Wanaka

Day 1 – L- Shaped Love!

To sum up the previous evening it was pretty stressful. As Glenn said, we couldn’t move our flight forward. It turns out that a certain number of seats are booked for around the world tickets (RTW) passengers and all of these were sold out for the next two months. So either we hang around for a couple of months in NZ =No!, pay the difference of about £1000,  do about 3 legs, the first via Los Angles and costing-in any overnight stays and taking us about 4 days to get there, plus pay extra for the privilege. Or, sack the RTW flight with Quantas completely and book a cheaper fare with a new carrier, we did this.

With our RTW deal, we were entitled to two free flights across anywhere in America. We knew we wouldn’t use both as we couldn’t fit them both in within 12 months (part of the criteria for RTW) so asked to use one of them to get us from Santiago to the south of the country. You can imagine how we felt when the agent told us we were no longer entitled to these two free flights as we wouldn’t be traveling on the Quantas flight. So! They get to sell our flight at a higher rate as we won’t be taking it and wont honour us the two free flights as it meant we would have travelled less mileage? You can imagine that after a smoking credit card from paying for a new flight, how we were both feeling!

We left it with the agent to go back and prove this as we wasn’t previously told about it and to expect an answer in the morning (it was midnight our time when we hung up the phone with him). We woke up in the morning to some better news. He was right, but as they had no proof of explaining this clearly to us they would honour the onward flight, phew! Sorry about the rant but it’s really put a dent in our budget and I guess the lesson here is to book onward flights close together and constantly move them forwards so that you don’t risk allocated spaces filling up.

As a result of the above, we both awoke with massive hangovers!

Making an executive decision not to have showers in the not so clean facilities, we opted to fill up on the free b/f and head off to Wanaka.

I was looking forward to Wanaka which is billed as a laid back Queenstown. We had traded in some free nights on hotels.com and discount codes which gave us some pretty good accommodation with en-suite and within budget.

The weather hadn’t improved so we drove out of Dunedin (which could have been Scotland in this weather) and headed straight for Wanaka. We arrived a little early so the not so friendly lady in reception gave us the room which was available which gave us a lovely view of the mountain.

The room was amazing!, spacious, balcony, kitchenette, views and an L shaped sofa to chill out on!. An L-shaped sofa, just like Glenn has back home! PLUS we had it for two nights, no driving for Glenn tomorrow.

We dragged ourselves away from our new home and headed into town for a wander. The lake was just in front of the Motel so we headed there first for a few more stunning snaps of this beautiful country.

We then had a hair of the dog before going for supplies and quickly belting it back to our lovely new home. That’s the thing!, the weather had changed and the sun was now shining, but we didn’t want to lose out on our lovely accommodation so instead of opting for a nice walk around the lake, a trek up a mountain, a kayak adventure, we instead opted for nice home-cooked food and a chill on the L-shaped sofa!.

We had booked a sky dive for the following day and both feeling pretty nervous, and because of the previous night’s shenanigans, we had a relatively early night in readiness for jumping out of a bloody plane!

Day 2 – 40 something adrenaline junkies

We both woke up fairly early as we had to be at the Sky Dive centre by 9, so getting ready and having a coffee we were both a bit quiet.  I don’t think it was that we were nervous but just thinking about what we were about to do.

It was a bit cloudy so we were wondering if it was going to go ahead, but by the time we reached the Sky Dive centre it was pretty sunny with blue skies. We checked in and realised it was really going to happen!

Completing the check-in sign up we were asked if we wanted video’s/photo’s and after considering it we decided that this was once in a life time experience, so we opted for the package (yet more money), which meant we would both have a photographer sky diving alongside us.

Once registered we were sent to a video briefing where it showed what we had to do during the sky dive.  After this we had some time to go outside and watch some people who had already jumped, land in the area just next to the centre.

It was then time to get kitted out and we were both given jump suits to change into and then we were helped into our harnesses, which made for a very flattering picture.

We then had to wait until the last set of divers to return to earth before it was our turn.  Shell was then introduced to the professional that was going to be her tandem partner and also her personal photographer.  Shortly after I met my guys and we were heading towards the plane.

Glenn’s Account

There was about 6 jumpers on this trip and we were all squished into a small plane, it was at this point I realised that I was right next to the door so was going to be the first one out of the plane!!

The plane took off and began to climb to 12,000 feet, it was going to take 15 minutes to get to this height so we were told just to enjoy the views along the way.  It was spectacular as you could see the snow-capped mountains and lakes below, believe it or not we were both (I think) pretty calm at this point.

Along the way our photographers kept taking pictures of us, but it was pretty hard to see how Shell was doing as she was squashed just behind me so it was hard to turn round and see her face, although I could hear her chatting away.

All of a sudden my instructor told me he was going to strap me to him and to put my hat, gloves and goggles on.  No sooner done then the side door was opening and this shit was getting real!!

My instructor then got me to move to the door exit and then got me to hang out and do what we were told to do in the instruction video, hold onto the shoulder straps, push your hips forward, put your legs underneath the plane carriage and lay my head back on his shoulder, not forgetting to smile for the camera (the camera man was already outside of the plane hanging on).

Next thing I knew we were falling and tumbling out of the plane and I could see the plane getting further away, it was quite disorientating but not overly scary (you don’t have time to think about that).

