 10,000 feet in about 60 seconds. Barnaby told us the first 25 seconds of your free fall -- your brain is starting to simply register what's happening.

Once out of the plane, I honestly felt like it was a bit of an out of body experience. It didn't even seem real. The free fall went by so quickly, and once the parachute is pulled, you skyrocket back up into the air and have about 4-5 minutes of 'soaring'.... the scenery was breathtaking.

About a minute before we landed, Marius debriefed me about how to land, because if I didn't do it properly I could break my legs. Great. Thankfully, I was able to follow his pretty simple instructions and the landing was a slide on my butt onto the grass.

It's been about 12 hours now since my jump, and I'm still kind of shaking my head. I would totally skydive again!