"The sky is falling!"

As a child, I was read the story of 'Henny Penny' when a little chick is worried that "the sky is falling!" when an acorn drops out of the sky and hits her on the head. I couldn't help but think about this story, and what Henny Penny would make of what I was about to do: fall out of the sky like the acorn!

So back to Henny Penny. On my first day in Taupo I made a skydive booking with Taupo Tandem Skydive and, thus, sealed my fate. I would be jumping out of a small plane at 15,000ft with an instructor strapped to my back, with a parachute strapped to her back and just fresh air to see us through. Much like the acorn, it wouldn't be the sky that would be falling, it would be me.

After the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, we arrived in Taupo, the skydive capital of the world. Just before I get into story, here's a little fact we read about Taupo that made me go "wow!

Taupo, which is really quite small, is the same size as Singapore. Singapore, which we visited before we arrived in Australia, has the same total population as the whole of New Zealand. To put this into perspective, that's like the entire population of New Zealand, living in Taupo. Asia: the mind still boggles.

I hadn't told anyone, but Med, my sister, Beth, and my cousin Rachel - all of whom were sworn to secrecy. The aim was to avoid my mum having many sleepless nights worrying about a parachute, strapped to an instructor, strapped to her first-born child.

The morning of my skydive we woke up in a campsite 30kms outside of town. The day had arrived and while I was nervous, I wasn't paralysed with fear, more giddy with excitement.

When in 'the land of the long white cloud', you can expect to see many long white clouds. Today was one of those days, but this wasn't about perfect blue skies for me, this was about hurtling through the air at a speed of 200mph.

I was minibussed with a few other jumpers to the airport. Yes, to the actual Taupo airport, I don't know why I was surprised by this, but I was. They had one space left on a plane that was minutes away from taking off so I was bundled into the back, giving a very quick safety briefing while about 7 pairs of hands quickly suited and harnessed me up. One of those was my dive master, Chrissy, the only female instructor they have.

"Is it all done up properly?" I asked. Everything had happened so quickly and the group I arrived with had barely sat down on the sofas for their introduction. "Yes, don't worry, it's all safe," Chrissy assured me. And it was off to the plane we go.

We bundled in at the back, with me basically sat on Chrissy's lap and my cameraman (who would be filming my freefall and taking pictures) sat on my lap. I then learnt that I was the only one of the group going up to 15,000ft and the rest would be jumping at 12,000ft. I tried to think of a good reason I had chosen the highest one when everyone else went for the lower option.

The flight up to 15,000ft is probably the longest part of the the entire dive experience. We were in a rickety plane, which rattled it's way up over Lake Taupo.

While taking in the views, I was chatting to Chrissy about her job and life in general, as if we weren't about to jump out of a plane at all but were sat enjoying a cuppa. The only giveaway was having to shout over the noise of the plane. And the man sat on my lap.

As we hit around 9,000ft, I had a breathe through an oxygen mask, again, the only one doing this as I was going up so high. The air at that altitude is really thin and super cold. I could feel my toes getting cold in my very breathable trainers.

As we hit 11,000ft, Chrissy helped me put on my hat and gloves as I looked out to see Mount Ngauruhoe above the clouds.

At 12,000 feet, the instructor at the front pulled up the door and the altitude’s cold air came whistling in. The others in the plane started jumping out and disappearing before we had chance to hear their screams. I was looking after the girl to my side who was overcome with nerves, forgetting any of my own fear for a few minutes.

Once everyone else had jumped, the rolling door was closed again and we went up and up to reach 15,000ft. That is very high, in case you were wondering. Way, way above the clouds and mountains.

Chrissy strapped the goggles to my face. I knew as they dug into my face that I would have attractive red marks for the rest of the day.
The door opened and my time had come.

Chrissy and I, now moving as one, shuffled to the back of the plane. I swung my legs over the plane’s edge, my camera guy slid by and hung on to the outside rail of the plane (I remembered being worried for him, "quite dangerous," I thought), a mounted camera took a picture, Chrissy tipped my head back over her shoulder and we fell. And fell. (There really was no “dive” or “jump” out of the plane. It felt more like that team building game where you simply close your eyes, lean back – or in this case forward – and hope that the person behind you knows what they’re doing.)

I felt my heart lurch as I plummeted over the edge of the plane, but I did not scream. Perhaps I couldn't due to the wind that hits you hard for that instant facelift!

For about 10 seconds I had no idea where I was or which way was up. I thought the wind/air would stop us moving so quickly, but it did just feel like we were speeding to earth. It was like the lurch felt on a big rollercoaster, but never ending.

Chrissy levelled us up and tapped me on the shoulder to put my arms out. Now I could see clearly the clouds and lake below, and the never ending sky above.

Falling at terminal velocity is one of the best feelings in the world! My face was pummeled by the wind (some great photos of that!) but that couldn't do anything to move the huge grin off my face! I waved my hands around in sheer joy and felt the resistance of the air against me.

As I had 60 seconds of freefall, I actually had time to look around and enjoy the scenery. The lake peeping through the clouds truly looked amazing from way up there! Even the mountains came into view in the distance as we rotated around.

Just as I was waving at the camera, everything seemed to disappear and go blank. Time stood still. We had arrived into the clouds and were now cushioned by a parachute.

I felt like I'd lost all my senses in one go. I couldn't see anything but white, I felt quite deaf from a combination of cloud fog and painful ears from the altitude and it took me a while to recover from the shock and shout out in elation! "I did it!! Sorry mum!!"

We then gently parachuted our way over the edge of the lake, whooshing around in 360 turns and dazed at what had just happened to my body and mind. After a few minutes of gliding, we came in for a very soft landing on the grass and I joined the other divers waiting for me in a victory dance.

Skydiving is one of the best, most exhilarating, most unique experiences I have ever had. if you ever get the chance to fall out of a plane (with a parachute on), don’t even hesitate. You won’t regret it.

*I will embed the video of my jump as soon as I have it uploaded onto a computer. In the meantime, here it is on YouTube!