We were then hurtling towards the earth with the wind rushing past my ears, with great views of Wanaka, the mountains and lake all around us.  Although to be honest it was hard to appreciate as the dive  was an all-consuming assault on your senses, I would also like to say that I was also thinking about how Shell was getting on but I would be lying as it’s hard to think about anything else when you are doing something so unnatural.

The free fall reaches 200mph and lasts 45 seconds, but during that time the photographer closed in on us and then reached out his hand to me, which I grabbed and then he pulled away sending both in a very fast spin (at least I think that’s what he was doing).  Spinning like a top really doesn’t make it easy to focus but to be fair it was pretty cool.

Then the photographer was below us and getting me to look like I was really cool and enjoying it so he could take a few more pictures before he dropped away and pulled his shoot.

45 seconds go much quicker than you think and all of a sudden I felt a jolt as the instructor had deployed the main Shute.  It was incredible as I always thought I would be worrying all the way down until the main Shute was opened, but I hadn’t even thought about it.

Now everything went silent and it was very peaceful and you could enjoy the panoramic views as you floated down.  The instructor now was able to chat to me on the way down and he slackened off a few of my harness pieces to make me more comfortable.

As I floated down I then saw Shell passing me with her canopy fully open which was great as I had not had a second to think about her since I had left the plane.  We were now getting lower and it was getting time to land back on earth.

The instructor told me to raise my legs up as he then turned in tight spirals as he headed towards the ground, which made me pretty dizzy.  All of a sudden we were touching down and I soon found myself skidding along the ground on my arse, which is the perfect landing and much better than my hang glider crash landing in Brazil.

Shortly after Shell came sailing past me on her landing, she was down safe too.  After a few more photo’s I was unclipped from my instructor and after thanking him for the experience and for getting me down safely I headed across to embrace Shell and have a few more photo’s taken.

Honestly it was an amazing experience and it was cool that Shell and I got to do this together.  It wasn’t half as scary as you would imagine and if they had offered to give us another go for free, I think we would have both jumped at the chance without hesitation.

Shell’s Account

We both did a hang-glide in Brazil and Glenn was pretty nervous then so I was really proud that he was giving sky diving a go. We agreed (well he told me) that he would go first this time as I went first on the hang-glide which freaked him out a bit.

I did get slightly worried when Glenn was introduced to his instructor. He was no midget but not a big fella at all, and he had to hold Glenn’s entire weight when Glenn dangled out of the plane before launch.

Part of my logic for spending out and getting a 2^nd diver to take shots was: 1. the cheaper option was to have my instructor have a wrist camera attached to him and I didn’t fancy photos that close (glad I did, some of the pics taken from a distance will never ever see light of day again!. 2. My logic was if we got into trouble, there was a second guy on hand to help?

I was quickly introduced to my team and we were heading to the plane, I scrambled in, followed by Glenn which meant that he would go first. I saw this dawn on him as he climbed into the plane and wondered if he had had second thoughts.

We were soon up and away and feeling strangely calm. My instructor told me it would take at least 15mins to climb to 12000 feet so to sit back and enjoy the view so I did.

The scary bit was when my instructor showed me his watch which told us we had reached the height and was I ready. Suddenly the door was swung open, wind gushing in and Glenn was being manoeuvred to the edge. My only thoughts at that time was for Glenn. Could this fella hold him?, will Glenn go through with it? Will he remember to put his head back? Then suddenly he was gone!

Immediately following,  I was being manoeuvred to the edge, I look really scared on camera but I promise you that my only thoughts were on what I was told to do in training, put your head back, hang onto to your straps (so you don’t knock the instructor out!) stick your hips out and legs outside and under the plane.

Then we were flying. It really doesn’t feel like you are falling but rather floating. The only problem was that nobody bloody told me that I should keep my mouth shut. My first reaction was to open my mouth to get gulps of air (not a good idea at that speed). So I,d say the first 30 seconds of my free fall was spent wondering how I could breathe! And yes, any thought for Glenn’s safety had clearly left me by now.

I was just working through this when the photographer flew in to take some pics. My instructor tapped me on my shoulder to indicate I could let go of the straps and then we were truly flying. .

What an absolutely amazing experience.

All too quickly though we were suddenly shooting up to indicate the chute had opened and then silence. The only trouble was though was my ears were totally blocked and I couldn’t release the pressure.

My instructor released some straps to make me more comfortable and removed my goggles and asked me if I was up for a bit of fun? Assuming he didn’t mean a bit of ‘hows your father’ at this height I said yes and we were soon swooping, spinning and tumbling as we made our way to earth.

Now I had my senses back I looked for Glenn and saw him below us. I pointed him out and my instructor swooped in on him so we could wave at each other which was pretty cool.

The next thing was landing, we circled around and I could see Glenn ahead of me. Again my thoughts were on Glenn again as he had a pretty bad landing on the Paragliding but I shouldn’t have worried, he executed it perfectly. My turn so legs up and we were soon gliding across the grass.

The photographer dashed in to take some pics and was asking me questions at which I was guessing at. My ears were still pretty blocked. You might be able to spot me trying to clear them on the vid.

Suddenly Glenn was by my side, we did it! Yay us! Middle aged adrenaline junkies!

We headed in to watch the vids and after laughing till we cried at mine (not Glenn, he looks pretty cool). We then headed back home for a well-deserved beer and then to settle on L-shaped sofa to re-watch the videos.

I would definitely do it again but would insist on wearing a helmet like the instructors wear to enable me to breath and save me some dignity